tonight by three former secret service agents whose combined years of service almost approach 82 years. privileged to have larry buendorf with us, 22 year veteran of the secret service. he was honored with the u.s. secret service avail are award, for stopping an assassination attempt on president gerald r. ford in 1975 and sacramento. later, he served 25 years as security chief -- joe clancy it is with us, he served on the protective details of four presidents including president bush, or trail blazer as he would have called him by his secret service code name. joe was -- culminating in 2015 when president obama named joe the 24th director of the u.s. secret service, so he was in charge. today he is the chief security officer at comcast corporation. i nicholas trotta is with us tonight, serving 30 years in the secret service. working on large-scale events such as world league assignments. including secret trips to iraq and afghanistan but you will hear about tonight. if nick looks familiar, you may have seen him in a documentary or two talking about being on the field at yankee stadium, as president bush throughout the first pitch before game three of the 2001 world series. also pleased to have with us as moderator, spencer geissinger, the former deputy assistant to the president for operations in advance at the white house, under president bush. in that role, he oversaw the integration of dozens of military security and operational agencies, all involved in presidential travel including the u.s. secret service. today he serves as a global director of business development for show call ink, an international event production company. we had planned to have former secret service agent kathleen -- but unfortunately she is not able to make it. we wish her a speedy recovery. let's welcome spence and our panelists on to the stage. >> thank you all. we have a fantastic program tonight. some really interesting information on the secret service and how it runs, and a lot of the back story that you will find fascinating. let's get started. joe, director joe clancy i should say, as a former director of the secret service, can you set the scene with the history of the secret service? because it wasn't always about protection. >> that's correct. and first i have to say, as we're sitting here, it's a bit unusual for an agent to be sitting on stage. typically we are stage after stage right. we're pretty good talking to our sleeves, but talking to the spikes is a bit of a challenge. and i just also want to give you a little warning that because of our training, any sudden movements might create...[inaudible] [laughter] we already noticed a couple of people didn't applaud when you walked in. so, [laughter] but the, the history of the secret service, it's a tremendous history, over 150 years. it started april 14th of 1865. civil war, there's a lot of counterfeit currency. and the treasury secretary, hugh mccullough, went into abraham lincoln in the morning of april 14th, 1865, and said we've got this rampant counterfeit currency. you've got to do something about it. and abraham lincoln gave him the greenlight to go ahead to start a new agency which would be the secret service. and he had his orders and that night president lincoln went to fords theatre to take in a play, our american cousin. and we all know what happened at ford's theater. and from there we continue to do investigations and as we say throughout our history we've gone from the paper investigations and counterfeit currency, which we still of course investigate, to the plastic, the credit card investigations, which we still do of course, and then into the digital cyber world which we are one of the best in the world at that as well. but most people think of the secret service when you think of the protection assignment the, protection mission, when you think of the secret service. and in 1901, after president mckinley's access the nation that's when you started protecting presidents and a couple of years later, we had funding for congress to do that, and then it just continued to progress with taking on candidates after robert kennedy's assassination, and we started taking on heads of state to children and wives and spouses of protectees. so, and we'll get into some of that as we go through the program. >> can you talk a little bit about bell tail, about the training academy out in belleville, maryland, and then the total number of employee agents. for example, this can be coming in the presidential campaign coming up where we have 24 candidates. >> right. >> how much energy is that going to require? >> it's a contributor will challenge. every campaign season is a challenge for the secret service. but i think our history proves that we've done a very good job in handling all that. but it's a tremendous challenge for men and women in the secret service and to their credit they just do a marvelous job in my view and when you look at the history of the country most of those world events, the secret service was behind the scenes, allowing those events to take place. and a lot of it has to do with training, you know, we've got a terrific training facility out in beltsville, maryland, and you'll see some examples this night of where that training paid off in world events. >> i think we have a picture that happened at an event that happened at the white house. tell a little bit about that. nobody in the secret service, agents, you see them, they have their earpiece in, but you never say that white weapons. here is a photo of a long gun that's out, and can you tell us a little bit about what happened here? >> sure. so i remember president bush just coming back from a visit out of town and we came back to the white house and typically once you get inside the gates of the white house there's a little sense of relief that you've accomplished your mission and there's a little bit of a deep