Former President Gerald Ford passed away this week at the age of 93. Gerald Ford was President of the United States when I was appointed as a Secret Service agent in February 1975. But the first time I had any involvement with him was when he came to the Ohio State University while I was an OSU police officer. I was assigned to a dignitary protection team the department had formed and trained by the local Secret Service office. I remember him stopping to thank everyone and shaking our hands. He continued to do this even after I became an agent.

The 1976 Presidential Campaign was getting started in 1975 when Squeaky Fromme made her attempt to assassinate President Ford. I was in training in Washington, DC. DC is always rampant with rumors, especially when it comes to politics. After her attempt the rumor in DC was that the Secret Service would start protecting all persons running for President immediately, even if we had to interrupt our training to man protective details. This rumor was soon squashed and we went back to normal training.

A few weeks later, just as we were about to graduate from our academy, Sara Jane Moore took a shot at President Ford in San Francisco. During both attempts on President Ford the Secret Service responded appropriately and no harm came to anyone. However, this time the President and the Treasury Department decided that all people running for President would get immediate protection, 13 months before the election.

That was a long, long 13 months. Our class graduated as scheduled, then we all returned to our respective offices of assignment and some were immediately sent out on the campaign trail. I was assigned to guard Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana. That was a fun detail. One night at a fund raising event in Indianapolis I was seated at a table near the Senator when this big lady leaned over to me and pointed to a man sitting across the table and asked me if I knew who he was. I answered no. She told me it was her husband, the former pro wrestler, Dick the Bruiser. When I was a kid I used to watch him on TV and when I took a better look I recognized him. We had a pleasant dinner and afterwards he autographed his menu to 'My favorite Secret Service man, Dick the Bruiser'. I still have the autograph.

During the summer of 1976 President Ford and First Lady Betty Ford visited Mackinaw Island in Lake Huron. When I got to the agents briefing I was told I had a special assignment which would be further explained after the briefing. My special assignment was to guard an armored limo being secreted in a garage near the hotel were the President and First Lady were staying. Why was the limo being hidden from public view? Simple, there were no cars allowed on Mackinaw Island.

But if a situation arose which required a quick evacuation of the President then they felt an armored limo might be of great benefit. They just had to keep it out of sight. It was smuggled in via a barge in the middle of the night and smuggled off the island the same way. I was locked in the garage for the night with the limo and occasionally an agent would stop by to check on me. It was easy duty.

After Senator bayh dropped out of the race I spent the rest of the campaign doing advances or post-standing assignments for other protectees. As the election approached I was notified by Head Quarters that if former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter was elected President I would be assigned to the President Elect Detail until he took office. I had never been to Plains, GA but I had not heard anything good about it from other agents who had been there and I did not particularly want to go. This opinion changed four years later when I was permanently assigned there.

So I decided to do everything in my power to avoid going to Georgia in the winter. Secret Service agents are non-political. We do not protect the individual, we protect the person who holds the office of President of the United States. So agents, or government employees as a whole, cannot participate in any political activity. Of course I have a tendency not to follow the rules on occasion. So if I was to actually campaign for someone running for office it had to be on the QT.

I started wearing a 'Ford for President' button on the bottom of my suit coat lapel. It was out of the public eye, but I could flip it up at people when I wanted to. This became funny to me, but my coworkers did not think it was too funny after the first few days. They kept telling me I was going to get in trouble, but I never got caught.

We all know now who won the election and, as a result, who was sent to Georgia in the winter. It was cold, rainy and miserable and I caught a nasty cold, but I survived.

I personally feel that President Richard Nixon picked Gerald Ford to succeed Spiro Agnew as Vice President because he knew there was a good chance the country may need someone to step into the Presidency, someone who was very open and could be totally trusted. President Ford had spent many years in Congress and was well respected by both parties. Everyone liked him and trusted him. So I think Gerald Ford was chosen specifically by President Nixon for this purpose. Perhaps it was Divine Intervention.

After President Ford took office he brought a strongly divided country back together. We had been engaged in the Vietnam War for several years with high US casualties and the Watergate burglary had just brought down President Nixon. Although Mr. Ford has been tagged 'The Accidental President' he will be remembered as one of the most trusted to ever hold the office.

