America's Book of Secrets (2012) s01e07 Episode Script
Presidential Transports
1 NARRATOR: They are the most advanced and heavily protected vehicles ever built, operated by technicians prepared for the worst.
JOSEPH J.
FUNK: You're taught how to crash through a blocking vehicle, what happens if the vehicle in front of you is hit with an RPG.
NARRATOR: But behind the bulletproof glass and armor plating are secrets secrets so frightening LIEUTENANT COLONEL GREG CAYON: The voice over the radio told us, "Air Force One, you have a bomb on board.
It will explode in five minutes.
" NARRATOR: so incredible JAMES SALAMITES: After the initial impact, I peered through my windshield and looked over at the president.
NARRATOR: so shocking DAN NEIL: A .
50-caliber sniper rifle will knock down a commercial aircraft.
(gun cocks, fires) NARRATOR: that they must be kept hidden from the public.
KENNETH WALSH: There is a electromagnetic skin on the plane designed to ward off impulses in case of a nuclear attack.
NARRATOR: There are those who believe in the existence of a book.
A book that contains the most highly guarded secrets of the United States of America.
A book whose very existence is known to only a select few.
But if such a book exists, what would it contain? Secret histories? Secret plans? Secret lies? Does there really exist America's Book of Secrets? It is the most technologically sophisticated aircraft ever built a flying command and control center designed exclusively for the world's most powerful leader.
CAYON: It is the seat of military command.
It is the most flexible airplane in the world and the most flexible monument that the U.
S.
has for the president.
DR.
CONNIE MARIANO (laughs): It's the only way to fly.
Uh, it is a magnificent aircraft.
CAYON: He can live on it, he can command battles from it, and he can be the statesman for the United States from it.
NARRATOR: Today's Air Force One aircraft is a militarized version of a Boeing 747, standing nearly six stories high and stretching out longer than the White House.
The floor plan is classified, but reports indicate there is roughly 4,000 square feet of space spread across three levels with enough seating for 70 passengers and 26 crew members.
Modifications include a private office for the president, a large conference room, and an extensive communications center.
NEIL: The president is at the head of a very large, sprawling complex military organization, and things happen all over the world, so he has to be in constant contact with national security advisors, the vice president, the joint chiefs, members of congress.
All this requires very robust and encrypted communications.
NARRATOR: The United States Air Force is responsible for Air Force One and treats every presidential flight as an official military mission.
Prior to takeoff, ground crews inspect the runway for any debris that could damage the plane, security teams scan the skies and surrounding landscape for potential threats, and flight crews inspect every item before it's loaded onto the plane, making sure the president remains safe and healthy while on board.
CAYON: All the food served on Air Force One is purchased by the Air Force One flight attendants, and what the flight attendants would do-- would, would make random shopping trips to any of the Washington D.
C.
grocery stores so there was no way for someone to, to infiltrate what was being served on the airplane.
Almost never do we buy anything at foreign markets just for protection, just to make sure the president doesn't get any kind of food that we have no knowledge of its background.
NARRATOR: If the worst happens and the president or anyone needs medical attention, there's an onboard health facility staffed by a full-time doctor.
MARIANO: In the medical compartment, there are two fold- out racks that you can put a patient monitor.
There is a fold-out operating room table with an operating room light.
There's oxygen.
There's equipment that you can use to defibrillate, put a chest tube.
I've sutured a Secret Service agent on Air Force One.
NARRATOR: But if there is a secret unknown to most of the public, perhaps it is the existence of a second, identical Air Force One that is used every time the president flies.
CAYON: We have swapped them in the middle of, uh, trips, and the people on board don't know the difference.
We actually will place their personal belongings at their seats in the exact same place when we have to switch and no one ever knows that we swapped.
The only way you can actually tell is the tail number in the back of the airplane.
WALSH: People might wonder, well, doesn't that cost a lot of money to have these two planes flying around? And it does, but the feeling is that they never want the president to be stranded.
NARRATOR: While many believe Air Force One is the name of the presidential plane, it is, in fact, a code name started in 1953 when President Dwight D.
Eisenhower's aircraft nearly crashed into a commercial airliner.
WALSH: He was on a trip to Florida, and the Air Force never wanted that to happen again, so they decided they had to have a special designation for the president's plane and they came up with Air Force One, and so whenever the president is flying, no other aircraft has anything close to that designation, so it's not confused.
