GUARDS AT WHITE HOUSE PROTECT PRESIDENT’S LIFE

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 December 1950, Page 7

GUARDS AT WHITE HOUSE PROTECT PRESIDENT’S LIFE

The guard on President Truman will have to be strengthened. Victor E. Baugham, head of the United Stated Secret Service, said so after the assassination attempt* at Blair House, writes Percy Hoskins in the Daily Express, London. The President has 18 Secret Service agents, each an expert trigger man, guarding him while he is at Blair House. This is eight more than are ,on duty when the President is in residence at the White House, which is now being redecorated. Michael F. Reilly, former head of the White House Secret Service, says it was part of the duty of every man who joined the White House bodyguard to .use his body as a shield for the ' President if necessary. Risk And Salary

“If the agent didn’t think the risk was worth his salary, and 1 can understand how he might think just that, he could work in any of 15 other Secret Service districts in the United States,” adds Reilly in his book, “I Was Roosevelt’s Shadow.”

He goes on: “I guess the President is most vulnerable when passing slowly through a city in a motor cavalcade. We always had one car in front of his, filled with Secret Service men and local police officials.” Another car, loaded inside and out with Secret Service men, followed behind the President’s car. More Secret Service agents rode on the running boards of the President’s car “if the cavalcade was moving at speed.” Reilly accompanied President Roosevelt on his meetings with Mr Churchill and Mr Stalin during the war. He said the Secret Service men were instructed never to look at the President. “We knew he wasn’t going to hurt himself.”

Watching The Crowd They watched the crowd along the route, the rooftops, windows and politicians in cars behind the President.

When things were normal, and crowds under control, Position One was adopted. This called for four Secret Service agents to trot alongside the President’s car, two each side.

Position Two, adopted when everything was going well, was taken when the President’s car quickened speed. Then the four agents would jump on to the running-boards of the car.

‘But if a man dashed out of the crowd from a point directly in front of the President’s car and to his right, the Secret Service agents running or riding in the forward position on the right-hand side would ‘take the interloper.’ “One of the boys in the front car .would drop back to replace the busy agent and another would come out of the second Secret Service car to assist in subduing the man from the crowd. “We took no prisoners,” says Reilly. “We’d just knock them down, usually with a flying tackle, and let the local police handle them. “There were similar set-ups for every contingency. ‘The men charged with guarding the President hated to see his car stop.” The President’s guards, who wear civilian clothes, are appointed and controlled by the United. States Treasury. They can be ordered to perform only one other duty: the investigation of any crime connected with the counterfeiting of United States currency. Strenuous Training , They are recruited from law schools, undergo strenuous training, and each has to be a crack shot. Part ol the training is to walk along an avenue from which, at certain points, hidden dummy figures would suddenly “leap” out in a position for attack. Since the end of the war elaborate precautionary measures have been instituted for the safeguarding of the President.

When he goes to a theatre every member of the theatre staff is screened, those sitting within four rows of him are checked, and agents examine the back stage and basement of the theatre.

When the President goes abroad he is preceded (often two or three weeks in advance) by a posse of these Secret Service agents. They survey the routes the President will take, and screen the people he is to meet. The purpose of their mission is contained in this permanent instruction: “Eliminate all hazai'ds which may constitute a danger to the life of the President.’’