Secret service's opinion of different presidents

[TxSheepdog]

RAM4171:

The first thing I'd do if I were Prez is invite all the leading gun makers to
the White House to set up some range time, and to let them know that a 2A
friend is the new sheriff in town.

SIA

I would definitely ask the Secret Service guys for some range time with them and their cool toys.

[Keith B]

Unfortunately, Snopes appears to me to be a Democrat apologist website on political issues. They may be somewhat reliable (but who checks their position?) on non-political issues, but their opinions on some Gore and Obama reporting were blatantly wrong. I seem to recall a link between Snopes and either Obama supporters or perhaps even Soros a couple of years back.

Chas.

Yeah, I take their views with a SHAKER of salt because of their overly liberal view on things, but they usually do reference if it came from a book or someone directly. Looking at what they had listed as the email, compared to what I got and is posted here, it apparently has gone through at least a couple of variations, and references that were listed on my email are not showing on the Snopes page.

However, I am like others here, and could see these statements as fitting my perceived personas of the Presidents, the First Ladies and VP's.

[TDDude]

I would take that with a grain of salt.

Republican President = Kind, caring, moral
Democrat President = Selfish, uncaring, immoral

Perhaps, but since the LBJ ranch was only a couple miles from where I grew up, I know for a fact and from the first hand observation that what was said about him was totally true and then some.

He would come by the house from time to time for visits, un-announced of course. At 12 years of age, I didn't think anything of it. Doesn't everyone have ex-presidents come over for a visit?

Of course, knowing what I know now, he was probably just seeing if there was any chance of a fling between my mom and him. Of course there wasn't. My mom was (and still is) a very beautiful woman totally devoted to my dad and my dad was a pretty rough and straight shootin lawman with a very wide jealous streak and quite a few very high state government connections of his own. I guess ole LBJ figured he didn't have much of a chance there and he stopped dropping by after a while.

I also know what he did and tried to do to some of his neighboring ranch owners involving running them off their own land so he could increase his own land holdings. He was a rascal of the highest old school Texas order of rascals.

If I ever meet up with any of you forum members over a beer sometime, I might be persuaded to tell a couple other stories that aren't fit to print here.

[OldCurlyWolf]

I had the good fortune of knowing the SS guy that was in charge of Reagan's detail. I met him when I was going though EOD school in the 90's. He was about to retire from the SS and he was taking the demolition part of the EOD school when I was going through it. I would talk with him at every break and ask him about the SS. He seemed like a James Bond kind of guy, even his rental vehicle had two sets of license plates and he carried an arsenal in his Suburban. He stated that both President Reagan and his wife were always considerate and Mrs. Reagan always made sure the SS guys got fed during the functions they were at. He told of nothing but good from Mr and Mrs. Reagan. He offered to help get me hired with the SS and would let me use him as a reference, but I didn't have a degree. With no degree I could only work in the uniformed division so I never applied.

You could have worked uniform until you got a degree. There are several within range of DC, which is where most uniform SS work.

I personally would have liked to worked USMS over SS or FBI.

[mrvmax]

I had the good fortune of knowing the SS guy that was in charge of Reagan's detail. I met him when I was going though EOD school in the 90's. He was about to retire from the SS and he was taking the demolition part of the EOD school when I was going through it. I would talk with him at every break and ask him about the SS. He seemed like a James Bond kind of guy, even his rental vehicle had two sets of license plates and he carried an arsenal in his Suburban. He stated that both President Reagan and his wife were always considerate and Mrs. Reagan always made sure the SS guys got fed during the functions they were at. He told of nothing but good from Mr and Mrs. Reagan. He offered to help get me hired with the SS and would let me use him as a reference, but I didn't have a degree. With no degree I could only work in the uniformed division so I never applied.

You could have worked uniform until you got a degree. There are several within range of DC, which is where most uniform SS work.

I personally would have liked to worked USMS over SS or FBI.

The pay was not worth it at the time, plus I would have to pay for the air fare to fly back and forth for the interview.

[WildBill]

I also know what he did and tried to do to some of his neighboring ranch owners involving running them off their own land so he could increase his own land holdings. He was a rascal of the highest old school Texas order of rascals.

If I ever meet up with any of you forum members over a beer sometime, I might be persuaded to tell a couple other stories that aren't fit to print here.

As cheap as I am, I still would be willing to buy a few brews to hear your stories.

[CombatWombat]

That's about right

[surprise_i'm_armed]

Speaking of the Secret Service, I saw an eye-opening special on Discovery Channel
or somesuch about the training and tactics that they use to protect the president.

At a DC area training facility, the Secret Service teaches agents how to use aggressive
driving tactics to leave an area.

