Opinion: Two ex-agents collect the secret stories of the Secret Service
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Some of them are obvious at every presidential event -- the little curly wires running from their ear down inside the shirt and coat where the weapons are. There are, however, always more of them around than anyone sees.
The Secret Service guys and gals, who don’t respond to anyone’s comments but always have their eyes epoxyed on the hands of everyone in the excited crowd shoving to get near the commander-in-chief.
Barack Obamaand others have at times poked public fun at the stony faces of these government agents.
They’re extra busy these days as Obama makes his first foreign foray overseas this week.
But you really don’t hear much about these agents; hence, the name ‘secret.’ Few of them have revealed the fascinating private things they see and hear in the vehicles,the corridors or the freight elevators from the underground garages.
Presidents have taken that grungy route to their ballroom speeches ever since that September day in 1975 when the now-paroled Sara Jane Moore took a wild .38 pistol shot at President Gerald Ford as....
...he exited the Post Street sidewalk door of San Francisco’s St. Francis Hotel. It was the second attempt on Ford’s life in California in three weeks.
Well, now two former agents themselves are collecting behind-the-scenes stories from retired agents, not for a sensational book on, say, a certain president’s frequent visits to an East Side New York townhouse. But for the archives, so some will know at least some, if not all, of what these people do to prevent the kind of national trauma that came with the country’s four presidential assassinations. And numerous unsuccessful attempts.
Already, James Le Gette and Keith Stauffer have collected lengthy oral interviews from some two dozen ex-agents and their co-workers. They call themselves Sentinels of the Service. Each session can run up to five hours. Their conversations are transcribed, censored by the agent involved and will eventually be stored and accessed through the National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington.
‘This is something the two of us can do to give back to the Service,’ says Le Gette, who adds that their project is completely independent of their former employer. ‘We’re not looking for any dirt,’ he adds, ‘or any secrets.’
One Secret Service secret can be revealed, however. Many of them love Krispy Kremes, a box of which is almost always hanging around their off-duty room.
-- Andrew Malcolm
No secret how to get instant Tweets on new Ticket items; click here and register for free.