When you lunch with the generals they give you a plastic knife and fork.
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That's certainly the case when the function, a barbecue under a porous shade sail in the rain, is being held at one of Australia's most restricted defence facilities - the headquarters of the Joint Operations Command near Bungendore.
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Defence opened the doors, just a crack, to give a group of about 20 journalists a rare peek inside Australia's version of Tom Clancy's Op Centre recently.
A marriage of Bunnings warehouse architecture with generic Australian vernacular landscaping complete down to iconic white pebbles and mondo grass, the open-all-hours facility has direct communications links to Australian forces operating around the globe.
These include ships at sea, Australian bases in Afghanistan, East Timor, the Solomon Islands and Africa and the Middle East.
Lieutenant General Ash Power, the officer in charge, noted the significance of the occasion when he addressed his guests. ''This is the first time we have invited you [the media] en masse,'' he observed.
General Power said HQJOC was a busy place with up to 600 staff on the books. In addition to running the ADF's major gigs it also looks after Australian operational involvement in the Sudan, the Sinai, Israel and Lebanon and border protection.
It cost a bomb, although the exact price has not been disclosed, and was opened by Kevin Rudd back when he was still prime minister on March 7, 2009.
The General Baker Complex, as it is officially known, was constructed by Praeco Pty Ltd. The firm reportedly has a 30-year contract to provide security, cleaning, rubbish removal and other services and is expected to net about $572 million against its capital costs and other efforts over that period.
Once you get past the bronze bust of General Baker, a former chief of defence force who argued against the three services being allowed to go off and do their own thing, you enter a very, very big room.
One wall, about 8m high and 22m long, is dominated by seven enormous television screens. While the media were there they displayed a satellite map of downtown Tripoli, Sky News, AlJazeera and the weather. When the media aren't present, the programming is better we were told.
IBM's dictum of ''a computer on every desk'' has been slavishly adhered to and, while institutional greys predominate, all the filing cabinets are bright orange.
What is surprising is how, if you stop looking off into the distance, this could be your own office - complete with coffee cups, old magazines and even a copy of The Canberra Times. Real people do work here.
The only cause for concern is despite having the latest and greatest technology at their fingertips, HQJOC staff still rely on a well-thumbed, circa 1990, copy of The Times Atlas of the World for their geographical knowledge.
It made me feel quite at home; it's the same one I use.