knowing our panelists who are here with this will be one of the engaged program that is both informative and highly entertaining. it is a rare treat to have the curtain pull back from those who are on the front lines of protecting the president and the first family. we are honored to be joined tonight by three secret service agents whose combined years of service almost approach 82 years. privilege to have larry buendorf with us. he was honored with the u.s. secret service award for those who stopped the assassination attempt against gerald ford in sacramento. later he served 25 years with the security chief with the united states olympic committee. joe clancy is with us tonight, joe served on the productive details of four presidents, including president bush. trail blazer as he would have called him by his secret service code name. mrs. bush was tempo, president bush was trail blazer. the 30 year -- when fresno bomber named him the 24th director of the u.s. secret service. he was in charge. today joe is the chief security officer at comcast corporation. nick trauma is with us tonight, nick served 30 years in the secret service. he helped protect five presidents. worked on large-scale events, did a lot of post 9/11 travel with president bush, including secret trips to iraq and afghanistan that you will hear about tonight. if nick looks familiar you may have seen him and it documentary or two talking about how he was on the field of yankees stadium when president bush through the first pitch of the 2001 world series. also pleased to have with us the moderator, the former deputy assistant to the president for operations in advance of the white house under president bush. in that role he oversaw the operations of several agencies involved in presidential travel. including the u.s. secret service. today he serves as the global director of business development for -- an international event production company. we had plans to have with us tonight former secret service agent kathleen flatly. but due to a medical issue she is not able to be here. we all wish her a speedy recovery. we are so grateful to joe, nick, and larry for making a time as our former agent experts. so let's welcome the panelists on to the stage. >> thank you all, we have a fantastic program tonight and really interesting information on the secret, how it runs, and a lot of back stories that you will find fascinating. let's get started. director clancy, i should say, as the former director of the secret service can you set the scene with the history of the secret service? it was not always about protection. >> that is correct, spencer, it is a little unusual for us to be sitting on stage, typically we are stage left or stage right. we are pretty good at talking into our sleeves but talking into these mics is a bit of a challenge. i also want to give you a little bit of warning that because of our training any sudden moves my surprise us. we already noticed a couple people did not applaud when we got up here. [laughs] the history of the secret service is a tremendous history over 150 years, started april 14th of april 1865. civil war, a lot of counterfeit currency and the treasury secretary went into abraham lincoln in the morning of april 14th 1865 and said, we have this rampant counterfeit currency and we have to do something about it. abraham lincoln gave him the green light to go ahead and start a new agency. which would be the secret service. he had his orders, and that night president lincoln went to fords theatre to take in a play our american cousin. we all know what happened at ford's theater. from there we continued to do investigations. throughout our history we have gone from the paper investigations of counterfeit currency, which would still investigate. we also do the plastic and credit card investigations that we still do. and into the digital and cyber world, we are one of the best in the world at that as well. most people when you think of the secret service you think of the protection assignment. the protection mission when you think of the secret service. in 1901 after president mckinley's assassination is when you start protecting presidents. a couple years later you got funding from congress to do that. it continued to progress, taking on candidates after robert kennedy's assassination. we started taking on heads of state, children, wives, spouses of protect ease. we will get into some of that as we go through the program. >> can you take a little bit about the training academy in belts ville, maryland. and the total number of agents? for example, the presidential campaign coming up we have 24 candidates. how much man power is that going to require? >> it is a considerable challenge, every campaign season as a challenge for the secret service. i think history proves we have done a very good job at handling all of that. it is a tremendous challenge for our men and women in the secret service. to their credit they do a wonderful job. when you look at the history of the country, this secret service was behind the scenes learn that to take place. a lot of that has to do with the training. we have a terrific training facility, you will see some examples tonight where that training paid off in world events. i think we have a picture that happened of an event that happened at the white house. tell us a little