breath but just as we are pulling up to the oval office area where the president gets out and you've seen it many times in the press, he'll walk of the colony to the oval office, the guy there with the year the, radio, that there was a fence jumper. and the fence jumper was over the east part of the complex, over boy the treasury building. so i was sitting in the right front seat of the limousine and i had to turn back to president bush and say, mister president, we have a fence jumper and we're going to have to stay, sit here in the vehicle for a few minutes till we get this issue resolved. and he said, well, offense jumper? where? where is the fence jumper? and he started looking behind him, and looking through. and i was actually kind of glad for that response. but then after, you know, a few seconds goes on, you can see the friends jumper and i'm not hearing that it's all clear yet, and then the president did start to ask, hey joe, i've got to go to work, i've got to get into the oval office here. and it took about three minutes, but all that time, i knew the uniformed officers and the agents, they were going to get this individual, and i was confident that we would stay in a non root vehicle. because we don't know when someone jumps offense, are they armed? what they have? so stay in the safe area. can we have evacuated the south grounds? yes, but i had confidence that we were going to get him and we did in a matter of seconds and then opened the door and let president push out. it might be hard for you to see this, but i know from, the event, he's smirking. because he knew i was sweating through my suit into the [inaudible] in the car. >> [laughter] for those of you who know president bush, he likes to run on time and he doesn't like to wait very often. so, larry, in 1975, you saved president ford's life. tell us that story. i think we have a video we are going to show you of the attempted assassination attempt and then you can talk us through that that day. >> okay. >> it was mid morning in sacramento when president ford [inaudible] a hotel to walk over to the state capitol for a meeting with governor andrew and jon edmund brown junior, and the speech for the state legislature. this was a political trip, part of the presidents cabinet to unlock at the republican law nomination. so he was shaking hands when he went along and working the crowds as politicians say. and it was a friendly crowd, accompanied by aides and secret service agents, the president reached for every hand insight. [inaudible] suddenly, a young woman, holding a gun, appeared at the presidents side. the secret service agent grab the gun and wrestled the young woman to the ground as other agents formed a tight protective shield around the president and moved him swiftly to the capital. >> well, and there you are, apprehending that would be assassin. >> well first thing i probably should've had a haircut. it's back in the 70s. [laughter] at least that's what my mother said when she heard about it. but i was working the shift of morning shift and the president was scheduled to speak at the capital. he walked out of the hotel and the motorcade is there, as scheduled, a large loud crowd across the street waiting to see him. so he walks out a, nice sunny day in california, he goes, i think i'll walk, as it's just across the park and the capitol building was right there. so that immediately caused is a scramble with agents and the police and trying to move through the crowd and in that direction they get him. so there's a pathway and they move the crowd across the one side of the sidewalks, or as he walked along, he could, he could shake hands. my position at the time was right at his left shoulder. so as he's walking along shaking hands, i'm kind of concentrating on his hands, kind of in a downward motion, because he's, don't want to have anybody grabbed too long, take's watch or whatever. so i'm kind of looking down. out in the crowd is a member of the charlie manson family, lynette fromme who happened to be carrying a 45 strapped to her ankle. she was back a couple of people in the crowd and so, as he shaking hands, suddenly i see this hand come up with something in it, and it wasn't, at that time didn't, didn't know it was a weapon. but i stepped in front of the president to stop the hand from coming up, because i didn't want him to get hit with whatever it was. the minute i hit it, i knew it was again. so i yelled out, gun! oh my very best friends that were with president, they leave with the president. [laughter] trained well. talk about the training program. you're on your own, buddy! [laughter] so she's screaming in the crowd, and the crowd is screaming, and i got a whole different, and i got a gun, the gun here, pushing. another thing, mister director, i didn't have my vest on. so i'm thinking that, i don't know if there's more to this and it's kind of happened, but i know i'm not letting go over. i'm pushing back to the crowd. the crowd is screaming, they see a guy in the suit, he's got this gun, he's got a girl, she's screaming. i keep pushing her away. and as i said, by then, the president is gone with the agents. i dropped her down on the ground. some of the agents and police from in back in the crowd came forward. i've just seen one of the agents from the shift and i hand him the gun and proceed to cuff her, which is happening now, as you see. and once she was covered a turn tour over to the ages that was there from the intelligence division, and the police and i went back and rejoined the shift and it was pretty fast and furious, and in a matter of seconds, then you have a chance to sit back and think about the, how fast it went down. [inaudible] [laughter] [applause]. >> what did she say when you -- did you make any comment? >> well, supposedly she was saying it didn't go off. well, when i hit the 45, she very well could have been pulling back