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Home , Camp David, Marine One

Marine One Past & FUTURE

A Turning Point in Presidential Transportation

CHARLES DENYER

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53.indd 64-65 4/23/19 12:31 PM u.s. presidents have relied on The of choice for the past the location of the real Marine One car- transport for more than half six decades have been the Sikorsky Sea rying the president. The current lineup a century. Helicopters, for presidents, King models, along with the VH-60N, a of Marine One helicopters are equipped have gone from being experimental in smaller, newer executive transport heli- with a battery of security technologies, President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s day, copter. But these aging Marine One heli- including flares to counter heat-seek- to being essential in the twenty-first copters will soon be replaced by the all- ing missiles, infrared countermeasures, century. The hefty, highly sophisticated new Sikorsky VH-92s, slated to enter and more. While is of- helicopters are commonly referred to as service in 2020. The VH-92 represents ten referred to as the president’s flying “White Tops” because, above the unique a quantum leap in presidential heli- Oval Office, Marine One also keeps the dark green body, a prominent white copter travel in terms of safety, security, president in constant communication stripe covers the top and spreads part- technology, and overall amenities. Plush with highly secure data transmission way down the sides. The White Tops in carpeting, seating for twelve passengers, protocols that allow the commander the skies over the nation’s capital are ballistic armor, secure communications in chief to conduct business as usual. routine, but their thunderous noise still lines, and a whisper-quiet interior will Whenever the president travels do- commands onlookers’ attention. be standard features on all VH-92 heli- mestically or overseas via Air Force One, Marine One is the call sign of what- copters dubbed Marine One.1 According Marine One always goes along, together ever U.S. Marine Corps aircraft is trans- to the VH-92 Sikorsky program direc- with the president’s limousine (known porting the president, traditionally one tor Spencer Elani, “It’s also very quiet, as “the beast”) because the U.S. Secret of a suite of helicopters operated exclu- so much so that you can have a conver- Service’s security protocol strictly pro- sively by Marine Helicopter Squadron sation,” with the VH-92 providing “a hibits the president from being trans- One, known as the HMX-1 Nighthawks. smooth and comfortable ride.”2 ported on any other helicopter, airplane, The men and women in this squadron For security reasons, Marine One or automobile. are a select group of highly trained always flies in a group of identical heli- Just as presidential are Marine pilots, considered the very best. copters, up to as many as five. While one supported by numerous other vehicles, For decades they have managed takeoffs is transporting the president, the others flying the president on Marine One and landings on the with serve as decoys. After takeoff, the decoys requires supporting staff and mate- precision. begin to shift in formation to obscure rials, and that job is given to the MV- 22 Ospreys, tilt-rotor military aircraft capable of vertical takeoff and landing, previous spread, commonly known as “Green Tops.” The above, and right White Tops and Green Tops together Views of the all-new Sikorsky form what is known as the Executive VH-92s, slated to begin service as Flight Detachment.3 Marine One in 2020. The new models will feature enhanced security, comfort, and technology.

left Marine One carries President to Andrews Air Force Base, where the he will board Air Force One, 2019. PHOTO WHITE HOUSE HUNTER HELIS MARINE CORPS PHOTOS BY SGT. U.S. / THIS PAGE: SPREAD: LOCKHEEDPREVIOUS MARTIN

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53.indd 66-67 4/23/19 12:32 PM left President Dwight D. Eisenhower stands beside the first presidential helicopter, a Bell H-13J Sioux, on the South Lawn of the White House, July 12, 1957.

opposite President Eisenhower and his guest, Soviet Premier , board a U.S. Marine Corps Sikorsky HUS-1 helicopter on the White House lawn for a sightseeing tour over the nation’s capital, September 15, 1959. As the first president to regularly use a helicopter, Eisenhower had two Executive Flight Detachments for his transport. These were provided by flight crews of the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps. To demonstrate his impartiality, the president alternated between these helicopters and their respective military personnel.