bit about that. normally you see secret service agents, new season the nice suits with their earpiece and. you never see their weapons, here is a photo of a long gun that is out. can you tell us a little bit about what happened here? >> sure, i remember president bush coming back from a visit out of town. we came back to the white house, typically once you get inside the gates of the white house there is a little sense of relief that you have accomplished your mission. there is a little bit of a deep breath. but, just as we were pulling up to the oval office area where the president gets out. you've seen it many times in the brass. we are going to walk up to the oval office, we got over the radio there was a fence jumper. the fence jumper was over on the east part of the complex by the treasury building. i was sitting in the right front seat of the limousine and i had to turn back to the president and say we have a funds jumper, we are going to have to stay here in the vehicle for a few minutes until we get this issue resolved. and he said, a fence jumper, where? where the fence jumper? he started looking behind him. i was actually kind of glad for that response. but then, after a few seconds go on and you cannot see defense jumper, i am not hearing that it is all clear yet. then the president started task, i have to get to work, i have to get into the oval office. it took about three minutes but all of that time i knew the uniformed officers and the agents were going to get this individual. i was confident they would just stay in an armored vehicle. you do not know when someone jumps a fence if they are armed, what they have. stay in a safe area, could we have evacuated the south? yes, but again, i had confidence we were going to get him. we did in a matter of seconds. let me open the door and let president bush out. it may be hard for you to see this but i know the event he is marking. he knew i was sweating through my suit because of the. car >> for those of you who know president bush, he likes to run on time, and he doesn't like to wait often. larry, in 1975, you saved president bush's life. tell us that story. i think we have a video we are going to show you of that assassination attempt, and then you cannot talk us through that, through that day. >> okay -- >> it was mid morning in sacramento when president ford left the hotel to walk over to the state capital without meeting with edmund brown junior about the state legislature. this was a political trip, part of the presidents campaign to lock up the republican khamenei shun. so, he was shaking hands, as he went along, working the crowd, as politicians say. and, it was a friendly crowd, accompanied by aides and secret service agents, the president reached for every handed site. suddenly, a young woman holding a gun appeared at the presidents side. a secret service agent grabbed the gun, and wrestled the young woman to the ground, as other agents formed a tight protective shield around the president, moved him swiftly to the capital. >> well, there you are after taking the would-be assassin. >> first thing, i should've had a haircut. that was back in the 70s. that's why my mother said when she heard about it. i was working the morning shift, and the president was scheduled to speak at the capitol. he walks out of the hotel there, as scheduled. a large crowd across the street waiting to see him. so, he walks out, a nice sunny day in california. he goes, i think i will walk because it's just across the park, and the capital building was right there. so, that immediately causes a scramble with agents, and the police, and trying to move the crowd in the right direction to get him so there's a pathway, and move the crowd across one side of the sidewalk. so as he walked along, 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 is not going to have anyone grab him, take his watch, whatever. so, i am looking down. out in the crowd is a member of the charlie brunson family, of the sneaky farm that happened to be carrying a 45 strapped to her ankle. she was back a couple of people in the crowd. so as he shook her hand, suddenly i see this hand come up with something in it. at the time, i 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 a gun. so, i yelled gun. all my friends with the president, they leave with the president. [laughs] trained well, trained well. part of our training program. be on your own, buddy. so, and she is screaming, and the crowd is screaming. i got a whole of her hand, and i got the gun here. pushing. another thing, mister director, i didn't have my vest on, so i'm thinking, i don't know if there is more to this that is going to happen. i'm not letting go of her. i'm putting her back in the crowd. the crowd is screaming. they see a guy in a suit. they see this girl, she is screaming. i keep pushing her away. and as i said by then, the president is gone with the agents. i dropped down to the ground. some of the agents and police from the back of the crowd came forward, noticed i was the agent on the shift, and proceeded to carve her which is happening, now as you see. once she was cuffed, they turned her over to the agent from our intelligence division. the police, and i went back and rejoin the shift. it was pretty fast, and a matter of seconds. then, you have a chance to sit back and think about how fast it