the slide, because i did grab it and it cut my hand, and i, for months i kept jabbing the wound to make sure it stay open so i could go, you see this? [laughter] it healed way too fast. [laughter] so, it was just a little cut. but anyhow, i think she might have been pulling back and when i hit it i think i stopped the slide. she didn't have a round chamber. it would have gone through me and the president. because as i said, i didn't have a vest on. interesting thing, when we got back to the air force one, and i got pulled off, to remain in sacramento to be interviewed by the fbi, who take jurisdiction once we have an attempt like that, and mrs. ford was there waiting for him, she'd gone in another direction and so you'd already boarded the plane, he said, she turned to him and said, well, how was your day, mister president? [laughter] not so good. >> yeah. well i know the country is better for your duty that day in taking care of our president. september 11th, 2001 is a day that changed our country forever. can you, nick and joe, walk us through that day, talk to us about, sort of, the fog of that day and trying to determine who was trying to decapitate our leadership of our country and sort of how you dealt with it through the day? >> sure that's, one of the most in the history you can pretty much identify and recall where you are that day and for some reason i had come in early that morning the president and the company i waited for the president to return so for whatever reason, i went to the white house early that morning. i was actually working early that morning out, i had espn on. and watching whatever sports highlights, and then i saw the first plane like everyone else. it was that second one when we realized that we were under attack. mrs. bush was as the u. s. capital at the time. there was, it took some time to see what was happening. we wanted to get her away from the capital, we had known that there were three planes down, the pentagon had just -- the plane had just hit the pentagon. and i decided to connect with mrs. bush, as we relocated her from the capital. and that time, as we mentioned earlier in the green room, they were about six planes that were still unidentified at the time. after the plane hitting the pentagon. but it was a challenging day, because the united states had not been attacked, since pearl harbor. and you look at the oklahoma bombing. but in this case here, we had the president in florida. who wanted to come back, we had the first lady who wanted to be teamed up with her husband. so communications, we restricted communications, because of the nature of what was happening. the president was relocated to louisiana as everyone got to see. and it took some time, the president wanted to come back. we were not sure what was happening yet. the airspace was controlled, and then it wasn't until later on in the evening that the decision was made by the president, that he was adamant that he was going to address the nation from the white house. and then, it was at that point that we linked up the president and first lady. >> joe, what is your recollection of that day? >> i actually was in japan. i was with the secretary of treasury o'neill, and we had just arrived from china to japan and it was 9:00 in the evening. i said good night mister secretary, went to my room and turn on the tv. and as nick described, i saw the airplane crashing into the world trade center. went down to secretary o'neil and said, i don't think he had seen it just yet. then we immediately tried to get an aircraft back home to the states, but as we all know, all the aircrafts were grounded. it took almost 24 hours to get a military flight, to fly back to washington d. c.. >> tell us a little bit about post 9/11 with respect to the development of the department of homeland security. sort of, that day revealed a lot of things about how we treated security, and how our government ran with respect to this kind of attack. and sort of the deficiencies that were uncovered, and sort of how the department of homeland security came about. >> sure. you know, again, it developed after 9/11. at the time, the secret service was under the department of u.s. treasury. you had other entities. you had alcohol tobacco and firearms under the treasury. you had different departments under justice, so law enforcement and the intelligence community were in different agencies. u.s. coast guard was under transportation. it was not until dhs that put it all under one roof, where you had all the law enforcement outside of the justice -- it took some time. there were growing pains. it was like anything else, it was one of those moments in history when you see that the department was created. everyone was on the one roof, everyone is able to communicate. we were able to share a bit better than previous. and then, it was getting -- it was as you mentioned earlier. then, how does the country move forward? after such a tragic event like that? let alone the new creation of departments and what the department of defense were doing and other men and women across the united states that we're trying to strengthen and make the homeland safe? it was then the president and first lady, how to move and get the folks moving. because i remember the president saying, if he just stayed in the white house, folks in new york and d. c. may not go out. the other parts of the country were affected, but those in new york and d. c., it was right here at home. when you talk to the folks, you know up in new york, that lived it, it was getting the country back. then it was creating those movements. >> i think a lot of you will remember, just a few days -- there were a couple of things. a few days after the attack, at the world trade center, president bush actually went to new york city and stood on the rubble pile. that's where the famous video, if you've toured the museum, you see the