If you are familiar with a J-turn, that's the one where you back up the car at high speed,
crank the wheel until the car has moved 180 degrees, then drop that puppy in drive, and
zoom away.

Well, they showed these J-turns being performed with the full size armored Prez limos.
It was like seeing a giant Orca whale break the surface of the sea.

Another little gem that they showed is what's inside the black Suburbans with limo tint
windows which are part of the motorcade. If the Prez comes under attack, he is whisked
away in his limo.

The Suburbans are full of SWAT-type Secret Service guys. They get out of the trucks and
engage the attempted assassins with some serious firepower. The tops of the Suburbans
open up and they have some kind of turret-mounted chain gun, or .50 caliber, or some other
serious lead-thrower.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1CmjUARcsA

The above link covers some of this. It is about 9 + minutes long.

They are able to engage any threats on the ground, inside nearby buildings, or on the roofs
of buildings. It was quite a show of strength.

When the Secret Service preps for a foreign trip, they put all the needed vehicles in cargo planes,
as well as weaponry, and fuel. They check every place the Prez will go.

But still, sometimes something pops up that they just didn't plan for:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IuNppT1Mhk

The above link is Obama's limo getting "high-centered" on a curb in Ireland.
The BMW preceding the US limo hits the rise lightly, but Obama's limo is stopped dead.

I guess checking curb heights in foreign countries will make its way onto future Secret Service
reconnaissance lists.

SIA

[Keith B]

I haven't got time now, but will try to post a story by brother told me about he witnessed first hand, and one I witnessed when working in conjunction with the USSS Whitehouse Communications team. My brother has lived and worked in DC for 35 years and used to frequent the Capitol on business frequently. There are a bunch of good stories out there.

[olafpfj]

I'll share a few of my Secret Service stories.

My High School band was used to play for a local campaign fundraiser in California for Pete Wilson. Bush Sr. was going to be speaking so we obviously had to go through the ringer on background checks as we were going to be on stage with him as a backdrop. There were several funny and not so funny incidents leading up to and on that day.

1) I was the drum captain of my drumline and part of my duties was to tap out the tempo of each up coming warmup. While I had always thought that a rimshot on a marching snare sounded alot like a gunshot my suspicions were confirmed when about half a dozen swat team members appeared from around the corner and I started seeing lots of little red dots. They quickly realized what was going on and I immediately ceased hitting my drum. A Secret Service agent marched up to me and very calmly and sternly stated "don't do that again". "Yes sir", I replied....

2) Had to go to the bathroom a little bit later. We were in a holding room prior to the event and the mens room was sealed off so we all had to use that ladies room (no urinals). So I go into a stall only to be jostled by the agent that was escorting me as he pushed into the stall to make sure that I was only packing what I was supposed to be packing... ..."Really?!!", I asked. "Orders", he said....

3) Standing under hot stage lights in wool band uniforms at full attention can be tricky. Well we all made it through the event save one person in the clarinet section. She, not wanting to pass out on national television, decided to step off the front riser and step into the wings. She was over on the side so it was an easy get away. Me, on the back top riser, was afforded a full view of the surprised agents in the wings putting many a pistol to her head. She was about to pass out and had no idea what was going on. They quickly realized who and what she was and then immediately resumed their classic hollywood SS routine of hand on gun and hand on ear while someone from outside came in to deal with her....

4) After the event we were leaving to go to our bus and I noticed that in this one main parking lot there were no cars save for one blacked out suburban in the middle. Around said suburban were 6 men in fatigues with m-16's at the ready and actual grenades on their chest straps. Ummmm...what could that be all about I wondered. As we got around the lot I could look back and see 2 little white nose cones sticking out of the back of the truck... ...Clearly they don't mess around.

There were many other little things and I've also performed for Reagan which was its own 3 ring circus. Those men take their job very seriously and I wouldn't ever test them to see if they mean business. I generally avoid anything that involves that kind of security now as the novelty wears off quick and it becomes a serious pain.

[WildBill]

Those men take their job very seriously and I wouldn't ever test them to see if they mean business.

IMO, a very wise decision.

[Keith B]

OK, back from church and time to tell my stories.

My brother was an Air Force officer and he was their liaison to the Capitol and the Senate/House. He had people in the other branches and different teams that were his counterparts there in the Pentagon.

One day all of them needed to go to a meeting on 'The Hill', so since it is such a pain to park up there they decided to have one of the military vans shuttle them up.

On their way back from the meeting, they had just pulled out of the Capitol when a small motorcade (not big enough for the President, but maybe the VP) entered the road in front of them. Now, this was a multi-lane street, but protocol is that you DO NOT pull up beside a motorcade, no matter what.