went down. [applause] >> what did she say? did he make any comments? >> well, supposedly, she was saying it didn't go off. well, when i hit that 45, she very well could've been pulling back the slide, because i didn't grab it, and i cut my hand. for months, i kept jabbing the wounded to make sure it stayed open, so i could go, do you see this? [laughs] it healed way too fast. it was just a little cut. but anyhow, i think she might have been pulling back. when i hitter, i think i might have stopped it. if she had around chamber, it would've gone through me and the president, as i said. i didn't have a vest on. interesting thing, when we got back to air force one, and i got pulled off to remain in sacramento to be interviewed by the fbi, who take jurisdiction once they have an attempt like that, and mrs. ford was there waiting. she had gone another direction. so, when he boarded the plane he said, she turned to him and said, well, how is your day, mister president? not so good. >> well, i know that the country is better for your duty today and 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 the leadership of our country, and sort of how you dealt with it throughout the day? >> sure, it's one of those moments in history that, you know, everyone can pretty much identify, recall where you were that day. for some reason, i had come in early that morning. the president, i didn't accompany him. i waited for the president to return. so, for whatever reason, i went to the white house earlier that morning. i was actually working out. i had espn on, and watching whatever sports highlights, and then i saw the first plane, just like everyone else. it was that second one, when we realized that we were under attack. mrs. bush was at the u.s. capitol at the time. so, 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 it just -- the plane had just hit the pentagon, and as i decided to go and connect with mrs. bush, as we relocated from the capital. at that time, as i mentioned earlier in the green room, there were about six planes that were still unidentified at the time after the plane hitting the pentagon. it was a challenging day because the united states hadn't been attacked, you know, since, you know, pearl harbor. and, we looked at the oklahoma bombing. but in this case here, we had of the president in florida, who wanted to come back. you had the first lady, who wanted to be teamed up with her husband. so, communication, we restricted communication because of the nature of what was happening, and then the president was relocated to louisiana, as everyone got to see. and, it took some time. the president, once he came back, we weren't 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 is that we linked up the president and the first lady. >> joe, what's your recollection of that day? >> i actually was in japan. i was with the secretary treasury o'neill. we had just arrived from china to japan. it was 9:00 in the evening. i said, mister secretary, went to my room. turn on the tv. and just as nick described, saw the aircraft crashing into the world trade center. went down to secretary o'neil and said, -- i don't think he had seen it just yet, but then we immediately tried it to get an aircraft back home to the states. but as we all know, all of the aircraft were grounded. so, it took about 24 hours to get a military flight to fly back to washington d.c.. >> tell us a little bit about post 9/11 them, with respect to the development of the department of homeland security, and sort of that day, sort of revealed a lot of things about how we treated security, and how our government ran, with respect to this kind of attack, and it sort of the deficiencies that were uncovered, and how the department of homeland security came about. >> sure, you know, again, it develops after, you know, 9/11. you know, 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 treasury. you had other department of justice. so, a lot enforcement and the intelligence committee were and different agencies. u.s. coast guard was under transportation. it wasn't until dhs that put it all under one roof, and where you had all of the law enforcement outside of those in the department of justice. so, you had this -- and, it took some time. there was growing pains. you know, it with it just like, you know, anything else. it was one of those moments in history, when you see that the department was created. everyone was under one roof. we were able to communicate. we were able to share a bit, let's say a bit better than previous. and then, it was getting -- it was, as you had mentioned earlier, how does the country move forward after such a tragic event like that, let alone the new creation of departments, and other things that the department of defense were doing, and other departments across the whole united states. they were trying to strengthen and make the homeland safe. but, it was then how do you 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. other parts of the country were affected, but those in new york and d.c., you, know it was right here at home. and, when you talk to the folks, you know, up in new york that lived it, it was getting the country back. so, then it was creating those movements. >> so, i think a lot of you would remember, just a few days after, 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 