THE BEGINNING physician and another Secret Service The first president to use a heli- agent.4 copter while in office was Dwight D. For years, the Secret Service—the Eisenhower. When he opted for a brief agency responsible for the protection flight to Camp David on July 12, 1957, of the president—had held firm against the nature of presidential travel was im- helicopter use due to both safety and mediately diversified. He flew on a Bell security concerns, but with growing H-13J, a crude form of transportation nuclear threats from the Soviet Union, compared with the modern-day fleet a much more efficient means of evacuat- of Marine One helicopters. It had a top ing the nation’s commander in chief was speed of 105 miles per hour and a range necessary, and helicopter transport was of approximately 200 miles. A heavily the answer. In 1958, both the U.S. Army tinted Plexiglas nose bubble reduced and U.S. Marine Corps took command glare, and inside, on seats with sim- of presidential helicopter responsibil- ple arm- and footrests, there was just ities, while the U.S. Air Force retained enough room for the president, the pilot, sole responsibility for transporting the and a single Secret Service agent. But president in fixed wing aircraft. Since the president was not alone in the skies. 1976, the Marine Corps has been given An identical Bell H-13J would usually complete responsibility for all presiden- be close behind, carrying the president’s tial helicopter missions.5 DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY DWIGHT D. AP IMAGES

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53.indd 68-69 4/23/19 12:32 PM MEMORIES

“The helicopter was very smooth, very impressive,” according to former President after his first ride in the Sikorsky helicopter in 2009. “You go right over the Washington Monument and then you know—kind of curve in by the Capitol. It was spec- tacular.”6 With presidential motorcades causing massive traffic jams almost any- where the commander in chief travels, the White Tops have become a great alternative for fast, efficient, and secure transport. “On multiple occasions, he [President Obama] and his staff would use Marine One in order to eliminate -induced traffic jams around the country and the world,” according to Joe Mahshie, a White House Trip co- ordinator.7 Former President George W. Bush explained, “I don’t view it [Marine One] as a perk. . . . I really view it as a part of the presidency because it en- ables me to get from point A to point B without inconveniencing a lot of my fellow Americans.”8 Bush’s predecessor, President , concurred. “I don’t know how I would function with- opposite out Marine One when I was president,” cost. Bush replied that a person might site.” According to Bridgers, President he stated. He jokingly remembered how Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev pay $1 million or $2 million for a home Reagan was lighthearted, always smil- and President George H. W. Bush “I had trouble getting Buddy [Clinton’s in that area. Gorbachev then asked ing, and full of jokes: “We’re [Marine exit Marine One, at Camp David, how long it would take for someone to One] pointing directly at the White Chocolate Labrador Retriever] on , June 2, 1990. board. But in the end, he got to where save up that much money to buy such House. So, he comes out with Mrs. he loved it. He would practically run off above an expensive property. Bush explained Reagan, and we’re ready to take off and the leash to get on Marine One.” 9 President Bill Clinton shares Marine that people did not pay in full but got a somebody taps me on the shoulder. The cabin of the Sikorsky Sea Kings One with his family. His dog, Buddy, mortgage to buy the home, prompting And I look behind me and it’s President is so quiet that the president and oth- seated next to Chelsea, was once a reluctant Gorbachev to ask, “What’s a mortgage?” Reagan and he says, ‘Rob, don’t hit my 11 ers inside can speak in a normal tone flier but grew to love the helicopter. Valdez recalled, “We all looked at each house when you take off.’” of voice. Once, aboard Marine One, other sitting there in the close quar- President George H. W. Bush and Soviet ters of Marine One and realized he had MARINE ONE AND 10 Premier Mikhail Gorbachev engaged in never heard of it before.” NATIONAL TURNING a brief discussion of the fundamentals Lieutenant Colonel (ret.) Rob POINTS “Therefore, I shall resign the of American capitalism. David Valdez, Bridgers, who flew Marine One during Presidency effective at noon tomor- President Bush’s White House photog- President Reagan’s last three years, re- row. Vice President Ford will be sworn rapher, vividly remembered that, follow- membered traveling the world with in as President at that hour in this of- ing takeoff, as Marine One flew over the the president. “Any time there was any fice.”12 These twenty-five words forever affluent Maryland suburbs of Bethesda kind of a world meeting . . . Air Force changed the history of the American and Chevy Chase, Gorbachev asked One would fly him to the site and we presidency. Fifteen hours after the what one of those large homes would [Marine One] would pick him up and speech, on August 9, 1974, Richard

NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION NATIONAL deliver him a little closer to the actual ASSOCIATED PRESS ASSOCIATED

