Within Arm's Length: A Secret Service Agent's Definitive Inside Account of Protecting the President (37 page)

A few hours later, with our mission of the day complete and darkness falling, we began the trip back to base. It was never advisable to be driving the back roads of Afghanistan even in the daytime, much less after sunset, so we were in a hurry. As always, we were also careful to note if we were being followed. As we rounded a curve we saw an upcoming checkpoint less than a hundred yards away; it was definitely not manned by Americans.

As I began to accelerate the SUV, I quickly assessed whether it would be best to drive straight through the threat or risk hitting a mine by going off road to avoid the possible ambush. The area to both the left and right of the checkpoint dropped off into a drainage ditch, which made the decision for me. We were going through. As I continued to accelerate toward the flimsy temporary barricade, an Afghan in battle dress uniform with a Kalashnikov rifle slung across his chest squared off at the checkpoint and held up one hand like a traffic cop. I had made my decision as to our course of action; he now had one to make. His decision would be whether to live or die on this late afternoon in Afghanistan.

Back at base that evening I considered the events of the day, our mission for the next day, and my current situation. Meanwhile, back in Washington at the CAT office, a close friend I had recommended as my replacement was sitting in my old comfortable chair signing paperwork and watching the war on Fox News. I was reminded of the old saying: Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

Epilogue

By the time of my retirement from the Secret Service in 2004, twenty years had passed since that day in November 1984 when I stood alone in President Kennedy’s house in Hyannis Port contemplating his cuff links. Many great things had happened in my life and career during those two decades: I had fulfilled my childhood dream of protecting not one but three presidents and had the unexpected good fortune of having found the perfect wife. I am constantly reminded that I was phenomenally lucky to have been a Secret Service agent.

I attained my career goals through a determination to succeed hardwired into my DNA at birth and a work ethic instilled by my parents and welded into place by the Marine Corps. Any disappointments over career goals not accomplished were erased by a feeling of gratefulness by those that did come to pass. By taking the road less traveled, I had eliminated the need for regret.

At the age of forty-nine I was given the opportunity to be a part of the CIA. Alongside some of the most intelligent and courageous men and women to be found anywhere in the world, I was able to contribute in a small way to keeping America safe from terrorist attack.

As I now enjoy retirement from government service and the many blessings of freedom this still great country has to offer, I often think of the Secret Service agents and CIA officers I served with both at home and half a world away. Some have been regrettably lost in the fight, while many are still poised on the tip of the spear. Godspeed, my brothers and sisters in arms.

REGRETS AND WISHES

Almost everyone has some regrets at the end of a long career or in the autumn of his or her years. Some question career decisions or lament the fact that more promotions did not come their way. Others perhaps wish that they had chosen a different course altogether. I have only one wish regarding my choice of career and the experiences that came as part and parcel of it. I wish I could do it all again.

APPENDIX 1

A Brief History of the Secret Service

The Secret Service is not the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the Central Intelligence Agency. Too many times to count, I have mentioned to someone at a social function that I worked for the Secret Service, only to have them introduce me to someone else as an FBI agent or a CIA agent.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the largest federal law enforcement agency in the United States and falls under the Department of Justice, tracing its modern history to the appointment of J. Edgar Hoover as director in 1924. The FBI has a very broad scope of investigative activities, far wider than that of the Secret Service, but the FBI has nothing to do with presidential protection and is in no way officially associated with the Secret Service. It is interesting to note that several Secret Service agents were tasked with helping start up the new FBI and that prior to Hoover, William J. Flynn, the director of the Secret Service, was appointed FBI director.

The Central Intelligence Agency is the premier intelligence service of the United States but has no authority to make arrests and no law enforcement function. Its primary duty is to gather intelligence in foreign countries and present that intelligence to the president so that he can make better-informed decisions regarding foreign policy. Like the FBI, it has no direct association with the Secret Service in terms of mission. When referring to an American employed by the CIA, it is incorrect to use the term “CIA agent.” Americans who are members of the CIA are officers, not agents. CIA agents are citizens of other nations who spy against their own countries on behalf of the CIA; they are also called assets. They are also obviously traitors, and if they are caught spying for the CIA, they and their families can be tortured, executed, or imprisoned indefinitely, depending upon the country they come from. This is why the CIA so fiercely defends its sources and methods.

The Secret Service is an independent law enforcement agency with full power to make arrests. From its beginning in 1865 until 2002, it fell under the Department of the Treasury. After the attacks on 9/11 and a reorganization of American law enforcement, the Service was placed under the Department of Homeland Security, where it remains; it is unique among federal agencies in its dual mission of investigations and protection. The majority of people think of the Secret Service as the agency that protects the president of the United States. While this is certainly true, the Secret Service is also an investigative agency that helps protect the financial infrastructure of the United States.