that rubble pile, and that's where the famous video, if you two or the museum, you see the ball harm where he gave that remarks from. so, it was that, going to new york immediately after 9/11, and sort of letting the american people know that, we are going to move forward as a country, and we are going to get through this. but even a bigger event, and i think we have a picture of it, was, as many, no the yankees were in the world series. the image was whether to call it, off or whether to delay. talk to us about that event. because, i think this was one of the seminal events in president bush's presidency that really unified the country. >> yeah, it actually, a back story. prior to, if you remember the president was hosting a strategy meeting at camp david shortly after. we were departing, going to camp david, and i was accompanying the president on the trip, and as the president -- the marines were on the south grounds, and the press were on the south grounds of the white house. i'm 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 wasn't sure if he was, you know, calling me over, or if there was someone behind me. i didn't want to turn around because we had the press. well, he had come over, and he said, guess what? we are going to the world series, yankee stadium. and i went, what? but, that's how he was. he brought everyone, he just calmed the whole situation down. you, know it was a stressful period, and i was in shock. again, we were going to go to camp david, but he just calmed everyone down like, nick, nick, we are going to yankee stadium, world series. i forgot the yankees were in the world series. and, we would choose each other. i was a big yankees fan. but, as we prepared to go, new york city -- i mean, we had all forces to assist, all the resources. and, those that get a chance to watch the espn documentary we'll see, you know, just that behind the scenes, the stress, and the buildup, and everyone in the stadium, you know, had been going through metal detectors. i think billy crystal was very clear that, hey, if i've got to get to the world series, we have to go through metal detectors. we are going to do it. >> yeah. >> so, it was a unique time. the planning was at, you know, it was difficult. because i, it was an extremely stressful period, and you've got the world series and major league baseball going on, but you have the president of the united states going not just to the stadium, but going through to the field, to the mound, to throw out the first pitch. so, the planning between new york city support, the other federal partners made the event extremely helpful. >> the planning, to allow him to go out to the mound -- if you saw the video, he went out to the mound, all the way to the rubber without any security right around him. and, all of that was possible because of the planning. tell us a little bit about where agents were bum. yeah, so we had a photo, there is a photo baseball fans picked up right away on. during the world series and playoffs you have the two extra umpires. there was an extra one. [laughs] >> an extra, extra on. >> just because of the incident. you had the agents in the assassination attempt. they all left them, the asians are to respond. a unique situation, it was just the planning that had gone in between ham going to the mound, whether or not you're going to save a part of the game. there is a lot that went in, the resources were tremendous. the air force is covered, we had pretty much everyone assist us tremendously by giving access. baseball played a big part. >> the amount yankee stadium was probably the safest place in the world. >> joe, can you talk to us, i am going to meander all around with different topics. tell us a little bit about how the secret service protects the children of the first family, what goes into that, the delicacies of it, and how you handle that. i know it is a difficult situation sometimes. >> it can be, the secret service wants to protect the children but also wants to make sure they have, as best as possible, in normal life. that is very hard when you are in this bubble, my direct exposure to that was more with mr. obama. i remember sitting down with mrs. obama. it was the first time i sat down with her at length and it was all about mrs. obama wanting her kids to have a normal life, going to school plays, school, basketball games. so on and so forth. i want to make sure she knew that we had the same goals. as kids get older and they're in the 18 years it is more challenging, as you can imagine no teenager wants guys like me coming out on a day. you know? you try to do the very best you can but you want to make sure they are in a safe environment. >> great, a huge part of any successful presidency is requiring foreign policy and foreign travel. this is for the panel, maybe joe can start out with some thoughts on it. traveling, taking the president overseas he does not fly on a commercial plane, go up to hertz, get a car, go to his meetings. there is a tremendous amount of planning. it is staggering, 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 about it? >> you are right, it is moving the white house, when the president travels overseas you are moving the white house to that country. with that, the limousine is on these planes where you see the military aircraft. you can fit 6 to 8 cars on these