Four years by the side of one of the most powerful people in the world.
Quad City resident Bill Albracht revealed his time assigned to the Secret Service detail for George H.W. Bush was among the best part of his time with the agency.
Secret Service agents breathed a collective sigh of relief when George H. W. Bush took office. Unlike previous presidents Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter, Bush treated agents with respect and consideration.
Bush ‘made it clear to all his staff that none of them was a security expert, and if the Secret Service made a decision, he was the one to sign off on it, and they were never to question our decisions or make life difficult,’ former agent Pete Dowling says.
Albracht said the 41st President didn’t just impress on his years of public service but respect for the top office of the land.
Now, Albracht wants the world to know what the former president was like not only as a leader but as a man, according to AWM:
Since Bush passed away on November 30, Albracht has sifted through thousands of photographs and notes about his time working with the former president. Albracht was assigned as Bush’s personal secret service agent from 1982 to 1987, while Bush was Ronald Reagan’s vice president. Albracht followed Bush almost every single day. And during that time, Albracht and all the other agents knew Bush by a name no one else knew. It might come as quite a surprise for you.
“Timberwolf — on the radio that would be his call sign,” said Albracht.
If Bush had an alternate name, what was his wife, Barbara’s name? Albracht was all too happy to share that secret as well.
“Tranquility was hers. They’re assigned by the White House Military Office,” he said.
Because the secret service does not want people to be able to track the president and other important people, they use code names. This help protects the leaders from potential assassins and other dangerous situations.
Albracht remembers one Christmas back in the 1980s. He bought Bush, the vice president at the time, a bright red coat along with a howling wolf on the back.
“It was to help the new guys get to know who he was,” Albracht said with a smile. “He got the biggest kick out of that. He thought it was so funny. He put it on, and we took pictures and everything. Great sense of humor.”
Albracht has a lot of happy memories with Bush. He remembers him as a fun and jovial man, just as much of America does. While the secret service gave Bush a nickname, he did not hesitate to dish it back to them with a few of his own.
He used to call his secret service agents:
“Marshals,” Albracht said. “He equated us to Matt Dillon from Gunsmoke. It was a term of endearment and a term of respect, but we always kind of smiled every time he said it.”
“Bush is a great man, just an all-around nice person,” an agent said of the former president when he was alive. “Both he and Mrs. Bush are very thoughtful, and they think outside their own little world. They think of other people.”
“Bush understands that politics is politics and friendship is friendship,” an agent who was on his detail says. “He can be friends with a lot of people who may not agree with him. The only things that bothered him were things that were important to the country. Little things just kind of seemed to roll off of him.”
Source: AWM