Boo Bureaucracy

I have spent the last month trying to get settled in and actually do some work for the people. The layers of b-cracy didn't bother me much until this week. And this isn't even related to the mission of the agency I work for. I am talking about how to get into the phone directory, how to send a piece of mail to another agency office, how to get health insurance, how to manage a contract, or how to get travel authorized. Although I sat through a whole day or new employee orientation when I needed to send a document to the relocation office, which is not in DC (Cincinatti?), I didn't know how to do it and so I put my own stamp on it and sent it in the mail. Later on, everyone laughed at me. Little did I know I could have done that for free with inter-office agency. I won't bore you with the details of this week because in the end what matters is no one was hurt, I didn't need my health insurance and I did get paid for the first time. But could someone please explain why my pay check says its from the Department of Defense?