aircraft. you can fit helicopters on these aircraft. everything moves in this foreign country, beyond the logistics they challenges the advanced work. now you do not have the same authority that you would have within the states. you are 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. you know what you want, you need to have a state safe environment. we do not always get to that point. >> reciprocity is a big part of it when you are negotiating for whether you can carry weapons and a foreign country. whether we can fly marine one. china would always find us on whether we could fly marine one. talk to us a little bit about how you negotiate. hopefully when their leader comes to the states it isn't even exchange. nick? we have a good video we are going to show you and a minute of how there was negotiation, and that was not in the exchange. >> the advances would go out for 15 to 20 days depending on the nature of the visit and the type of summit. you know, again, a lot of these leaders are coming here to the united states. we hold a pretty firm requirement. we are not going to allow the president and the first lady to be on escorted. we are just not, the advance teams really have to push on it. sometimes you have to get the political folks, the ambassador's, the chief of staff, the white house advanced team to negotiate our requirements. because when you get into a summit, you're going to see the video later, when you get into a summit there are 20 or 30 counterparts of security. what do you deal with all of the security folks? anyways, you know, as joe was saying it is the cars, it is food, it is medical supplies. the whole white house is actually moving. regardless of the length of time that the president is traveling, there is an entire package that goes along with this. let alone the cars, and then you have all of the spare. you look at the aircrafts, as joe said marine one. you have to have these backup plans, you have to have the medical. it is a big footprint. it is not just about evacuating the president and the first lady in a threat, it is also allowing the president to professional the presidents duties to run the country, to govern the united states. wherever the president as, 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 executor. >> the president can literally do anything and a foreign country that he could do at the white house. every piece of technology, equipment, and personnel resources he has when he is on a foreign trip. let's run the video, we have an interesting video of a foreign trip to chile. do you want to narrate this, nick? >> this wasn't an asian pacific summit, 30 countries. the countries that touch the pacific ocean. the president and the first lady had just arrived. prior to that the chilean's had taken the secret service advanced agent away from the site. so, we had a slight delay. at this point i thought it was okay to go so we laughed. the president and the first lady, we talked about it, as we went what happened was i had stayed back a little bit to allow the press to take the photograph of the president, the first lady along with the president of chile and the first lady of chile. security started closing in, as you can see, behind the president. he now hears me yelling. [laughs] he was trained well, i was fortunate because -- [laughs] [applause] it was like moses parting the water. the first lady is here, she can a task they had heard. they were hitting me, i am not sure why. in all seriousness, i actually thought in that moment, this is like a game. the security part is a dangerous game and we are maintaining the prize. we have the president and that that moment i actually thought today was the day. i was the only foreign security allowed inside. i thought today was the day, they were hitting me and no one has ever done that before. i was yelling get your hands off me, what are you doing that for? i am right-handed, my weapon is on my right side and that is where they were hitting me. it was very confusing, then the doors were closing. that was definitely a concern. as i pushed my way up to the stairs, the president and the first lady heard the commotion, heard the yelling. my chilean counterpart actually try to help, but the others were not buying in. they formed this wall. the president, like moses part of the waters. i came in, 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 and with the president. and, accompanied the president and the 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, if you remember, they took the white house staff representative, along with the secret service agent and took them away. actually put them in the room. they secured it with an officer. now we had no one, and finally when we decided they were not going, they were waiting, that is when they brought the individual back. last-minute things change, you have those agreements and the last-minute things change. i remember the presidents last trip to china list for the olympics. i had made 2 to 3 trips to china to negotiate with a advance team to negotiate for credentials, permits, vehicle placards. we were on air force one, flying to beijing and that still had not been worked out. >> one thing to add to that, it is not the united states. it was all of this negative press after. the united states, it is not that we were tops and we want to be the ruler. we