So Air Force One is not the name of a particular plane.
It's the name of the plane the president happens to be on.
NARRATOR: In order to minimize the risk of a collision, airport flight controllers must clear the surrounding airspace for all Air Force One arrivals and departures.
WALSH: They pretty much freeze an airport for 15 minutes before and after Air Force One takes off or lands.
It does delay other air traffic, it does cause disruptions at airports, but the presidents love it because they never have to wait.
They get on the plane and they just take off.
NARRATOR: Security at nonmilitary airports is heightened to ensure that the aircraft is not tampered with.
Access to the plane is strictly controlled to prevent any explosives from being smuggled on board.
As an added precaution, only the left side of the aircraft faces public areas and buildings, protecting the president's quarters on the right side of the craft from unwanted exposure.
But despite the elaborate preparations and security measures, Air Force One has been threatened.
In 1999, while transporting President Bill Clinton from Athens, Greece to the U.
S.
, an unidentified voice came over Air Force One's radio, delivering a shocking message.
CAYON: The voice over the radio said, "Air Force One, you have a bomb on board.
It will explode in five minutes.
" The conventional wisdom said that the only way they could get a bomb on Air Force One was through the carry-on luggage.
NARRATOR: Immediately, Secret Service began to move all passengers to the front of the plane and their luggage to the back.
CAYON: During the time that we were doing that, the voice over the radio was counting down the minutes, over the-- giving us the four, three, two, one countdown, and at the end he laughed and said, "I hope you all die.
" Obviously nothing happened, and I've never gotten any update on whether or not the person on the radio was ever revealed or found.
NARRATOR: While the details of the frightening threat remain a secret, it is clear that Air Force One is a tempting target for a terrorist attack.
But could the simple act of distraction have once protected the president from a possible threat? WALSH: There was a famous case within the Secret Service, when President Clinton went to Islamabad.
That was probably the most dangerous trip that a president has taken.
The itinerary became public.
And the concern was that people with shoulder-fired stinger missiles would be fired at the president when he took off.
That was a case where they did have a decoy.
CAYON: What he actually did was walk around the C-17 in front of the press, but when he got behind the C-17, there was no direct angles for the press to see what airplane he got on.
NARRATOR: Flights into active war zones present their own unique problems.
During President George W.
Bush's 2003 Thanksgiving flight into Baghdad, Senior Pilot Colonel Mark Tillman executed an evasive flying maneuver known as JOSEPH W.
HAGIN: When you take the president into a war zone, it requires incredible precision.
And there was a good deal of debate as to what aircraft we should take.
Air Force One is so universally recognized that we thought that might be a problem.
There was a question of whether we should take an unmarked military transport plane.
In the end, we decided that it was most advantageous to have the capabilities of Air Force One, so we decided to use that platform to go.
But it remained very secret.
I believe there were probably five people on the ground in Iraq that knew we were coming before we landed.
NARRATOR: Missions in and out of dangerous areas can be planned for, but what happens if an attack comes while the presidential aircraft is in flight? What defensive and offensive capabilities are available on board Air Force One? Coming up BRIAN MONTGOMERY: There was a Continental Airlines plane in our vicinity that was not responding.
ALLAN LICHTMAN: There are all kinds of contingency plans, but not for that kind of chaos.
NARRATOR: Air Force One is designed to protect the president and remain airborne during the most extreme emergencies, but what secret procedures and protocols are in place if something goes wrong? JOE PETRO: The threats that now exist are much more dramatic than they have been in the past.
NARRATOR: While details are classified, Air Force One is armed with a series of safety features and military technology designed to ward off any potential attacks, including in-flight refueling capability, infrared missile and radar jamming technology and top-secret anti-nuclear defenses.
WALSH: There are security provisions on Air Force One that the Air Force doesn't like to talk about.
The countermeasures are really behind the engines so that they're designed to throw chafe into the air, and heat-seeking missiles would be diverted from the plane.
There is an electromagnetic skin on the plane designed to ward off impulses in case of a nuclear attack.
W.
RALPH BASHAM: If Air Force One is threatened, or the president's safety and security is threatened, the captain of Air Force One is ultimately responsible for that aircraft, and he makes decisions on what that aircraft should or should not do, and he knows better than anyone else on that aircraft what its capabilities are.