Goodbye Mr. President.

Two things occurred this week in Hampton Roads, VA that brought back a flood of Secret Service memories. One was the death of former local defense attorney Billy Robinson and the other was the return of the USS Saipan from its last deployment before being decommissioned this coming spring. What do these two things have in common with the Secret Service? Plenty, thanks for asking.

In 1998 nine men, either current or former US Navy sailors, decided to pass counterfeit checks at local banks. These checks were presented as employee paychecks. The nine sailors had all met at one time or another as cooks while assigned to the USS Saipan.

One Monday morning when I arrived at the Norfolk Secret Service office I received a phone call from Anthnette LeCompte, a Portsmouth PD detective with whom I had worked many cases. She told me that several Portsmouth banks had cashed numerous counterfeit checks the previous Friday and Saturday. She asked me if I was interested in helping her with the case, I was. Later that day we met and she gave me several bank surveillance photos of the suspects cashing the bogus checks and told me she had been in contact with several other area police departments who had also suffered similar losses to banks in their jurisdictions. She also gave me some of the original counterfeit checks as evidence. She said she was still gathering more photos and checks. The counterfeits were quite good. However, on close inspection the company authorization signature was printed, not original or stamped. But these were good fakes and I could see why some bank tellers had accepted them as real.

No one knew could identify any of the suspects in the photos. So I came up with the idea to ask the local newspaper, The Virginian-Pilot, for help. I contacted my favorite reporter, Lynn Waltz, who used to cover the federal court house beat and asked for her assistance. I asked her to publish some of the photos of the bank suspects in the newspaper. If anyone did recognize anyone then please contact the Portsmouth PD or the Secret Service.

The next morning the pictures appeared in the paper and by noon we got our first leads in the case. One caller told us that one of the bank photos was of a young man who was currently working at a local YMCA. We located him and sure enough he was one of the suspects. We arrested him and impounded his new car. He decided not to cooperate and we placed him in the Portsmouth City Jail to think about it. An inventory of his car however, turned up a bag of clothing containing a shirt being worn by another suspect in the bank photos and some ID pertaining to a local US Navy sailor.

A call to NCIS confirmed the sailor was on active duty and assigned to the Navy Shipyard in Portsmouth. That afternoon we interviewed him, but he was none of the people pictured in any of the bank photos. He claimed to know nothing about the counterfeit checks and claimed he loaned that bag of clothing to a friend. We had no evidence against him at the time and decided to let him go until we could do more investigating. We figured he was in the Navy and not likely to be going anywhere soon. We learned later that after our interview the sailor left the NCIS office, got into his car, drove off base and went AWOL. It was several months before we caught him.

A couple of days later, however, the young man who we originally arrested and placed in the Portsmouth Jail got word to us he was willing to cooperate. Through him and other suspects we began locating and arresting we determined that one of the main leaders of this little organized crime group called himself 'Mecca'. Everyone kept telling us that Mecca planned all the hits from getting the fake IDs made, to getting the counterfeit checks printed, to shipping the checks to the next city to be hit and then meeting with everyone who had been recruited to pass the checks to telling them what banks to cash the checks at. Of course Mecca was another former sailor from the Saipan. He had finished his Navy tour and moved to Atlanta, GA. The counterfeit checks were reportedly coming out of Atlanta, GA.

As the months passed and evidence collected this band of merry men was rounded up one at a time and either pled guilty to bank fraud or went to trial. One of first to decide to go to trial was Mecca. His true identity had been determined and a federal warrant had been issued for his arrest and entered into NCIC. He was arrested by a suburban Atlanta deputy sheriff when he showed up for court one morning on a domestic assault charge.

When he arrived in Norfolk, to face federal bank fraud charges, he hired Billy Robinson as his defense attorney. This was the first time I had a case involving Billy Robinson as a defense attorney, but by then his reputation was long established as one of the best in the area and also one of the hardest to get into trial. But the delay tactics he so commonly used in local courts did not work in federal court and he had to prepare for a quick trial.

