It was debatable whether Camp David or the White House was more secure, but that wasn’t the issue. The real security threat came in flying the President from the White
House to Camp David. Lortch had been briefed by McMahon on the assassinations and was mystified that, whoever these people were, they had been able to kill four high-ra king politicians and not leave a single clue worth beans. He was impressed with the skill and professionalism of the killers and afraid that the President would be their next target.
These assassins had shown their ability to think and plan ahead, and it worried Lortch that, as usual, the President’s itinerary was public information. The assassins would know approximately when the President was leaving the White House and when he would be arriving at Camp David. In Lortch’s line of work he had to assume the worst. For that reason, he was taking extra precautions today. Lortch looked down at the reporters and photographers who were staking out positions on the west side of the South Lawn. Lortch shook his head in frustration He hated the press. If he had it his way, he’d ban them from the White House compound. They did nothing but make his job more difficult. It was
10:48 A.M. and the President’s weekend guests were starting to arrive for the 11 A.M.
lunch and photo op. A large black limousine pulled into the White House compound and drove up the executive drive. Lortch watched his agents perform their duties with their usual precision. He glanced around the roof to make sure his other agents were staying focused on their area of responsibility and not looking at the new arrivals. The back door of the limo opened and Senator Lloyd Hellerman stepped out. Four of Lortch’s tallest agents surrounded the Senator and ushered him toward the White House.
120
The media stayed where they were supposed to, but shouted questions as Hellerman was rushed toward the door. The Senator looked toward the media and slowed for a second. The two agents on the left and right grabbed Hellerman by the biceps and kept him moving through the doorway and into the White House. Lortch had given his people specific instructions: “I don’t want anyone standing around outside. As they arrive, get them from the limos into the building as quickly as possible.” The South Lawn of the
White House was secure, but Lortch wasn’t going to take any unnecessary chances. He turned to one of his two assistants. “Joe, how are things going down at Quantico?” The
Secret Service agent put his hand over his earpiece. “They’re going through their preflight briefing right now.”
Lortch nodded his head and asked Sally for her binoculars. He started to scan the rooftops of the buildings to the east. “How are our sniper teams doing?”
“They’re in position,” answered Agent Stiener. Lortch turned to the north and continued to look at the rooftops. “What about the ground teams?”
“They’re ready to move out whenever you want.” Lortch lowered the binoculars and thought about it for a minute. “Move them into position at eleven-fifteen. Remind them, if they see anyone carrying anything larger than a briefcase, I want them searched. And don’t forget to remind them not to look at the choppers as they fly in and out. I need them looking at the street.” Lortch stopped and looked down at the gate as another limo pulled up. The photographers started snapping photos and the reporters started to speak into the cameras.
Lortch looked at the news vans that were parked off to the side and pointed at them.
“Joe, remind Kathy and Jack to do a lockdown on those vans and take them off their live feeds before the first chopper lands.
That’s before, not during.” Lortch turned to Agent Manly. “Sally, what’s the situation with the advance team at Camp David?”
“So far so good. The six Marine recon units out of Quantico were inserted by helicopter about two hours ago. They’ve got the hilltops along the approach route secured, and they’re scouting the valleys for any potential hostiles.”
Lortch nodded his head. “Nice work so far. Let’s stay sharp.”
HMX-1 did not have a briefing room large enough to accommodate all one hundred pilots involved in today’s flight operations, so folding chairs were set up in the corner of the hangar and the maintenance crews were asked to stop all work on the choppers while the briefing took place.
The first several minutes of the briefing were handled by the ODO, or operations duty officer, who briefed the pilots on the weather conditions. The pilots sipped coffee and
121
listened respectfully-some took notes on their knee boards while others memorized the details.
With the advent of shoulder-launched, surface-to-air missiles such as the American
Stinger, the Secret Service had been forced to find a safer way to transport the President on board Marine One. In times of heightened security they implemented what the Marine pilots referred to as “the shell game.” This was a tactic developed by HMX-1 during the early years of the Reagan administration. Multiple Marine Ones would land, one at a time, at the White House or wherever the President was, and then take off, every helicopter heading in a different direction.
The intended result was to confuse any would-be terrorist or assassin about which helicopter the President was on. This tactic was used often with only two or three VH-3s.
When the President’s itinerary was known in advance, and there was a heightened terrorist alert, HMX-1 called in the CH-53s for escort duty. Escort was a kind description of the Super Stallions’ job. The pilots of the drab green helicopters knew their real job was to shield the President’s helicopter from a missile. This was accomplished by flying in a tight formation with Marine One in the middle surrounded by four Super Stallions.
Tight-formation flying with choppers as big as the VH-3 and the CH-53 was not an easy thing. Because of this, the Marine Corps saw to it that their pilots were drilled frequently in today’s exercise. The last thing the illustrious group of warriors wanted to be remembered for was killing the President in a midair collision. After the weather briefing was finished, the squadron commander, a Marine colonel, took over. He handed out the flight assignments and got down to the nuts and bolts of the briefing. Ten VH-3s were flying today, and they were designated by their order of takeoff as Marine One, Marine Two, Marine Three, and so on. For training purposes the CH-53s were already split into groups of four. The first four that landed this morning were to escort Marine