The motorcade had come to a stop, apparently working ahead to clear traffic. Their van driver held back a short distance in the middle lane to make sure they were in compliance. About 10 seconds later they see this courier on a scooter whip past them in the right lane and proceed up the outside lane toward the motorcade. He apparently was gonna try to scoot past the motorcade on the right and turn on the upcoming street.

As he got up close to the rear-most suburban, the back door came flying open. The courier had to slow down, but still tried to weave around the open door. As he did a long and large leg came out of the open door and kicked the guy off of the scooter. The scooter and courier went over into the grass between the street and sidewalk and the Agent exited the vehicle and was standing over the courier in the grass with his finger pointed down screaming at the guy. About that time the motorcade started moving, the Agent jumped back into the Suburban and they drove off, leaving the courier laying in the grass with dumb look on his face as they passed by in their van.

As for my story, I was working with the USSS Comm team on a Presidential visit to our town. These guys lay it all out on what they need, will have etc. Being that I had already had a level of security clearance above anyone else, they assigned me to ride with some of the guys clearing the route about an hour before the President's motorcade was to come through. As we went down the route, we found one of our phone guys up on a pole. The agents stopped the car, I one got out and told him to come down from the pole. He told the Agent he was almost done and would be off in about 5 minutes. The agent bluntly stated 'You will be down in 30 seconds or I will shoot you down.' The tech (and I) believed the agent would have done just that, so the tech immediately started down the pole and said he would wait until the President had left to finish up the work.

Now, this was back in the late 80's, so I think they were probably a little more lenient than they might be today on non-compliance to directives.

[WildBill]

As we went down the route, we found one of our phone guys up on a pole. The agents stopped the car, I one got out and told him to come down from the pole. He told the Agent he was almost done and would be off in about 5 minutes. The agent bluntly stated 'You will be down in 30 seconds or I will shoot you down.'

Now, this was back in the late 80's, so I think they were probably a little more lenient than they might be today on non-compliance to directives.

I don't believe that the agent would actually do that, but again I wouldn't press my luck.

[Keith B]

As we went down the route, we found one of our phone guys up on a pole. The agents stopped the car, I one got out and told him to come down from the pole. He told the Agent he was almost done and would be off in about 5 minutes. The agent bluntly stated 'You will be down in 30 seconds or I will shoot you down.'

Now, this was back in the late 80's, so I think they were probably a little more lenient than they might be today on non-compliance to directives.

I don't believe that the agent would actually do that, but again I wouldn't press my luck.

Yeah, the tech wasn't a very good poker player, so he was NOT gonna call the agent's bluff. This was during President Regan's term. He had already been shot once, so they were pretty careful about anything going on that might pose a threat to the POTUS.

[mrvmax]

Here are a couple of stories I remember from the SS guy (Jim) I used to know:
Since I was in EOD we would perform VIP support for the President, VP and other VIP's (like the pope). Occasionally the SS would come to the base and give briefs to us about changes, procedures and other junk. There would normally be EOD from a few different bases at these briefings so this particular time we were meeting at the base theater. When we walked in the place I noticed the SS guy giving the briefing was Jim, the guy I met at EOD school. I planned on trying to talk with him after the brief. Before it started Jim was looking out into the crowd. He saw me (an E2 at the time) and said in front of the group "hey Massie, how is it going?" MY commander and everyone else looked at me wondering how in the heck I knew this SS guy.
I did get to go on one VIP before I got out, Gore was coming to SLC and they needed EOD to come and support the visit. It was neat getting the SS credentials an roaming around in suits with all the SS guys- at least for a while. I found out quick that it wasn't much fun wearing a 3 piece suit when it is in the 90's outside and the places we had to search were not the best places to be in a suit (runways, under cars, elevator shafts etc.).
Now here are a couple Jim told me when he was with President Reagan:
Pres. Reagan was eating at a restaurant that sat next to some woods. There was a large window in the dining area where you could see the woods in the background. The SS detail was all around the restaurant as Reagan was having his meal, just as they would be anywhere. Suddenly out the window in the woods a guy appears with a shotgun. The SS immediately stormed the guy, helicopter and all. Turns out he was just hunting and happened into the wrong area. I'm sure he probably soiled his hunting clothes when the SS pounced on him.
This one was my favorite, I asked a bunch of questions about firearms and what they used. Jim said that he had been a firearms instructor for the SS and at one time they carried UZI's (among a bunch of other firearms). He said him and another agent were walking down the street somewhere in NYC. It was winter so they had on trench coats over their suits. They looked like you and I would except they carried their UZI's inside their coats. They said while they were walking down the sidewalk a guy came up to them with a handgun and attempted to rob them. Jim said he used one hand to open up his trench coat and revealed the UZI to the robber. He said the robber turned around and ran off. I don't remember if they chased the guy down or not.