His decision to go to trial caused me many problems. The most daunting was the vast amount of paper evidence I had accumulated over the months the investigation had lasted, airline tickets, telephone records, motel receipts, rental car receipts, gas receipts, the many different names used, etc. So I had to find a way to get this evidence organized in a manner that a jury could understand, no easy task. And I did not have a lot of time in which to get this accomplished. I contacted Secret Service Headquarters and spoke to the Investigative Support Division. I told them of my predicament and requested assistance.

In a couple of days two support personnel arrived at the Norfolk Office with laptop computers in hand and ready to go to work. They reviewed my evidence and came up with a plan. Janene C., a Criminal Research Specialist, told me that ISD had just purchased a new software program where the paper evidence could be scanned into a computer and the software would make the connections by dates, times, locations, phone numbers, etc. They began scanning, they scanned for two days.

The software began making the links and the case was coming together at a fast pace. Telephone records were linked with motel records which were linked with airline records and so on. It was truly amazing. I found out later that the Drug Enforcement Administration had also been using this same software with great success. Once the evidence was organized we needed to be able to print it so a jury could see the links on paper. Only one problem, the files were so big and so many links had been made that it had to be printed on a special printer on large paper, like newspaper. We found a plotter printer at the Norfolk City Planning Office and they agreed to assist us. After the documents were printed we brought them back to the office and they had to be unrolled and spread across the conference room table a little at a time, it was incredible. The software made links I never would have made, the evidence was overwhelming.

We brought the Assistant US Attorney to the office to review the evidence and he was truly impressed. Next he contacted Billy Robinson and asked him to come to the office to review the evidence as part of the discovery process that trial attorneys have to abide by.

Mr. Robinson came to the office and reviewed the evidence as we explained the links and how the software worked. He was very impressed and thanked us for our assistance. Afterward, we continued to prepare for trial by insuring all our witnesses had arrived in town and were ready to testify.

The day before trial was to begin the Assistant US Attorney contacted me and said he was working out a plea agreement with Mecca and Mr. Robinson. Mecca was pleading guilty rather than going to trial. After Mecca pled guilty he appeared at the Secret Service office in Norfolk to be debriefed. Part of most plea agreements includes the stipulation that the defendant must be debriefed and provide information about his role in the crime and help investigators locate other conspirators or tell how the scam was perpetrated. The two ISD personnel who put together all the links in the evidence were in town to assist with the trial. I advised them of the plea agreement and asked them if they would like to view the debriefing on closed circuit TV. They jumped at the chance.

During the debriefing Mecca told us of his participation in the bank fraud conspiracy. However, he refused to tell us who manufactured the counterfeit checks. Mecca said if he told us the name he would be killed. He also refused to tell us the whereabouts of the sailor who went AWOL when the case first started and had since become an integral part of the scam.

During the debriefing Billy Robinson paid the Secret Service and especially the two ISD personnel the highest compliments. He said that until he saw the links in the evidence he thought his client had a good chance of winning an acquittal. But after seeing the trial exhibits he told his client it was in his best interest to plead guilty and cooperate. Needless to say, Janene and her counterpart were ecstatic and used this case in all their future presentations on how the software worked and how they could help in an investigation.

I had one more federal case with defense attorney Billy Robinson. It was before I was promoted and transferred to Secret Service HQ in August 1999. Mr. Robinson was defending a local criminal who was a whiz at cloning cell phones. This guy was a big thorn in the sides of law enforcement and the phone companies. It was a bench trial before US District Judge Doumar. We went to trial and the defendant was convicted of cell phone fraud. At the end of the trial Mr. Robinson overheard the Assistant US Attorney (the same one from the counterfeit check case) congratulate me on my last trial in Norfolk and wishing me good luck in my new assignment. Mr. Robinson approached me and asked me if I was retiring from the Secret Service. I said no I had been promoted and was being transferred soon to Headquarters to supervise the Electronic Crimes Branch. He shook my hand, congratulated me and said, 'I will miss you, it has been a real pleasure working with you'. I thanked him. It was a high compliment coming from a man of his reputation and experience.

He passed away this past week from cancer at the young age of 64. He will be missed.

