Apostate, Eagle and Marvel: How does the personal guard of the President of the United States

Why 36 th President of the United States called "bull eggs", complaints about the attitude of the leadership to the agents, as well as funny cases from the work of the US Secret Service describes in its article edition TJournal.

Photo: Facebook United States Secret Service

Secret Service - United States Secret Service, an agency dedicated to protecting the president, vice president, relatives, presidential candidates and foreign representatives during visits to the United States. Also, the secret service prevents forgery of money and other valuable documents.

History of creation of the department

The headquarters of the secret service is located in Washington and is a nine-story building without signs, in front of which there is not a single litter bin. At the entrance to the building there is one metal detector and there are no references to the secret service. A stranger, by accident entering the building, will not understand exactly where he got.

The first US president to hire bodyguards was Abraham Lincoln. Even before taking office, he received in his address a variety of threats that came in the future during his presidency.14 April 1865, Lincoln watched the play at the Ford Theater. When his bodyguard left to watch the play, John Bout came into the box and killed the president.

A few hours before that, Abraham Lincoln had ordered the creation of the Secret Service of the Ministry of Finance, whose duties included the fight against counterfeit money. Later, it is this agency that will protect the top officials of the United States.

After the assassination attempt on Lincoln, three more US presidents were killed. Only in 1901, the Congress unofficially asked the secret service to protect the head of state, and the following year the agency took full responsibility for protecting the president.

Work in the secret service

Everyone who meets general requirements can try his luck and get a job in a secret service:

• a US citizen;
• age from 21 to 43;
• excellent health, visual acuity without 20 / 60 correction;
• perfect past, passing a drug test and polygraph.

Secret Service offers four different areas of activity where a candidate can work:

special Agent - Investigation of violations of laws related to financial activities (credit card fraud, access devices, computer attacks on national banks); development and implementation of mitigation strategies for the country's leadership. A feature of the work in this position are frequent trips to various duty stations. The President’s security is the responsibility of the staff in this particular position.

The first step in the career of a special agent lasts from six to eight years of work in the designated department, after which they are assigned to a security mission, where they serve up to five years. After the end of the mission, agents can stay on it or return to their previous place of work, transferred to headquarters, training bureau or another unit in Washington. Special agents also have the opportunity to work abroad in one of the international departments of the department.

This vacancy is very competitive; in 2011, the Secret Service recruited only 1% of the number of candidates for this position.

Uniformed Division Officers - ensuring the security of the White House complex, the residence of the Vice President, the buildings of the Ministry of Finance and foreign diplomatic missions in Washington.

Administrative, Professional, and Technical - administrative positions.

Special officers - fulfillment of security responsibilities; work on protective posts; monitoring the movement of people in the facilities of the Secret Service; monitoring and operation of communication equipment.

The average annual salary for a Secret Service Special Agent is $56440 - $84660.

Photo: Facebook United States Secret Service

Agent Memories

36 th President of the United States Lyndon Johnson agents remembered the request to establish a beep, which they would give on the arrival of his wife at the residence, when he had sex with the secretary in the oval office.

“I remembered the saying: When Johnson comes to the ranch, the bulls lower their eyes. He had such a device that you would not believe,” says a former Secret Service agent

39 th US President Jimmy Carter was once angry that the company, a reception service for high-ranking officials, did not throw away the products, but offered them to agents. Carter insisted that in the future, this company would consider the cost of additional food and bill agents.

“Reagan was famous for scrambling Air Force jets to transport children needing kidney surgery,” recalls Frank Kelly (who drafted the president’s messages to Congress).

Presidential Guard

The place where the president is located is displayed on a board in the main offices of the White House and the Secret Service. It is referred to as POTUS (President of the United States of America). The first lady appears there as FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States). In addition to the first family of the state, the display shows information about the vice-president and his children.

"People always say to me, 'Hey, would you really take a bullet for the president?' “I answer: “Do you think I’m stupid? '' says former Secret Service agent

Code names to protected persons are made up from a random list of words starting with one letter for each family.

• Barack Obama - The Apostate (Renegade);
• Bill Clinton - Eagle (Eagle);
• George Bush (senior) - Gray Wolf;
• Ivanka Trump - Marvel;
• Donald Trump - Mogul.

In 2012, there was a sex scandal involving 12 agents from Barack Obama’s bodyguards. During the US President’s trip to Colombia, these agents used the services of Colombian prostitutes and refused to pay them for their services, which became known to the entire public. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan had to personally apologize for the behavior of his staff.

The next morning, Barack Obama, speaking at a press conference with the Colombian president, commented on the incident.

“If, as a result, the accusations made by the media are confirmed, then, of course, this will make me extremely angry. We are here representing the American people, and when we travel abroad, I expect all of us to adhere to the highest standards of conduct,” said Barack Obama.

