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Blashfield Sign Co. completes project at Ft. Bragg
Military brats, per Wikipedia, are an official U.S. subculture. (With Wikipedia being about as accurate as Encyclopædia Britannica these days, we’re inclined to believe them.) Characterized by a life of constant adjustment, broad cultural exposures and a strong dose of military culture, brat life is more than a strict upbringing.
As kids, military brats are exposed to significant authority. As adults, they tend to be resilient, culturally aware and proficient in foreign languages. In the workforce, they gravitate toward careers that allow independence, including creative fields and self-employment.
Matt Blashfield fits some of these stereotypes. His dad was a major with the 5th Special Forces Group in Vietnam. Like many military kids, he moved again and again before settling down in North Carolina. He opened the Blashfield Sign Co. Inc. there in 1988.
Matt has 10 full-time employees, and the company is so busy, he schedules an annual, mandatory, weeklong vacation. When I caught him at lunch one day, he was at the airport. Still, he checked facts with his mom, hugged his sister goodbye, and talked to me about sign installations without a hitch.
-->Clearly, Matt doesn’t want to give away all his secrets, but his perseverance is obvious. He won a six-figure contract to install more than 7,500 signs at Ft. Bragg by knowing the right people. He followed the bidding process for months online and in newspapers, and offered his services when the contract was awarded. He visited the base quarterly, made calls and sent emails. Most importantly, he showed up often, sometimes just to chat; he wanted the advantages of contracting with a local sign company to be obvious.
The building itself was part of a $290 million contract won by Hensel Phelps Construction Co. (Greeley, CO). Completed at the end of June, the final structure is six stories and 700,000 sq. ft.
Getting the job, it turned out, was the least of Matt’s headaches. Working for the government is every bit of the bureaucratic nightmare you’d imagine: round after round of suggestions, revisions, sketches and samples. Multiple layers of approval for the tiniest detail.
The upside? Once everything was approved, revisions ceased. Matt kept meticulous records of every installation detail. If there was a complaint, he whipped out a photo and combed through his notes.
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