Pizza Orders Near Pentagon, 'Pizza Meter'
Also Used as Information to Gauge Imminent War
On the 13th (local time), Iran launched about 300 drones and missiles in a retaliatory attack on Israeli territory. Most of the attacks were intercepted with the support of the Israel Defense Forces and allied aircraft stationed locally, including US and British forces, but the Middle East situation was pushed to a critical point.
The first place to react when international tensions rise is the heart of the US Department of Defense, the 'Pentagon' located in Arlington, Virginia. Officials must be on standby 24/7 to deploy military forces to danger zones at any time. However, whenever activity increases inside the Pentagon, there are others who get busy as well. These are the pizza delivery restaurants near the Pentagon.
When Pentagon Staff Get Busy, Pizza Orders Increase Too
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the US Department of Defense, a massive five-sided building. About 23,000 military personnel and over 3,000 civilian employees work inside. They coordinate and support US military operations deployed worldwide.
When military provocations or the threat of war are detected anywhere in the world, the Pentagon is the first to respond. But the staff who stay inside the Pentagon 24 hours a day still need to eat. Because of this, when an emergency is declared at the Pentagon, nearby pizza shops reportedly receive a flood of orders.
On the 13th (local time), a popular pizza franchise near the Pentagon appeared busier than usual. [Image source=Google Maps]
On the 13th, when Iran launched a large-scale missile attack on Israel, the pizza shops near the Pentagon were busy as usual. According to US netizens who checked the order volume of nearby pizza shops on Google Maps, a message saying "busier than usual at this time" was displayed.
'Pentagon Pizza Meter' Also Predicted Operation Desert Storm
The 'Pentagon Pizza Meter' was actually a more useful indicator during the Cold War era. At that time, when the US and the former Soviet Union were engaged in intense arms competition, Department of Defense information was rarely disclosed to the public, so journalists had to infer what was happening inside the Pentagon by investigating pizza order volumes.
Wolf Isaac Bleicher, who worked as a Department of Defense correspondent for CNN in the 1990s, advised junior reporters, "If you want to know what's going on at the Department of Defense, always monitor the pizza."
Moreover, the pizza meter accurately predicted major historical events. Before the US invasion of Panama in December 1989, pizza orders near the Pentagon reportedly surged to twice the normal volume.
During the coalition's 'Operation Desert Storm' in January 1991, pizza orders near the Pentagon also increased significantly. The operation began on January 17, but on the previous day, the owner of a pizza shop told the Chicago Tribune, "Seeing the increase in pizza orders, I predicted that war was imminent."
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