Saturday, October 28, 2006

Hail to the Chief.

So the highlight of my day was riding shotgun in an ambulance in the Presidential Motorcade with the Sex Pistol's "Anarchy in the UK" blaring on the radio. Today marks the fourth visit of the Leader of the Free World to our sleepy little southern city. It was for some Republican fundraiser. One could not really understand the chaos the ensues when this one man comes into town until it is actually witnessed. Never have I seen so many men in so many different uniforms in so many shiny black vehicles. We were staged on the Ritzy Island where he spoke to a bunch of rich- ass republicans. He landed on the Beach in that big helicopter, was skirted off into a town car and was then followed down the winding beach roads. It truly was a sight to behold. People lined the route, with motorcycle cops for every jurisdiction in the city stopped at every vehicle and person. There was even one dude, who I would say, was probably the only Democrat in the whole group, standing holding a sign written on what looked to be notebook paper that read "DEMOCRAT AND PROUD" I bet they payed extra attention to him, as there was two motorcycle cops on him. So we sat for 5 hours waiting for the helicopter to land, then snaked our way though through the island to the big hotel on Ritzy Island where we sat for another hour and a half while he spoke, then snaked our way back to the beach where he got back on the helicopter and left. I never saw The Man, we were too busy being presidential. But we did get to talk to some of the Secret Service guys outside of the hotel while the man was speaking. There was also a wedding going on at the same hotel at the same time as the visit. How the hell that happened is beyond me. That must have been a security nightmare. But it is not my job to worry about such things. We, (my partner and I) are now on some list somewhere stating that we are cleared by the government, that we are not terroists. So thats a good thing. When it was all said and done, I basicly got 9 hours of OT to just sit and wait in my Startched uniform and polished boots. I looked very presidential. And all I wanted was a photograph of the helicopter, but alas I did not get one. When he landing we had to be ready to go. And when it was all over it was night time and The exposure was too long for me to do anything hand held So all I got was a bunch of light streaks and blurs. damn. But, really, how many people can say they were part of the President's motorcade? I may not agree with everything the man does or says, but it still was a very cool experience to be part of something like this. It doesn't happen all the time.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I was on ambulance duty when Nixon drove through our little town about a million years ago. I suppose somewhere in a deep, dark Secret Service basement there's a file with my ID listed.
BTW, that visit predated Watergate.