bull horn that he actually gave those remarks from. it was that going to new york, immediately after 9/11, that really sort of was letting the american people know we're gonna move forward as a country, we're gonna get through this. and an even bigger event, we have a picture of it, was as many know, the yankees were in the world series. mlb had debated whether he should call it off, whether you should delay. give us, talk to us about that event. i think this was the seminal event of president bush's presidency that really unified the country. >> yes. actually, the back story prior to, if you remember the president was hosting his strategy meeting at camp david. shortly after. and we were departing, going to camp david, i was accompanying the president on the trip. and, as the president--marine one was on the south grounds. the press were on the south grounds of the white house, not sure why but the president when he came out of the oval office, instead of going directly to marine one he kind of singled me over and i was not sure if he was calling me over, if there was someone behind me. i did not want to turn around because of all the press. he had come over and he said, guess what? we are going to the world series. yankee stadium. and i said what? but that is how he was. he brought, he just calmed the whole situation down. it was a stressful period, and i was in shock. we are getting ready to go to camp david, but he just calmed everyone down and said nick, we're going to yankee stadium. the world series. i forgot the yankees were in the world series. we would tease each other as a big yankee fan. as we prepared to go, new york city... we had all forces to assist, all the resources. those who would get a chance to watch the espn documentary, will see that just behind the scenes, the stress and the buildup, that everyone in the stadium had been gone through metal detectors. i think billy crystal was very clear that, hey if i gotta get to the world series, we have to go through metal detector, we are going to do it. so, it was a unique time. the planning was you know, it was difficult. because, it was an extremely stressful period. and, we have the world series of major league baseball going on. but the president of the united states was going, not just to the stadium, but going to the field, to the mound. to throw out the first pitch. so, the planning between new york city, support the other federal partners, it made the event extremely... >> the planning, to allow him to go to go to the mound -- if you saw the video, he went all the way to the mound throughout, to throw out the pitch without any security right around him. all of that, was possible because of the planning. tell us a little bit about where agents were... >> yes, there is a photo in the that baseball fans picked up right away on it. during the world series in playoffs, you had two extra umpires. well there was an extra one. but, again, just as the incident with larry, you had the agents in the assassination attempt of of president ford. and they say they all left them. so the agents are to respond and to get the protective out of the way. here, unique situation. it was a, just a the planning that had gone in between him going to the mound, whether or not he was actually going to stay for part of the game, stay for the game where he would sit. there was a lot that had gone in. he had excellent support, the resources were tremendous. we have the umpires, we had the airspace of course, that was covered. we had, pretty much everyone in media assist us. tremendously by giving us access... >> the mound at yankee stadium was probably the safest place in the world. >> safest place in the world. >> joe, i'm on a segue. i want to meander a little with different topics. tell us a little bit about how the secret service protects the children of the first family? what goes into that, and the delicacies of it and sort of how you handle that? i know it's a difficult situation for most. >> it can be, because the secret service of course wants to protect the children. but also you want to make sure they have as best as possible, a normal life. that is very hard when you are in this bubble. i realize that. my direct exposure to that was more with mrs. obama. i remember sitting down with mrs. obama, really the first time i sat down with her at length, it was all about mrs. obama wanting her kids to have a normal life, going to school plays. going to school, going to school basketball games. so and so forth. i wanted to make sure she knew that we had the same goals. as kids get older, in their teen years, it's more challenging. because as you can imagine, no teenager wants guys like me coming out on a date. so, that's always a balance. you try to do the best that you can, but ultimately you want to make sure that they are in a safe environment. >> great. a huge part of any successful presidency is -- it requires foreign policy. and foreign travel. can you, and this is for the panel. maybe joe, you can start out with some thoughts on it. but traveling, taking the president overseas, he does not fly a commercial plane and go up to hertz and get a car and go off to those meetings. there's a tremendous amount of planning, it is staggering and you would be shocked to know how many planes full of equipment and materials go overseas anytime the president travels. can you talk to us a little bit about it? >> you're exactly right spence. it's really... when the president travels overseas, you're moving the white house to that country. with that, the limousine is on these prop planes, these military aircraft, you can fit six to eight cars on these aircrafts. you can fit helicopters on these aircrafts. so, everything moves in this foreign country. but one of the biggest, beyond the logistics, the challenge is the advanced work. because now, you don't have the same authority that you would have