Judy (Palos) Reger chuckled politely and boasted humbly of her family.
“If there is another that has served the Rock Island Arsenal with 32 members, I am not aware of it,” said Reger, of Silvis. “If there is, it would be amazing. I think what has happened with our family is awfully special. But the Arsenal is a special place.”
Since 1950, nine of the 11 children of the late John and Virginia Palos of Moline, and 23 of their other descendants or spouses of their descendants have worked at the Arsenal, for a combined 542 years of service (to date). Seven of John and Virginia’s children retired from the Arsenal with 30 or more years of service. Five spouses of the Palos siblings also recorded 25 or more years of service with the Arsenal and/or the U.S. military.
It all began with Paul Palos, who heeded the advice of his father and began a 39-year career of government service in 1950. The following year, he became the first American of Mexican descent enrolled in the Arsenal’s four-year maintenance apprenticeship program. He would also travel worldwide to train soldiers in the field on artillery.
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Along the way, Paul was joined by brothers Bill (33 years of employment), Augie (39 years), Marce (30 years) and sisters Tina (17 years), Ginny (30 years), Judy (42 years), Nan and Anita (two years each).
The Palos children’s work ethic was inspired from home.
“In his lifetime, our father never missed a day of work,” said Judy Reger of her father, who worked for the City of Moline and Deere & Co. “There were some things our father demanded of us. He expected us to be good people, to be as educated as we could possibly be, and to get good jobs. Federal service was a great avenue for us.”
Reger said everyone had to prove their worth on the Arsenal.
“You started at the bottom and you worked your way up — that’s the way it was with all of us,” she said. Reger’s husband, Tom, a career Army man, also worked several years at the Arsenal. “Mind you, we started in a different era — not a computer on any of our desks. But we had great teachers, great mentors and great people around us. We all were proud of the fact we moved up the ladder and enjoyed our careers. We all advanced. Remember, you had to pass a test just to work there.”
With so many Paloses to choose from, confusion often existed among the ranks. Some would get the mail of others, and the switchboard often transferred calls to the wrong person.
Spouses routinely were asked, “Which Palos are you married to?”
Perhaps in part to help other workers keep the family members straight, the Arsenal’s employee newspaper, The Target, featured the family on its cover Feb. 17, 1978, along with a photograph of nine of the 12 Paloses employed at the time. “If the name Palos sounds familiar, there’s good reason,” began the story.
Compounding matters were identical twins Judy and Ginny — one a transportation staffer and the other a member of the supply staff. Both worked in Building 350 and often had Arsenal staffers seeing double.
“It made for some strange looks and some stranger conversations,” Judy Reger said. “People were always wondering if they had just seen me or Ginny. It got to be pretty comical at times. We never switched jobs, but things were strange at times. We always had a laugh over it.”
For the Palos family, car pools and family golf games on the island were easy to coordinate, and no matter how their individual days went, they had a ready-made support system.
“We always had each other no matter what happened,” Reger said. “And we would all gather around our parents’ table every Saturday and talk about what happened the week before. Not a day passed that you didn’t have contact with a relative at work.”
Eight of John and Virginia Palos’ descendants or spouses of their descendants currently work on the Arsenal; another transferred with TACOM from the Arsenal to Detroit in 2011.
Reger says her family is proud of its contribution to the Arsenal and believes it has left a legacy that will be tough to challenge.
“I can’t imagine anyone else with that many family members working there,” she said. “All of us were just carrying through what our mother and father believed in and stressed to us. It worked for all of us.”