Billy Robinson, Rest in Peace, amen.

Something cool that Xerox is doing!!

If you go to this web site, www.letssaythanks.com , you can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq. You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to some member of the armed services.

How AMAZING it would be if we could get everyone we know to send one!!!

This is a great site.

Please send a card.

It is FREE and it only takes a second.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the soldiers received a bunch of these? Whether you are for or against the war, our guys and gals over there need to know we are behind them...

First Christmas joke of the season.


Three men died on Christmas Eve and were met by Saint Peter at the pearly gates.
"In honor of this holy season," Saint Peter said, "you must each possess something that
symbolizes Christmas to get into heaven."

The first man fumbled through his pockets and pulled out a lighter. He flicked it on.
It represents a candle, he said.
You may pass through the pearly gates Saint Peter said.

The second man reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys.
He shook them and said, "They're bells."
Saint Peter said you may pass through the pearly gates.

The third man started searching desperately through his pockets and finally pulled out a pair of women's panties.
St. Peter looked at the man with a raised eyebrow and asked, "And just what do those symbolize?"
The man replied, "These are Carols."

And So The Holiday Season Begins....

Granny Hook

Both optimists and pessimists contribute to the society of aviators. 
Optimists invented the airplane, pessimists the parachute.

If helicopters are so safe, how come there are no vintage/classic
helicopter fly-ins?

Death is just nature's way of telling you to watch your airspeed or rotor
RPM.

There are only two things the copilot should ever say:
1. Nice landing, Sir.
2. I'll buy the first round.

To a pilot only two bad things can happen to you and one of them will: 
a. One day you will walk out to the aircraft knowing it is your last
flight.
b. One day you will walkout to the aircraft NOT knowing it is your last
flight.

There are Rules and there are Laws. The Rules are made by men who think
they know how to fly your airplane better than you. Laws (of Physics)
were made by the Great One. You can, and sometimes should, suspend the
Rules but you can never suspend the Laws.

About Rules: 
a. The rules are a good place to hide if you don't have a better idea
and the talent to execute it.
b. If you deviate from a rule, it must be a flawless performance. (e.g.,
If you fly under a bridge, don’t hit the bridge.)

The ideal pilot is the perfect blend of discipline and aggressiveness.

The medical profession is the natural enemy of the aviation profession.

Ever notice that the only experts who decree that the age of the human
pilot is over are people who have never flown anything? Also, in spite
of the intensity of their feelings that the pilot's day is over I know
of no expert who has volunteered to be a passenger in a non-piloted
aircraft.

Before each flight, make sure that your bladder is empty and your fuel
tanks are full!

He who demands everything that his aircraft can give him is a pilot; he
that demands one iota more is a fool.

There are certain aircraft sounds that can only be heard at night.

The aircraft limits are only there in case there is another flight by
that particular aircraft. If subsequent flights do not appear likely,
there are no limits.

Flying is a great way of life for men who want to feel like boys, but
not for those who still are.

Flying is a hard way to earn an easy living.

Forget all that stuff about lift, gravity, thrust and drag. An airplane
flies because of money. If God had meant man to fly, He'd have given
him more money.

If black boxes survive air crashes -- why don't they make the whole
plane out of that stuff?

If the Wright brothers were alive today Wilbur would have to fire
Orville to reduce costs.

In the Alaska bush I'd rather have a two hour bladder and three hours
of gas than vice versa.

An old pilot is one who can remember when flying was dangerous and sex
was safe.

Airlines have really changed, now a flight attendant can get a pilot
pregnant.

I've flown in both pilot seats, can someone tell me why the other one is
always occupied by an idiot?

Son, you're going to have to make up your mind about growing up and becoming
a pilot. You can't do both.

There are only two types of aircraft -- fighters and targets.

The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed
entirely of lost airline baggage.

You define a good flight by negatives: you didn't get hijacked, you didn't
crash, you didn't throw up, you weren't late, and you weren't nauseated by
the food. So you're grateful.

You know they invented wheelbarrows to teach inspectors to walk on their
hind legs.

New Government Aviation Inspectors' Motto: We're not happy till you're not
happy!