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53.indd 70-71 4/23/19 12:33 PM President gestures Nixon became the first president ever was shot and wounded his famous “V” for victory sign to to resign from office. His final good- while leaving a speaking engagement bid farewell as he boards Marine bye is still a famous image. Turning to at the Washington Hilton Hotel. Vice One for his final departure from flash his signature “V” victory sign, he President George H. W. Bush, in Texas the White House following his boarded Marine One, a 6-ton dark green for a series of political events, promptly resignation, August 9, 1974. Sikorsky Sea King. Soon the thunderous changed plans to return immediately blades lifted the mighty helicopter into to the nation’s capital. The arrival plans, the air, transporting Nixon to Andrews approved by the Secret Service, were to Air Force base for his final departure have Bush land at Andrews Air Force back to California. Base, board Marine Two, and land on The White Tops are also used for the South Lawn. Vice President Bush transporting the vice president of overruled his security detail, telling his the , using the call sign military aide, “Only the president lands Marine Two, to indicate that the na- on the South Lawn.” Bush, clearly re- tion’s second in command is on board. membering these dark hours of presi- During national emergencies, Marine dential peril, remarked that “Something Two has sometimes been at the center about landing on the South Lawn didn’t of the tension. sit well with me. . . . It might well have On March 30, 1981, President made for great TV, but I thought it would have sent the wrong message to the country and to the world.”13 Almost two decades later, on the eve- ning of September 11, 2001, Marine Two embarked on its first-ever liftoff from the South Lawn with the sitting vice president on board. The United States had been attacked that day, and Vice President George W. Bush steps off Marine Ground Zero, remembered leaving 4. “Bell H-13J,” Smithsonian National Air and One Space Museum website, https://airandspace. President , after spend- on the South Lawn of the White Manhattan after the president’s visit: si.edu. ing most of the day in the Presidential House September 11, 2001, following “On that day I think we all felt like we 5. “Bell UH-13J Sioux,” National Museum of the the terrorist attacks in New York City U.S. Air Force website, www.nationalmuseum. Emergency Operations Center, remem- were a part of our nation’s history. We and at the Pentagon (above, left). af.mil. bered that he “walked out of the dip- empathized with our fellow citizens; Three days later, he viewed the World Trade 6. Quoted in Amanda Macias, “There Is No Other lomatic entrance of the White House we supported the president on what Helicopter in the World Like Marine One,” posted Center disaster site from Marine One with December 19, 2016, Business Insider website, onto the South Lawn, where a white- New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, was a difficult day for all Americans; www.businessinsider.com. top helicopter was waiting to take us to left, and New York Governor George Pataki, we were angry at what had happened 7. Joe Mahshie, “An Insider’s Guide to Marine One: September 14, 2001 (above, right). The President’s Helicopter,” posted June 25, 2017, an undisclosed location. . . . As Marine to our country. . . . Most satisfying to The Points Guy blog, https://thepointsguy.com. Two gained altitude, we could see the me was that throughout the response 8. Quoted in Mary-Jayne McKay, “Marine One Pentagon. The building was lit up for to 9/11, the men and women of HMX-1 Flying High,” posted December 12, 2002, CBS News website, www.cbsneews.com. the rescue teams still at work, and responded with the calm professional- 9. Quoted in ibid.

14 AND MUSEUM PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY BUSH GEORGE W. smoke was rising from it.” ism they have been known for through- 10. David Valdez, interview with author, January 27, Just three days later, President out the history of the squadron.” 15 2019. 11. Quoted in Jaime Dailey, “Former Marine One George W. Bush visited the southern Pilot Remembers Reagan,” posted June 11, 2004, tip of Manhattan to see with his own notes WTOC website, www.wtoc.com. 1. Amanda Macias, “ Upgrade: The eyes the still smoldering steel and Marine One 12. Quoted in John Herbers, “Nixon Resigns,” New Next Presidential Helicopter Fleet Is Getting York Times, August 8, 1974, 1. Closer to Its Debut,” posted April 10, 2018, CNBC rubble carnage from the World Trade 13. Quoted in Alan Peppard, “Command and website, www.cnbc.com. Center’s Twin Towers. While memories Control: Tested Under Fire,” Dallas Morning 2. Quoted in ibid. News, May 13, 2015. of Marine One flights are often told by 3. David Cenciotti, “Marine One and HMX-1 MV 22 14. Dick Cheney, with Liz Cheney, In My Time: the president, family members, and Osprey Tilt-Rotor Aircraft Land on USS Gerald A Personal and Political Memoir (New York: Ford Aircraft Carrier for President Trump’s Threshold Editions, 2011), 10. senior staff, on this day the HMX-1 Visit,” posted March 5, 2017, Aviationist: David 15. Quoted in Sara Bock, “The Flight to Ground Cenciotti’s Weblog, https://theaviationist.com. pilots spoke. Colonel Steve Taylor, who Zero,” Marine Corps Association and Foundation piloted Marine One on the flight to website, https://mca-marines.org. NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION NATIONAL LEFT: TIM SLOAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES RIGHT: IMAGES LEFT: TIM SLOAN/AFP/GETTY

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