And in 2015, two Secret Service agents from Barack Obama's guard, after drinking a decent amount of alcohol in a bar, crashed into the White House fence on a government car.

Photo: Facebook United States Secret Service

Tuple

The US President’s motorcade is one of the most popular car columns in the world. If the head of state arrives in another country, then a week before the Secret Service sends there its agents, who work out the route and occupy key positions on the roofs of buildings. When the president is scheduled to visit several cities that are distant from each other, a separate procession is sent to each of these cities. The United States Air Force is engaged in transporting secret service vehicles using transport aircraft.

Most often, the president moves in a limousine, codenamed Diligence, which in the column is usually from two pieces - so that the attackers do not know in what exactly the head of state is located. In total, the secret service in the fleet from 15 to 20 such limousines.

Limousine equipment

• the doors do not have keyholes, how to open them - only secret service agents know;
• rocket grenades, night vision goggles, an armored fuel tank protected from an explosion;
• blood identical to the president’s blood group.

Photo: Facebook United States Secret Service

White House

“If someone decides to climb over the fence, it will become known. Sensors are installed on the surface of the earth that respond to movement and weight. Closer to the building there are infrared detectors and audio detectors. Every corner is covered by surveillance cameras,” says a Secret Service agent.

To get to the White House through the West Wing, the invitee must press a button on the intercom, then give his name. If a person is on the list of invitees, he will be invited inside, after which they will require an identity document and check it on all lists. In addition to the Secret Service lists, the visitor should not be included in the “black list of the White House” - there are those who may cause inconvenience. Inside also do not miss the fact that there are violations with the use of physical violence or fraud.

“Some guy came up to the gates of the White House with a live chicken and demanded to let him pass to President Reagan. He said that he wanted to make a sacrifice, and planted a hen on the fence. I just took the chicken and planted it on the peak of the fence. ”

On the day of the inauguration after the morning tea party, when the current and elected president goes to the ceremony, White House staff take out the things of the outgoing president and begin to turn the residence into a new home for the next president.

The White House staff has just 5 watches to turn it from the home of the former president into the home of the elect.

This window appears after the tea-drinking of both presidents when they leave for the inauguration. During this time, small repairs are being done at the White House, old things are being taken out, and spring-cleaning is done.

President moves

“If the president plans to stay in a hotel, the Secret Service will reserve the whole floor where his room is located, as well as the floor above and below.”

Business trips to other states are planned by the Secret Service for several weeks. During this time, special units are being moved to the country where the president is traveling, who are planning travel routes. Usually, about four hundred people accompany the President of the United States on foreign trips: the White House, the secret service, and journalists. The secret service always booked only hotels, never stopping in diplomatic houses or embassies.

The President can also use an armored bus to move inside the country.

If the president needs to fly off somewhere - he has one of two identical Boeing 747-200B planes at his disposal, which, when the head of state is on board, receive the call sign "Aircraft number one" and become the main aircraft in the air (at least USA). On board the aircraft is its own kitchen, conference room, bedroom and working rooms for government employees.

The video linkage system appeared on board the aircraft only after the September 11 attack, when George W. Bush was unable to make a televised address to the citizens, as he was in the air.

Crisis

In 2015 year The Washington Postreferring to the report of the US Congress, reported that the Secret Service is in a state of crisis and is unable to solve the accumulated problems. The article cited examples when the security of the President of the United States made very serious mistakes:

In September, an armed man managed to drive 2014 in the same elevator with Barack Obama, having three criminal offenses related to assault;

19 September 2014, an armed man managed to get inside the White House with a knife, and two axes and a machete were found in his car;

In 2011, the Secret Service admitted the fact of shooting at the White House. The man, being in a parked car, fired at the walls of the US residence with a semi-automatic rifle, and then disappeared.

Former agents have reported that many departmental failures are associated with low funding, which does not allow hiring the number of employees that is needed for full-fledged work. Because of this, you have to load a large number of hours already hired employees.

According to former agent Jessica Johnson, the Secret Service notifies agents of their future schedule so that they do not have time to plan family and personal affairs.

“How tired are we?” Just imagine a regimen when you sleep three to four hours every day for a week. Pilots have mandatory rest periods. And next to the president is a guy with a loaded weapon who hasn’t slept for three days and has flown through four time zones. ”

Former agents also complained about the system of transferring employees from one office to another. They cited as an example the situation when some agents were refused to be transferred to the cities where their spouses worked, while others were obliged to move to the same cities. Often, agents who want to transfer money are offered to pay the cost of the move. But the Secret Service pays from fifty to one hundred thousand dollars for the relocation of each agent who does not even want to move to a new place of work.

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