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20 Years in the Secret Service My Life with Five Presidents

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20 Years in the Secret Service My Life with Five Presidents S ■r-c, 20 Years in the Secret Service My Life with Five Presidents qualified applicants for Special Agent posi- The sarcasm missed me entirely for the By Rufus Youngblood dons, starting salary $.3,825 per year." moment. "No! General Omar Bradley, I was in the Atlanta Secret Service office that's who!" almost before I finished reading the notice He looked up then, and turning toward Excerpted from 20 Years in the Secret Within a year Youngblood was assigned the clerk at the adjoining desk, he said, Service: My Life With Five Presidents, by to the White House detail of the Secret "Say, didja hear that? Youngblood just saw Rufus W. Youngblood, being published by Service. General Omar Bradley!" He looked around SiMon and Schuster, New York, N.Y. 9' From the original five men assigned to at me. "Say, Youngblood, with your luck, 1973, by Rufus W. Youngblood. Re- the protection of Theodore Roosevelt in if you'd been around here about 80 years printed by permission. 1902, the White House detail had grown ago you mighta seen General Grant. Yes into a complex, tightly knit unit of well- sir, you sure might!" trained and highly professional men whose "General . Grant . ." I mumbled. job was as important as any in the world. I I was learning more than protective work. joined the Secret Service in 1951, was impressed with the place, the job, and In a nudist colony you don't stare. At least not because of any burning desire to the people. Before coming to the White not after the first 'couple of days. I be a Secret Service agent—I had only a House as a Secret Service agent I had never * * * general idea of what the Service did—but seen Harry Truman—or any other Presi- because my chosen line of endeavor had dent. It was, to me, a rarefied atmosphere While President Truman's daily walks fallen unexpectedly on hard times and I I worked in for the next few days, standing around Washington worried the Secret had a family to support. my assigned posts, learning my way Service agents in charge of his safety, Presi- Like some 12 million other Americans, I around the White House, and moving with dent Eisenhower's walks presented an- had put in my World War II time, some of the President as part of the team. other kind of problem. it as a waist gunner aboard a B-17 bomber Possibly, I was overimpressed. One We had another walking President, but named Jack the Ripper. The GI Bill saw morning, after I had been rotated to the 8- one who disdained the salutary stroll down me through Georgia Tech and I was well o-4 shift, I saw what to me was a legend- Pennsylvania Avenue for the pursuit of a on my way with my industrial engineering ary figure moving through the White golf ball over endless miles of roughs and degree. House to an early appointment with the fairways. At first glance, it would seem At least that was my plan until an unac- President. I was on my way to report in that this would be a Secret Service dream customed word—"recession"—began to and as I reached the office I stopped at come true. What better protection than to crop up in everyday conversation. The re- shift leader John Campion's desk, where have your man far from the madding cession hit the engineering profession and he was working on some papers. crowd, in the fresh air and privacy of an I began looking elsewhere for work. The "Guess who I just saw!" I said, pointing exclusive golf club, spending hour after Georgia Tech alumni placement office pro- hack toward the corridor. hour in such a healthful and harmless pur- vided me with a lead that stared: "The Without looking up he said seriously, suit. After all the only golfers you ever hear United States Secret Service is seeking "Not John Wilkes Booth, I hope." of getting killed are those who rush to the 8 The Washingoon Pan/Potomac/January 13, 1974 Illustrations by John Heinly Ike made his decision and bailed out. for the people to move back, tool: a few But the driverless cart circled back swings. At the moment when it seemed al- sharply, and for a few tense moments a most hopeless, the pressure began to lessen strange procession moved across the lush and the cars finally inched their way into fairway—the President of the United the city. States in the lead, running for all he was * * * worth, a rogue golf cart at his heels, and half a dozen Secret Service agents tearing After the 1960 election, Younghfood along in pursuit. There was some shouted was often assigned to Vice President Lyn- discussion as to.whether the thing should don Johnson. In 1961 he accompanied shelter of the nearest oak tree in a sudden be shot, just as three agents overtook it Johnson to the then rather obscure Asian thunderstorm. and, like a dogie at a rodeo, bulldogged it country of South Vietnam. But the President is exposed to a differ- over onto its side. With the business over, the Vire Presi- ent sort of danger than the ordinary golfer. * * * dent expressed a desire to have a look When Ike stepped up to the first tee, there around. The countryside in the vicinity of would already be an agent on the green Caring for a President's safety overseas Saigon was fairly safe for travelers at that ahead, and agents flanking the fairway as sometimes presented the Secret Service time,- and so after lunch, as impromptu well as bringing up the rear. One of his with more exotic problems and one trip of motorcade wound its way out of the city. doctors always accompanied the entou- President Eisenhower's to New Dehli be- We stopped occasionally in a hamlet for rage. On a relatively strange course, there came a legend in the Secret Service. Johnson to have a few words with the peo- might be a foursome of agents playing the India had a shortage of almost every- ple through his interpreter, or alongside a hole ahead and another teeing off behind thing but people, and when Ike landed at rice paddy to observe the farmers at work. the President. Palam Airport some 12 miles outside New As we rounded a bend several miles out In effect, what appeared to be a simple Delhi, and headed toward the city in the in the country, Johnson's face suddenly golf game was in actuality a miniature mili- company of Prime Minister Nehru, the mo- brightened. There to our right was a field tary movement that began its advance on torcade along Kitchener Road found itself in which a dozen or so head of cattle were the first tee with its objective the eight- penetrating a solid mass of humanity that contentedly grazing. eenth green. Of course, there was no out- seemed to stretch as far as the eye could "Pull over!" the Vice President ordered ward evidence of this. Heavily armed see. The crowds pressing in from either the driver. We eased off onto the roadside, agents appeared to be nothing more than side of the road became a huge, writhing the vehicles behind following suit. John- fellow golfers, caddies, or a small gallery vise, with the motorcade between its jaws. son was out almost before the car stopped, that had the peculiar habit of watching ev- I learned from first-hand experience on loping off with his big Texas cattleman's erything but the golfer. later visits to India that the accepted me- gait to inspect the local stock. Stu Knight But if the efforts of the Secret Service thod of crowd control on the part of the In- and I dutifully trotted along with him, not were instrumental in keeping Ike safe dian police—whether the crowds be feeling too easy about a prolonged stop, while enjoying his hobby, the many miles friendly or not—is the liberal use of the and keeping an eye out toward the forest of walking America's finest golf courses heavy wooden clubs they carry. They beyond the field. Battles were not being were not entirely without incident. swing them with abandon and those on the fought in the area, but sniping was not un- Golf carts were just coming into vogue receiving end accept the blows in the same common. in the early '50s, and Ike often enjoyed spirit they are given. But there is little to I had never had much contact with beef driving his own cart. One warm spring af- be gained by bludgeoning a man who is in the live state. My first brief visit to the ternoon on Augusta National, Ike tooled pressing forward under the relentless pres- 1,.BJ Ranch in Texas, shortly before this his cart up to the edge of the green where sure of thousands behind him. They cram- =trip, had shown me that the Vice President his ball lay just off the putting surface. The med in against the limousine, laughing, was no stranger to the beasts, and as we moment he took his foot off the accelerator smiling, shouting greetings to Ike even as made our way toward the assembled cattle, it was apparent that something was wrong, the clubs rained down on their heads. I assumed these were the same as those in as the cart continued on under full power. At one point Nehru himself grabbed a Texas.
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