ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – This headquarters for the Florida National Guard seemed the same Friday as it appeared during the 16 days of government shutdown.
Where someone really notices the difference is where the guard physically prepares to defend the state and the nation.
"We've had quite a lot of impact," Major Gen. Emmett Titshaw said. "First of all, we're happy it's over and we've been able to bring our people back."
Titshaw said this month has been tough on his people. And when he says his "people," he means his family.
"Those we were furloughing, especially military technicians, they wear the uniform. They deploy alongside everybody else in the guard. They are military members," Titshaw said. "Yet being furloughed for the second time in three months -- these are people furloughed three months ago under sequestration."
The men and women who fly the F-15s weren't stuck at home during the government shutdown. But the people behind the scenes who make it possible for the jets to lift off the ground were just waiting for this week, when they could get back to work.
The Capitol Hill standoff also meant putting off two ends of the problem concerning parts. The guard couldn't order more in and couldn't ship any out.
"We had training money, we couldn't buy fuel for the jets, can't buy parts," Titshaw said. "This goes not only to our Air National Guard, but our Army National Guard, our helicopters, weren't able to fly them either, didn't have training dollars, couldn't buy fuel and parts to repair them."
Now that his personnel is coming back, Titshaw said it's a rush to regain their standard for being prepared and maintaining hope they won't have to do this again in three months.
"We're looking at 15 January 2014 as another target on the calendar that we're only sustaining operations through the continuing resolution until then," Titshaw said. "So we have 90 days to get this fixed, or we're back at it again."
One of the maintenance crew chiefs said he loves his job and that it's the best in the world. He's one of the people forced to stay home during the furlough of the government shutdown and is glad to be back at work.