(sirens wailing) NARRATOR: On September 11, 2001, Air Force One was both a safe house and a moving target while transporting President George Bush out of Florida after the attacks in New York and Washington, D.
C.
MONTGOMERY: We took off, probably the quickest takeoff I'd ever experienced on Air Force One.
There was a Continental Airlines plane in our vicinity that was not responding.
So, we had to turn in the opposite direction.
LICHTMAN: The pilot, Officer Tillman-- he got a transmission that there was an unidentified aircraft that might be following Air Force One, and that Angel, as they called it, might well be the next target of the terrorists.
WALSH: People might not realize that that day someone called the White House and said, "Angel is next"-- Angel being the code word for Air Force One.
LICHTMAN: There are all kinds of contingency plans built into the operation of Air Force One, including for nuclear war, but not for that kind of chaos.
The pilot took evasive action, and he called for jet fighters Because nobody knew what was gonna happen and what the next target might be.
NARRATOR: The threat turned out to be a false alarm, but it revealed secret weaknesses to Air Force One's capabilities.
LICHTMAN: Apparently, Air Force One has defensive measures, but it doesn't have an offensive capability.
It doesn't shoot down other planes, which is why they need fighter escorts.
WALSH: People wonder, "Well, how often is Air Force One accompanied by fighter jets, escorts?" Very rarely, almost never, because it interferes with not only commercial traffic, but it causes safety problems because they have to clear a swath in the sky for Air Force One, and then they have to clear the swath for the fighter planes and their approaches.
The Air Force has decided that they could scramble jets at the last minute to be with Air Force One.
So whenever Air Force One is traveling, the Air Force knows exactly where it's going, and so, pilots are on alert.
NARRATOR: In the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, emergency protocols were engaged, allowing Air Force One to safely deliver President Bush to a secret location in Nebraska.
LICHTMAN: Why Nebraska? Because that's where the Strategic Air Command is headquartered.
MONTGOMERY: We went to Offutt Air Force Base, just outside of Omaha, Nebraska.
We pulled up to this large building-- three, four-story building, as I recall.
But instead of going into the building, across the street from the building was a concrete bunker, and that's actually where we went in.
And at that point, I will have to leave it at that.
NARRATOR: After the events of September 11, President Bush ordered critical improvements to Air Force One to upgrade the military aircraft's communication capabilities.
CAYON: Within a week of that day, President Bush ordered the Air Force to put live television on board and to figure out a way to get Internet capability on the airplane, to do live meetings with his staff on the ground via the Internet.
Test one, two, three, three, two, one.
How copy now? CAYON: And that is the precursor to all the Internet that you have on airlines today.
NARRATOR: But while Air Force One is the premier aircraft for presidential transport, if there's a national emergency and the commander in chief comes under attack in the White House, it is Marine One, the presidential helicopter, that is the first vehicle called to action.
The Sea King is thought to be equipped with ballistic armor and anti-missile defenses.
FRED GEIER: Does the Marine One aircraft have the ability to attack or defend itself? Well, simply said, some secrets must remain secret.
NARRATOR: Those responsible for moving the president are drilled in emergency evacuation protocols.
MICHAEL BOHN: I can tell you with firsthand experience, because I stood in for the president on one of those drills.
And it was a highlight of my career down there.
The idea, if nuclear weapons are en route Washington D.
C.
, let's get the president out of town as fast as possible, get him into an area where he's safe, and continue to run the government.
And there's a program called continuity of government, COG, and it's designed to do just that.
And so, during a continuity of government exercise one time, I played the president.
And I got onto the presidential helicopter and flew to, uh, a secret location in the mountains near Camp David.
NARRATOR: Allowing the president to make a quick getaway is why a helicopter was added to the fleet.
When the commander in chief is on board, the chopper flies under the call sign Marine One.
LICHTMAN: Marine One came into being around 1957, and the reason was, what if you were the president and you wanted to get somewhere fairly quickly, more quickly than in a car, but you really couldn't fire up a big presidential plane? The ideal answer was the helicopter.
And Marine One never flies alone.
There are always other decoy helicopters flying with it.
Deception is part of the art of protecting presidents.
NARRATOR: Unlike the cramped helicopters used by his predecessors, President Obama's Sea King has nearly 200 square feet of interior space.
The plush cabin has room for 14 passengers, and features a small office space, bathroom.