recognize and so do our counterparts in foreign countries that the united states president, whoever the president's, brings in the highest stripe. the highest threat is against the u.s. president, they recognize that. however, at these summits, whether it is the g8, the g20, or the asia-pacific whether a 30 heads of state. there are 30 detail leaders. the united states, with support of the white house, ensured that where the president or first lady are never an escorted. then, when they come to the united states this ukraine service does play a good part with them. they also do not bring that footprint, you know, you have worked many of these. the foreign governments do not come with that big machine. >> right, and often, i mentioned reciprocity earlier. we try to give them everything we have in their country. we give it when they go on trips. go ahead. >> just to make one comment, you saw president bush's support coming back from nick, but there was another event where there was a state dinner planned. we noticed when we were doing the event that nothing was in place at the white house in a foreign country. nobody was checking for weapons, nick was my supervisor at the time and my boss. i call back and i said nick, my recommendation is we do not go. we cannot vouch for 250 people automatically. we eventually went to the deputy chief of staff and in the end result was they scrapped the state dinner, which we never want to be in that position. there is a lot of political ramifications here, but it showed a support that president bush had for the security. eventually we had a 14 on each side dinner including the director of the secret service at the time. that support was very important. >> let's move to post presidency. larry you ran at president ford's detail, you are the head of his detail in post presidency. talk to us a bit about that and the challenges of post presidency, without all the support that the president had when he was in office. >> people do not understand how difficult it is to cover a former president. i had former president ford and mrs. ford seven months in vail. five months in vail and seven months in palm springs. it was very, very stressful. much different with a former president, you want to make sure you no longer have a military plane, air force one. you have 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 is a little different. because, you are on a public plane, they want to great them, president ford had a great system. he would get on the plane, flying in first class. then i also had to fly first. [laughs] he would go on the inside seat, i would be on the aisle, he would immediately go to sleep so to speak. people would come by and go, you know. they would go by. both he and mrs. ford were just spectacular to work for. he was great on the golf course, bob hope made jokes about him. bob hope said he was the only president that could play two golf courses simultaneously. the jokes kept going on and on. but, a very gracious couple, and it was a privilege to be with him. >> great. nick, let's, you and i had the privilege to do a couple of secret trips. joe, you are on it as well. talk to us a little bit about what it takes to plan a secret trip, by sending a 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 that briefing, and i actually remember, you know. it's in all the history books. in one of the rooms below ground, it's a long table. i remember at the end of the table, there is only about five of us in the room, mr. hagan. i remember trying chocolate ship cookies at the end that one for us. i remember mr. hagan coming in and saying, what i am about to tell you is coming from the president, and it's not emotional. the presidents got to go to baghdad. i'm not sure, white but i kind of shot up and went, what? no. i went right for those cookies. i actually unraveled, and started eating them. 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 had five days to plan for this trip. 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 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. 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. i said, so we are ready? and i said, the glasses? he went -- he said, you said we are sneaking out. i don't want barney to know. [laughs] and i wanted to say, just get in the elevator. but, he actually said, in the elevator, he said, nick, like, you know, chill. i went, sir, i don't know if i can do any more of these. because, this was the second one. so, the planning was, you know, when you are secretly doing it, you -- there were secret service people, we couldn't share information with. let alone folks on the detail. , and it was -- 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. that i want to go? they're of course not. but, that's not what we are all about. and the president was adamant when we went there. spencer, you know. we agreed to three hours on the ground, which we got about three and a half, four, but the president was clear that he was going to serve every thanksgiving meal to every soldier. it was a moving moment. and then, he met with some of the leaders in the community, and that was the photo you are seeing now. that's in the chapel. but, you are also not but -- air force one, the colonel did an outstanding job of taking this aircraft, you know, change the codes, as he's talked about, flew