The Safest Trip in the World

Last week I felt bad for President Obama, I truly did.  It was not because he was taking flak from the right for submitting his Presidential Bracket before submitting a budget.  We haven't had a budget in almost four years, why should it get in the way of March Madness, geesh!  It wasn't because his gun control bill is falling apart in the Senate faster than a Kardashian marriage; the Constitution is strong in that one.  Nope, I didn't feel bad for the President in either of those scenarios; it was when his car broke down in Tel Aviv. 

Poor guy, totally out of his control, and what was most embarrassing  about it was it happened during a state visit to Israel, where our relations have been extremely strained lately.  The reason the car broke down was because the wrong gas was put in it. Very embarrassing!!  It got me thinking about how something like this could happen and reminded me of a documentary I watched several years ago by National Geographic called Air Force One, about what goes into a Presidential trip.

Franklin Roosevelt was the first President to fly in a plane, which was because he needed to travel overseas to discuss strategy during World War II.  That was when the Presidency was no longer an American job but became a global job.  Presidential History has spanned over 200 years, Air Force One has been around for only a quarter of that and has become a full blown operation no matter where the President goes, foreign or domestic.

The documentary covers one of Bill Clinton's last trips in Air Force One to California.  It covers the days leading up to take off.  The first piece of business is the meeting with the pilot, the Secret Service, FBI, and local authorities.  They discuss any possible scenario regarding the President's safety, which means act of terrorism and the crime rates in that particular part of the world where he is going.  They finalize the schedule of the trip to the absolute second.  Once they have all that finalized it's time to get moving.

A day or two before the trip an Air Force Air Lifter loads up the Presidential motorcade, including a backup limo for the President, and sends it to the destination with the "Advance Team".  The Advance Team is on the ground at the destination making sure all bases are covered.  They check the fuel purity and then they seal it and guard it to prevent sabotage.  They also re-survey the runway and mark in detail for the pilot to see.  They go over every contingency with everyone involved with the landing of Air Force One.

Back at Andrews AFB, the morning of the flight they check everything on the both Air Force Ones to make sure everything is working on the first try.  It's not enough that someone is working on this plane almost every day, they leave nothing to chance.  The food on the plane is shopped for the day before at several regular grocery stores, chosen at random to once again avoid sabotage.  The team scans the tarmac for debris, by hand.  They are literally working to make this the safest plane in the world, and rightly so.

The operation that takes place to get the President to where he needs to be on time and safe is truly an extraordinary sight.  It is definitely worthy of the office and it allows the President work while traveling.  They even have a soldier with him carrying a case called "The Football", which holds launch codes for a nuclear strike.  No stone is unturned and the operations precision is impressive.  So you can see why I felt bad for the President when his car broke down.  Next time they just need to make sure the limo has the right gas.

3D

If you don't take it from me, ask my wife.