And Marine One also has room for the communications equipment required to keep the president in contact with the Pentagon and White House at all times.
GEIER: The communications are all similar, and we can interact with all of the White House communications.
Although the cabin is very comfortable and spacious, there are limited facilities on board.
So it's all mission dependent.
And they may take additional medical equipment on certain flights in certain areas.
NARRATOR: If an emergency situation does arise, Marine One has several high-tech security features, including a reinforced aluminum alloy fuselage capable of withstanding high-speed crash impacts; the ability to continue flying, even if one of its three engines fails; and the latest military-grade laser detector and radar warning systems.
Military protocol for a presidential helicopter flight includes a marine assigned to meet the president wherever he lands.
On a trip to a remote area in the Grand Canyon, President Bill Clinton was greeted at dawn by a solitary marine standing at attention, ready to serve his commander in chief.
LICHTMAN: Clinton was genuinely surprised, in such a remote area, to see a marine standing there.
He didn't know why.
(laughs) GEIER: When the president comes out, he will give him the appropriate greeting, and then he remains with that aircraft, providing the security for that aircraft.
NARRATOR: Marine One's importance to the presidency is reflected in the fact that the helicopter is transported overseas on every trip made by the president.
GEIER: Overseas operations are much more difficult because the aircraft has to be flown to an Air Force base, disassembled, flown to the location overseas, assembled, and then prepared for the presidential mission.
NARRATOR: But Marine One isn't the only vehicle traveling with the president.
He also flies with a heavily armored limousine called The Beast.
Coming up SALAMITES: All of a sudden, the black limousine came out of the alleyway much faster than I was going.
(tires screeching) (crash) I can't believe who I just had a car accident with.
(sirens wailing) (sirens wailing) NARRATOR: When the President of the United States is driven through the streets of Washington, D.
C.
or other cities around the world, he rides inside a specially modified vehicle known simply as Cadillac One, Limo One, or The Beast.
RON KESSLER: The Beast is kept in the basement of Secret Service headquarters on H Street.
It's polished and, uh, watched at all times.
To get into Secret Service headquarters parking, you have to have all kinds of clearances.
It's very well protected.
NARRATOR: Built by General Motors, there are believed to be at least two, and the vehicles are constructed atop a GMC truck chassis.
The custom-designed superstructure consists of five-inch-thick armor plating made from a combination of aluminum, titanium, ceramic and steel.
The windows can withstand armor- piercing .
44-caliber bullets.
Even the fuel tank is protected by a special foam designed to prevent an explosion if it suffers a direct hit.
FUNK: The new vehicle that President Obama is driving is at the top of the evolutionary chart of protective vehicles.
Even a lot of people within the Secret Service don't know what capabilities these vehicles have.
Part of our ability to counteract people that would do us harm is they don't know exactly what capabilities we do have.
And we like to keep it that way to keep the bad guys second-guessing.
For example, the weight of the vehicle is a very classified number, because if people know how much a vehicle weighs, they'll be able to know how much armor is in vehicles.
That's why certain aspects of the vehicle are very, very tightly controlled secrets.
They're classified information.
NEIL: The glass in the presidential limo is about five inches thick.
It's glass sandwiched with a very dense plastic material.
And the purpose of that is to slow down the bullet as it goes through.
AL CORBI: The bullet is actually the least dangerous element when you have normal glass, because the spall that comes off-- thousands and thousands of small pieces of glass flying through the air at a very high velocity-- do a lot of damage.
If you were to have the polycarbonate, it stops the bullet, but it also, as you can see, stopped all of the spall.
So it protects the people inside not only from the bullet, but actually the more deadly threat, the glass spall.
FUNK: There's a nylon or Kevlar doughnut inside the tires, which allows the vehicle to continue to run, should somebody decide to shoot the tire out or if you have a blowout.
You can continue driving along without having to pull over and change a tire.
WALSH: When a president travels and lands somewhere or takes off, the motorcade, and those armor-plated limousines, become part of a barrier.
They always put the limousines and the rest of the motorcade between the plane and a crowd.
Also, when a president goes through a crowd and shakes hands on a tarmac, both limousines are just outside the television frame.
So you don't see them, but they're right there, in case there's a problem.
NARRATOR: But who is authorized to drive Limo One? And what kind of secret skills must they learn if they are to transport the president? BASHAM: People are assigned to the transportation section of the Secret Service, and they are then selected, they are trained, and they train constantly.