within the states. so you were relying on those foreign countries to do what you want, there is a lot of negotiating back and forth. a lot of nudging back and forth because you want, you know what you want. which you need to have a safe environment. but we don't always get to that point. >> so reciprocity reciprocities a big part of it whether you're negotiating on whether you can carry weapons on a foreign country or not. or whether we can fly marine one, or china would always fight us -- whether you can fly marine one. and, so talk a little bit about how you negotiate -- hopefully when their leader comes to the states. it's an even exchange. >> so... >> because we have a good video we're gonna show you in a minute of how there was a negotiation, and then there was not an even exchange. >> the advanced teams would go out 15, sometimes 20 days depending on the nature of the visit. again, a lot of these leaders are also coming here to the united states. but we hold a pretty firm requirement, we are not going to allow the president and the first lady to be unescorted. we are just not, and the advance team really has to push on it. sometimes you have to get the political folks, you have to get the ambassadors. you have to get the chiefs of staff, you have to get the white house advance team to negotiate our requirements. because, when you get into a summit, and you get to see the video letter, but when you get into the summit, there are 30 counterparts. or 20 counterparts of security. so what do you do with all of the security folks? as joe is saying, it's the cars. it's food. its medical supplies. it's the whole white house is actually moving, regardless of the time that the president is traveling. so, there is an entire... package that goes along with this. let alone the cars. and then you have all the spares. and you look at the aircrafts, as joe said marine one. you have to have these backup plans, you have to have all the medical, it is a big footprint. but, it's all about, it's not just about evacuating the president and the first lady in a threat. it's also, allowing the president to fulfill the presidents duties to run the country and to govern the united states. wherever the president is, that machine follows. we are part of that, along with the military, the medical unit. so that the president can fulfill his duties, as the chief executive. >> the president can literally do anything in a foreign country, that he can do in the white house. every piece of technology, personnel and resources when he's on a foreign trip. let's run the video, but we have an interesting video a foreign trip from chile. you want to narrate this? >> we had just, this was an agent of the pacific summit. and the 30 countries, it's the countries that touched the pacific ocean. and the president, first lady had just arrived. prior to that, they took, the chilean's had taken and the secret service agents away from the site. and, so, we had a slight delay. at this point, i thought it was okay to go so we left. the president first lady we talked about it, as we went, what happened was i stayed back a little bit to allow the press to take the photographs. of the president, the first lady along with the president of chile and the first lady of chile. and then the security started closing in, as you can see behind the president. and, now he hears me yelling. so. he was trained well. so, i was fortunate. because so, it was like moses [laughter] [applause] . >> so it was like it was like most parking the water. [laughter] and the first lady is here?, so she can attest to, they had heard, they were hitting me. and i'm not sure why. but in all seriousness, i actually fought for that moment. because this is like a game, right? it's like the security parties like a, you know, it's a dangerous game. and we are maintaining the prize. we have the president. and at that moment, i actually thought today was the day. because i was the only foreign security allowed inside. and i thought that today was the day that they were hitting me and no one's ever done that before. they were grabbing my arms, i was yelling, you know, get your hands off me! what are you doing it for? and i'm right-handed, so why weapon is on the right side. so it was really confusing. and the doors were closing, which was definitely, you know, a concern. and then, so, as i got, pushed my way up to the stairs, the president and the first lady heard the commotion, heard the yelling. my chilean counterpart actually tried to help, but the others weren't buying it, and they form this wall. and then the president, as i said, like moses came, kind of part of the waters, and i came in. but again, as spence said, the advance team, not only the secret service, but the white house advanced team worked it out to ensure that the secret service was going to have the representative in with the president, and accompanying the president and first lady at all times. and then something broke down. and it broke down just ten minutes prior to departure. and then we were able to get the agent back, but then, spence, if you remember, they took the white house staff representative along with the secret service agent, and took them away, and actually put them in a room. and they secured it with an officer. and now we have no one. and then they, finally, when we decided we are not going, we were waiting, that's when they brought the individual back. so even the last-minute, things change, you have these agreements, and then last-minute, things change. >> yeah, and i remember a trip, the presidents last trip to china, for the olympics. and we, i have made two or three trips to china prior to negotiating with the pre-advance team, a survey team, to negotiate for credentials and passes and that's a vehicle blackouts. and we were on air force one flying to beijing, and that still hadn't been worked out. so sometimes it just -- >> yeah, one thing to add to that. and it's not that the united states, and it was all this negative press after, but the united states, it's not that, you know, you know, we are tops and we want to, you know, be the ruler. we recognize it, so to our counterparts for the foreign countries, that the united states president, whoever the president is, brings in the highest threat, the highest threat is against the u.s. president. and they recognize that. however, at these summits, whether it's the g8, the g20, or in this case at the asia pacific, where there are 30 heads of state, they have 30 [inaudible] leaders. but again, the united states, again, with support of the white house of course, ensuring that the president, the first lady, are never unescorted. and we do then, when they come here to the united states, the secret service does, does play a good part, partner with them. but they also don't bring that footprint. and spence, you know, you've worked many of these, the foreign governments don't come with that big machine. >> right. and we are, often, i mean, when we mentioned reciprocity earlier, we try and give them everything that we've asked for in that country, we we give them when they're on [inaudible] their trips. yeah, go ahead joe just make one comment. you saw president bush's support that coming back for a minute there. >> there was another event where there was a state dinner planned, and we noticed when we were doing the advance that the magnet all mutters whatnot in place at this white house, uniform a foreign country, and no one was checking for weapons, and we had -- nick was my supervisor the time, my boss, and i called back and, i said, nick, my recommendation is we don't go. because we can't vouch for 250 people on that and we eventually came to the deputy chief of staff at the time and the end result was they scrapped the state dinner, which of course we never want to be in that position because there's a lot of political ramifications here. but again, it showed the support that president bush had for the security here and eventually, they had a team on each side of the dinner, including the director of the secret service at the time, but that's important, it was very important. >> let's talk, let's move to post presidency. you ran president ford's detail, larry. you are the [inaudible] office detail imports presidency. talk to us a little bit about that and the challenges of a post presidency without all of the support that the president had when he was in office. >> you know, people don't understand that, how difficult it is to cover a former president, like out former president ford and mrs. ford seven months in vail. no. [laughter] five months in vale and seven months in palm springs. over dover, it was very, very stressful. [laughter] the it was much difference with the former president of course. you want to make sure you have your -- you no longer have a military plane [inaudible] so you've got to make sure you have your american airlines mileage card. because you are going to spend a lot of time. traveling with the former president, and mrs. ford, it's a little different. because you are on a public plane. they want to greet him, president ford had a great system. he would get on the plane, and some in first class. i had to fly first class too. [laughter] but he would go on the inside seat, i'd be on the aisle. they made me go to -- they'd go to sleep, so to speak. and the people would come by, go -- oh, you know. they would go by. but he was both he and mrs. ford were just spectacular to work for. and you know, he was great on the golf course. bob hope made jokes about it. bob hope told him he, he said, he was the only president who could play two golf courses simultaneously. [laughter] and the jokes kept going on and on. but very gracious couple, and it was a privilege to be on their detail. >> great. nick, you and i had the privilege to do a couple of secret trips. joe, you were on them as well. kind of talk to us a little bit about what it takes to plan e secret trip by a sitting president to a foreign country without anybody knowing. >> well, finding out on the first one, there was a lot of drama of course, and got called in. there was only a few of us that were told of it. and we had gone to a room to get the briefing, and i actually remember -- you know that it's -- in all the history books, in one of the rooms below ground. and it's a long table and a number at the end of the table. there was only about five of us in the room, mr. hagan. and i remember a tray of chocolate cookies at the end that weren't for us. and i remember mr. hagan coming in, and saying, what i'm about to tell you is coming from the president and is not [inaudible] the president is going to go to bagdad. and i'm not sure why, but i just kind of shot up and went, what? what? no! i went right for those cookies, [laughter] i actually unraveled and started eating them. and i looked at the director and i realized i was an adult and supposed to have some responsibility. so i went back. but then, from that moment forward, we have five days to plan for this trip. and it wasn't just taking a sitting president into a war zone. it was secretly doing it. the white house or any place, the ranch in this case, where we left from, it's not set up to sneak the president out, especially when the we did the second ones at the white house, and mrs. bush will recall on the second one, when the president, i went up early in the morning, and he had his sunglasses, and ball cap on and maria said he was in the hallway, and i took a peek and barney was there and miss beasley, and they set, sir, we are ready. and i said, the glasses? and he said, sh! and i went, -- and he said, i you said you were sneaking out. i don't want barney know [laughter], i don't want to say. just get in the elevator. but he actually said, in the elevator, he