without the coal signs, and then arriving in the country, not only where the men, and women, at all when they saw the president, but the 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 warrant on the detail we're going to be involved, and they did not know. members of the presidents family probably did not know. so, they were sneaking the president out of the white house. if any of you have been into washington, you know all in the white house, curves are everywhere. you can just drag him out. so, there was a lot of that went into getting him out of there, getting him to andrew, support of the plane, and then having that plane takeoff, and then flying all the way to iraq without another airliner passing it in the sky. saying, there goes air force one. that's happened. >> that happened, right. >> the first, one if you remember, we had left but crawford, and we had a switch in the hangar at andrews, because they had to leave with a full tank of gas. and then, we went there. we flew directly. >> joe, do you have something? >> i was with the white house branch, and so i was just involved in helping him get out of the white house complex. but years later, president obama went over on one of those missions, and fortunately i had the experience of i'm watching nick and how his team worked. the one 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 lead out. so once again, you are in a position where you have to make a recommendation, which you know is not popular, but the recommendation was, we just go to the military base, and there was a lot of discussions about it. once again, at that point, the obama administration, there was a big discussion on air force one, and they were very supportive. it means a lot to the agents, of course, when you get that kind of support. >> can i ask something for a second? >> on the trip, but joe didn't mention, joe it was a special agent in charge of president obama, the assistant director. we were leaving, as you mentioned, from istanbul to go to afghanistan. it was a secret trip. they were planning the trip, but prior to departing the last venue in istanbul, as jo said, word was getting out, and the staff were still working on the time of the trip, how much time on the ground. and, the staff, again, because of their priorities and their mission or extending it. and joe was holding firm. he wouldn't say, this so i am going to embarrass him. but, it's an important point because it shows the relationship. regardless if you read in these newspapers, the relationship of the president, first lady with the detail is tremendous. because, they recognize and they support. in this particular case, and i was present for it, the president had his senior advisers, and was asking for the plan. what is the schedule? and, they were giving this long, long, we will extend, and extend. he looked at joe. president obama looked at joe, saw, obviously, he wasn't buying in to the extended program. and said, joe, what schedule do you prefer? and he said, the shorter one. and, the president said, that's it. walked out, said, we went to the cars. the decision was made, regardless of the senior staff. he relied on joe. >> let's talk -- yes, thanks. [applause] here at the busch center, there is a new special exhibit away from the white house. let's talk about where our presidents go when they are not staying in the white house. so, let's cover their private residences, where they go, maybe a little bit about camp david. let's start with larry. larry? [laughs] >> the hard part about that was when he was in office was the -- [laughs] the advanced him, as he said, sometimes two, three weeks out ahead. so, it was a skier. i still am, i think. so, the advanced team would have to go out for two weeks ahead of the president to vail for mountain familiarization. [laughs] this requires getting up with the ski patrol at the crack of dawn to ski fresh powder. to familiarize ourselves with all of the runs, to make sure that there was no one hiding in the trees, etc. but, it was a pretty interesting operation. we moved about the mountain, out in such a way that we are. great outfit, larry. but, we moved about that mountain, without people being able to trail us, the way we ran our formations. we would go to the ski instructor line. we would go through the line. we would be up the mountain, down run, and gone. so, we were able to move about without interrupting the normal ski days of everyone else, so it worked out pretty well. >> and neck, talk a little about -- yeah, coed. >> what's important is, again, the first families are trying to live alone normal life in this bubble. you know, and as larry said about skiing, the secret service has to take this private nature when they go into this public major. president reagan, horseback riding, president bush 41. you know, what did he not do, right? boats, water, president bush running, biking, and president clinton, president bush, president obama, all the other, you know, 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 do we extract or evacuate the president and the first lady while they are on horseback? how about getting to them in water safety, and brought patrol? president bush, george h. bush 40, one i remember being up at one point. that press would be all around, there and they would say, how many fish did you catch? and he would