Word: details
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Before the President makes a trip, several agents from the White House detail act as advancemen. The President's route is carefully mapped out; overpasses and underpasses along the way will be closed when he arrives and patrolled by armed policemen. Traffic along the route will be halted to permit the presidential limousine to travel at speeds discouraging to snipers. The agents also consult with local lawmen about individuals in the area who pose security risks; some of these names appear on the Service's master potential-assassin list. The advance team may ask police plainclothesmen or Secret Servicemen from...
...aboard alight first and are met at the ramp by a platoon of their colleagues. (The size of a White House detail?always a closely kept secret?varies from occasion to occasion.) The President's limousine, driven by an agent, awaits him at the ramp. The chief of the detail rides next to the driver; the President, usually with an adviser or a local dignitary, sits in back. Directly behind the President's car is the "Queen Mary," an open car with running boards and hand grips along the sides. Five agents and the President's personal physician occupy...
...agents were alert but relatively inconspicuous and, like their charge, showed a fondness for the good life. Johnson's entourage tended to be tenser and more belligerent, sometimes silencing hecklers with flying tackles. The Secret Servicemen surrounding Nixon were characteristically aloof and well organized. Today's White House detail is outwardly relaxed and amiable, preferring gentle persuasion to brute force...
...general, a presidential agent's life is grueling. Recalls a member of Lyndon Johnson's detail: "Physically it is very tiring, not only the long, hard days but the changing shifts. By the time the body gets accustomed to one shift you change to another. Also, I was gone about 60% of the time?and that's got to be hard on a family. It's a young man's game...
...sheer frustration inescapably built into the job that is the Secret Serviceman's greatest burden. Agents are fully prepared to do anything to protect the President?even to lay down their lives. Richard Keiser, chief of the present White House detail, bears a rough resemblance to President Ford; when asked if he thought he could ever be shot by mistake, he replied, "I hope so." Nonetheless, all agents are acutely aware that there is simply no way to ensure that a President who comes in frequent contact with his fellow Americans can be utterly free from harm...