said, nick, you know, like, you know, jill. and i went, sir, i don't know if i could do any more of these. because this was the second one. so the plan was, you know, when you are secretly doing it, there were secret service people, we couldn't share information with, let alone folks on the detail. and it was a, it wasn't a want to know, it was a need to know. we had to safely successfully take the president out so that the president could fulfill his mission. and i wanted to go there? of course not! but that's not where all about. and the president was adamant, when we went there, and spence, as you know, we agreed to three hours on the ground, which we got about three and a half or four, but the president was clear that he was going to serve every thanksgiving meal to every soldier. and it was a moving moment. and then he met with some of the leaders in the community. and that was the photo you see in him now that's -- >> that's in the chow hall -- >> in the chow hall. but you're also not telling the military. and air force one, colonel tieleman did an outstanding job of taking this aircraft. he changed the codes as he's talked about, flew without the call signs, and in arriving in country, not only where the men and women in awe when they saw the president, but other folks on the ground had no clue. so it was a team effort. but only five days. >> yeah, five days. and literally 99. 9% of the white house staff did not know. most of the secret service agents that were going to be involved in it and did not know. members of the presidents family probably did not know. so, they were, sneaking the president out of the white house, as any of you have been to washington, you know, all around the white house is furniture everywhere. you can't just drive them out. and so, there was a lot that went into getting him out of their, getting him to andrews aboard the plane and then having the plane take off. and that flying all the way to iraq without another airliner passing it in the sky and saying, oh, there goes air force one. [laughter] and that has happened. >> that happened. and the first one, if you remember, we had left crawford. and we had a switch in the hangar at andrews, because they had to leave with a full tack of gas. and then we went, we flew directly. >> joe, do you have something? >> during nick's time as -- yes, i was in the white house branch and i was just involved him getting him out of the white house complex. ten years later, president obama went over on one of those missions and fortunately, i had the experience from watching nick and how his team worked. and the rule was, if it leaked out, we would not do all the stops. we would limit the time on the ground. and as we were leaving turkey to go to iraq, it did leak out. so, once again, you're in a position where you have to make a recommendation which you know is not popular, but and the recommendation was, we just go to the military base and there was a lot of discussions about it. but once again, at that point, the obama administration, there was a pretty big discussion on air force one and they were very supportive. and it means a lot to the agents, of course, when you get that kind of support. >> [inaudible] could i say something for a second. >> go ahead. >> on that trip, what's joe didn't mention, joe was a special agent in charge of president on bomber. i was sister director. and we were leaving, as he said, from istanbul to go to afghanistan, it was the secret trip. and they were planning the trip. but prior to departing the last venue in istanbul, as joe said, the word was getting out, and the staff were still working on the time off the trip, how much time on the ground. and the staff, again, because of their priorities and their mission we're extending it. and joe was holding firm. he wouldn't say this, so i'm going to embarrass him. but it's an important point because it shows the relationship, where [inaudible] these newspapers, the relationship of the president or first lady with the detail is tremendous. because they recognize and they support. in this particular case, i'd always present for it, the president and his senior advisers and was asking for the plan. what is the schedule? and they were given this long -- we are going to do this and extend and extend. he looked at joe, president obama looked at joe, so obviously he wasn't buying into the extended program. and said, joe, what schedule do you prefer? and he said, the shorter one. and the president said, that's it, and walked out, and we went to the cars. and the decision was made. regardless of the senior staff, he relied on joe. >> yep. let's talk -- yes, thanks. here at the port center, there's a new special exhibit away from the white house. let's talk about where our presidents go when they're not staying in the white house. so let's cover their private residences where they go and maybe a little bit about camp david. >> we went to vale. >> part about that was when he was in office was the advance team, as you said, two, three weeks out ahead. i was a skiier. i still am i think. the advance team would have to go out for two weeks ahead of the president for mountain familiarization. this required us getting up with the ski patrol at the crack of dawn to ski. then familiar -- familiarize ourselves with all the runs to make sure that there was no one hiding in the trees. it was a interesting operation. we moved around the mountain in such a way. great outfit larry. we moved about the mountain without people being able to really trail us. we were in our formations. we would go into a ski line. a ski instructor line. we'd go through the line down the mountain, and gone. we were able to move about without interrupting the normal ski days of everyone else. so it worked out pretty well. >> go ahead. talk about the rain. >> with that, what's important is that again, the first families are trying to