say, fish? with all these boats, between media bots and secret service? that's good all the fish away. >> and for those of you who may have read but books about president bush 40, one that boat was not a slow patrol. he would write that both at fourth throttle. >> full throttle. >> talk about the training. it is serious. they have to learn to mountain bike. president bush mountain bikes on his ranch in crawford, and he is a serious mountain bike or. you have to be able to keep up with him. >> before the mountain bike was running, because in his campaign, he averaged, and i hope he is not listening, but he averaged around, which was a tremendous 7.40 pace, and i wasn't around or. in fact, i didn't like to run. but, he ran a race in its d.c., as president, running the three mile race. ran a 6.40 pace for three miles. but at the ranch, and wherever he ran, he was averaging about a 7.10 pace. so, which is the training of that alone, the agents, the radio, no vast, and then the president bush started these heat runs. i didn't know where the heat run was. neither did he when he created it. but, he formed this hundred-degree club. which later, went to his mountain bike. and so, it's -- you could start out thinking that, well, you are in pretty good shape. it's finishing the race with the president, and do you have enough energy to hopefully, and successfully evacuated or tend to the medical? so, you are definitely in training all the time. but, you have to look at formations. you had to look at, with 41, as everyone knows, the home was surrounded by three sides of water, so the u.s. coast guard, they are a great partnership with the coast guard. and at the coast guard assisted. but, the secret service agents had to prepare water, water safety, boat handling, boat safety, on how to extract that president from the water. but, it's not just lift from the, water it was pulling in maybe in the boat, and then bringing them to shore. so, we had to get armored vehicles on land, and we had these imaginary lines, the smart ones. not me, but the smart ones figured out how to divide up the atlantic ocean, and the president -- we had mark lowry who is on that detail with us, and former agent to charge here in dallas. you recall kevin bump or, we would have to, you know, move the cars, and get ready to receive the president, if we had to come onshore. so, the president would cross over this imaginary line, and we were with the first lady. you spent the time with tranquility, with barbara bush. and, they would say, the president is in the zone, and we would move the cars. we wait ten minute, and then we start moving cars around again. and it was, you know, it was -- there was training involved in it, but we were moving, and you are kind of disrupting the town also. but, all of that comes down to spencer, as you said earlier, and joe talked about training. it all comes down to training, and the success of a training, was a successful attempt that larry prevented because of his training. >> 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. there are oftentimes, you know, you have zero -- you just have to react. how do you train to do that? >> well, go ahead -- >> now, you go ahead. you have the training part of it, right? >> it is one of, as you know? the training, as you have to do. and then, it comes down to the person, can you react when that time comes in the right way? >> yeah. >> i think of jerry park would often talk of his experience in 1981 during the reagan assassination attempt. most of you have seen the video of that. look at tim mccarthy, when the first shot rang out. tim turned around, made himself big. that's not natural instinct, when you hear a gunshot, to make yourself a big. it's usually to cover yourself, behind cover, concealment. but, he made himself a big to protect the president, and that's from repetitive training that our training staff or do so well. >> and sometimes, -- this is sort of our wrap up. sometimes, with the most trained personnel, the best equipment, sometimes, the president just has to take matters into his own hands. and in baghdad -- he had to fulfill the old texas two step right here. it was pretty quick. this concludes our presentation. [applause] this includes our panel, mrs. bush thank you very much for having us. we really enjoyed being here. >> spencer, if you do not mind we all felt very honored to be invited down here today and we have had some fun up here telling some stories, we really thank the extended bush family for all they have done for the secret service every year. we told some stories here tonight when you go to the bush library and see the enormity of what they have done for this country, it just makes you very proud. mrs. bush, thank you. [applause] >> thank you to spencer, joe, nick, and larry. i told you will be about informative and entertaining and they delivered, as we know we would. tonight you will be exiting through the museum, take a few minutes to stop by and visit our new special exhibit, presidential retreats away from the white white house. that will be open until 8:15. remember, tickets are available and push center dot org for the next engaged program. our annual lecture. and on june 12th a conversation about global flash points with neil ferguson. thank you and have a good

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