Today all US paper currency is printed at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, in Washington, DC. In 1865, at the conclusion of the Civil War, individual banks produced the country’s paper currency, and much of the paper currency in circulation was counterfeit. It was determined that the creation of a federal agency to fight this plague was needed, and this agency was the United States Secret Service.

On April 14, 1865, the day he was assassinated, President Abraham Lincoln signed the bill that brought the Secret Service into existence, thereby creating the agency that would one day protect the president. Even if the Service had already existed, however, it would have done President Lincoln no good. The Service did not begin protecting presidents until thirty-seven years later, in 1901, after President McKinley was assassinated in Buffalo, New York.

The Secret Service was thus originally created for the purpose of combating counterfeiting. This mission of counterfeit suppression remains one of the Secret Service’s main investigative missions today and is carried out by field offices that cover all fifty states and most of the world. In addition to counterfeit investigations, the Secret Service has the main federal jurisdiction over the statutes regarding credit card fraud and various types of financial crimes, as well as government check forgery. The Service also investigates threats against anyone it provides protection for, most notably the president of the United States.

When a person is hired as a new special agent in the Secret Service, he or she begins his or her career in a field office, which could be located anywhere in the United States. A new agent investigates the above-mentioned violations and does not serve on a permanent protective detail. While these investigations have little media appeal, they are extremely dangerous, and one can unexpectedly be killed.

After an agent serves approximately six years in a field office conducting investigations, he or she may then move on to a full-time protective assignment, such as the presidential detail. This time in the field is really an agent’s tryout for protection. If an agent does not prove to be trustworthy, intelligent, proficient with weapons, and hardworking, it is unlikely he or she will ever see the Presidential Protective Division.

It is mandated by law that the following receive protection: the president of the United States and his immediate family, the vice president and his immediate family, the president-elect and vice president-elect and their immediate families, former presidents and their spouses as well as children under age twelve, major presidential candidates, visiting foreign heads of state in the United States on an official state visit, and anyone else the president so dictates. The Secret Service does not protect members of Congress or the Senate, as is widely believed. That task is performed by the US Capitol Police.

Only the president and vice president must accept Secret Service protection. All others mentioned may decline protection if they so desire, and many do, most notably foreign heads of state who do not want Secret Service agents around them.

Richard Nixon is the only former president to have refused protection. In 1985, eleven years after leaving office and feeling he no longer needed the Secret Service, he hired his own private security detail, saving the taxpayer millions of dollars.

Never confuse the Secret Service with any other government agency, and, please, never introduce a Secret Service agent to anyone as an employee of the FBI or CIA. You have been sufficiently educated.

APPENDIX 2

Glossary of Terms and Acronyms

ASAIC:
assistant special agent in charge

ATSAIC:
assistant to the special agent in charge

CAT:
Counter Assault Team

CP:
command post

DSAIC:
deputy special agent in charge

FLETC:
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center

FLOTUS:
First Lady of the United States

Hawkeye:
call sign for CAT

Halfback:
follow-up vehicle

JJRTC:
James J. Rowley Training Center

NYFO:
New York field office

POTUS:
President of the United States

PPD:
Presidential Protective Division

SAIC:
special agent in charge

VPOTUS:
Vice President of the United States

About the Author

After a stint in the Marine Corps,
DAN EMMETT
joined the United States Secret Service, serving on the elite Counter Assault Team before being selected for the most coveted of all assignments in the Secret Service, the Presidential Protective Division. After twenty-one years as an agent, Emmett retired from the Secret Service and joined the CIA for six more years. Today the author is an adjunct professor as well as a security consultant for both private industry and for the United States government.

Index

The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

AAFB.
See
Andrews Air Force Base

Afghanistan

agent.
See also
Secret Service agent

CAT

life of PPD

married

OSS

PPD site

press

single

socializing with

aggression

Air Force, U.S.

aircrafts

arrival of

C-141 Starlifters

call sign

car planes in

crashes

Lockheed C-5 Galaxies

Air Force One

Douglas C-9

duties

flights aboard

new

protocol

tail number 26000

tail number 27000

tail number 28000

tail number 29000

Air Force Two

aircrafts.
See also specific types

American cockroach

American Legion

ammunition

black-tipped

bullets as

live

rounds

Anderson, Richard

Andrews Air Force Base (AAFB)

arrivals at

trip to

Anopheles mosquito

AOP.
See
attack on a principal

Arab fable

Army, U. S.

conscript or all-volunteer

murder of officers with

recruitment by

ROTC

arrest

statistics on conviction and

warrantless

warrants, execution of

ASAIC.
See
assistant special agent in charge

al-Assad, Hafez

guards of

meeting with Clinton

assailants

assassination

attempts

of Kennedy, John F.

of Kennedy, Robert F.

assistant special agent in charge (ASAIC)