live a normal life in this bubble. as larry said about skiing, the secret service has to take this private nature when they're going into this public nature, president reagan horseback rider. president bush 41, what did he not do? boats, water, president bush, running, biking, and president clinton, president bush, president obama, all those other activities, so the secret service had to train agents on horseback. and u.s. park police played a tremendous role, because it's about how to extract or evacuate the president and the first lady while they're on horseback. how about getting to them in water safety? boat patrol? george h. bush, 41, i remember the press would be around, there is a lot of people around and they'd say, how many fish did you catch? fish? between all the boats and secret service, scaring all the fish away. for those of you who may have read books about president bush 40, 41, boat fidelity wasn't a slow boat. he would drive that thing at full throttle. >> full throttle. >> talk to us a little bit about the training because we're sort of making light of it but it's serious, they've to learn to mount. president bush mountain bikes on his ranch in crawford. he's a serious mountain biker, you have to be able to keep up with him. >> before the mountain bike was the, running during the campaign he averaged and i hope is not, listening but he averaged a tremendous seven -- pace. -- which later went to his mountain bike. it's, you could start out thinking that you are in pretty good shape. it's finishing the race, with the president and do you have enough energy hopefully have successfully evacuated or ten to the medical? you are definitely in training all the time. but you have to look at formations, with 41, as everyone knows with kennebunkport, their home was surrounded by three sides of water, so the u.s. coast guard, we had great partnership with the coast guard. and the coast guard assisted. the secret service agents had to prepare water, and water safety, both handling, both safety, on how to extract the president from the water. but it is not just lift from the water. it was putting in maybe in the boat, and bringing him to shore. we have to get armored vehicles aligned. we have these imaginary lines. the smart ones figured out how to divide up the land and atlantic ocean and we had mark larry, who was on the detail with us, and former agents in charge here in dallas. you recalled kennebunkport. we would have to move the cars and get ready to receive the president if he had to come onshore. so the president would cross over this imaginary line, and you are with the first lady, you spend time with tranquility with barbara bush. and we would move, they would say president is in this zone, and we move the cars. we would break ten minutes. then we would start moving cars around again. it was training involved in it, but we are moving and you are kind of disrupting the town also. but all of that comes down to spence, as you said earlier, joe talked about training, it all comes down to trainee. and the successful training was a successful attempt that larry prevented. >> let's talk about that in closing. we just have a minute or two left. let's talk about how you are trained to make a split second decision. oftentimes, you have zero, you have just have to react. how do you train to do that? >> well, >> go ahead joe, wouldn't you start? >> now go ahead. >> it is but it is what it is. the training that you have to do. then it just comes down to the person. can you react when the time comes in the right way? >> i think of -- would often talk about his experience in 1981 during the reagan assassination attempt. most of you have seen the video of that. if you look at tim mccarthy, when the first shot rang out, tim turn around and made himself big. that is not a natural instinct when you hear a gunshot to make yourself big. it's usually to cover yourself, get behind, cover concealment. but he made himself big to protect the president. that's because of repetitive training. >> sometimes, with all the greatest security and the most trained personnel, the best equipment, sometimes the president just has to take matters into his own hands. in baghdad, he had to fulfill the old texas two step right here. he was pretty quick. this concludes our presentation. [laughs] [applause] this concludes our panel. mrs. bush, thank you so much for having us. we really enjoyed being here. >> spencer, if you don't mind, we all felt very honored to be down here today and we've had fun up here telling some stories. but we would certainly like to thank the extended bush family for all they have done for the secret service over the years. when we told some stories here, but when you go to the bush library and see the enormity of what they've done for this country, it just makes you very proud. mrs. bush, thank you. >> [applause] thank you to spence, joe, nick, and larry for a fantastic program. i told you it was gonna be both informative and entertaining, and we knew they delivered as they would. thank you all for coming. tonight you are exiting through the museum. please take a few moments to stop by and take a look at our new exhibit, presidential retreats away from the white house. -- tickets are available at bush center dot org for our next capital lecture, on june 12th, -- a conversation about global flashpoints -- thank you. and have a good evening. [applause]. i'm katherine malone-france chief preservation officer at the national trust for historic preservation. thanks so much to stewart mcglaurin and the white house historical association for this wonderful symposium today and for our ongoing collaboration to preserve the historic decatur house on lafayette square. i am especially pleased to be here today to talk about the incredibly important role that first ladies have played in historic preservation and to do so during may which has