FUNK: The training that you go through encompasses everything, from the ability of these vehicles to handle themselves in inclement weather.
You're taught to avoid blocking vehicles.
So, what happens if the vehicle in front of you is hit with an RPG or something like that? NARRATOR: Maneuvering the armor-plated Beast is hard enough, but in an emergency, the limited view out of the driver's window makes it doubly difficult.
FUNK: You're looking through ballistic glass, which distorts your vision.
The structures that hold in windows are much different than in an everyday car.
You have numerous blind spots.
It's not a vehicle that is fun or comfortable to drive.
CORBI: The technologies are there these days to make very strong, hardened vehicles.
The problem is, the technologies that someone can hold in their hands will still destroy them.
The protection is having-- and as you've seen in a lot of the convoys-- a number of cars, and really not knowing which one the person's in.
If you could be protected in a car, you'd only have one going down the street, but that's just not the case.
And a lot of times, they probably wouldn't be in the convoy you're looking at, because that would be the greatest decoy of all.
NARRATOR: Safety and security are priority number one when moving the president.
Advance planning and strategic preparation are the secrets to an uneventful drive.
FUNK: I think if America had a book of secrets, the one thing that the public would be surprised to see is the extent of preparation and security that goes into a presidential visit.
They see certain aspects of it on TV.
That planning for that visit took five days of ten to 12, 14-hour days.
BASHAM: You don't want to get committed necessarily to just one route, but everything on that route then is surveyed.
Whether it's manhole covers, or whether it's buildings, all of those are looked at and taken into consideration of what may or may not pose a threat.
NARRATOR: But even detailed planning cannot always guarantee the president's safety.
In 1975, President Gerald Ford's motorcade was speeding through Hartford, Connecticut while local motorcycle cops protected his route by leapfrogging from intersection to intersection.
Meanwhile, 19-year-old James Salamites was driving home with his brother and a few friends from a local restaurant.
JAMES SALAMITES: When I left the restaurant, I proceeded down Market Street, noticed that there was a green light, and all of a sudden, the black limousine came out of the alleyway, and I swerved quickly to move out of the way (tires screeching, thudding) but I hit the front fender.
NARRATOR: The teenage driver had hit the President of the United States.
SALAMITES: President Ford leaned over in his seat and looked directly at me, him having quite an astonished look on his face.
And as soon as I saw him, my eyes lit up, and I just put my head down, because I says, "I can't believe who I just had a car accident with.
" NARRATOR: But the specially-reinforced presidential limo remained operational, and quickly sped away from the scene.
FUNK: It was an accident, a tragic event which could have been worse, but it allowed the Secret Service to explore and to look at the best way to support the president in his motorcade, and we refined how we do things.
What you'll see now is stationary police officers at every intersection, not allowing that potential hazard to happen.
NARRATOR: But what if the president's limo is stopped, not by a teenaged driver, but by heavily-armed kidnappers, enemy aircraft or covert terrorists? What secret weapons and counter-assault technologies might be on board the Beast? Coming up STEVE ATKISS: This is the first time that they specifically designed a bus for the express purpose of transporting and protecting the president.
LICHTMAN: This was one of the biggest security nightmares for the Secret Service in the modern history of the presidency.
NARRATOR: May 24, 2011.
London, England.
Three weeks after the death of Osama bin Laden, President Obama conducted a state visit to Britain under heavy security, moving about the city in a motorcade consisting of nearly 20 heavily-armed vehicles.
But what secret protocols were added to enhance his safety? And why do some of the vehicles in the motorcade, known as the "secure package," split off from the group? FUNK: The Secret Service's ability to protect the president is based on getting out of harm's way as fast as possible.
We don't want to stay and fight.
We want to get him out of there.
The staying and fighting is left to other elements of the Secret Service and to the local police.
NARRATOR: But if the president cannot escape the scene, the Beast comes equipped with several top-secret modifications designed to repel an attack.
FUNK: The capabilities of these vehicles in detecting attacks is what keeps the Secret Service on the cutting edge.
It's our ability to prevent an attack by recognizing what is potentially coming our way, that these vehicles are in a cutting edge of technology.
The best asset that these vehicles have is the ability to detect certain potential attacks on a president of a chemical or NEIL: The Beast is an independent environment, a survival pod in the case the worst should happen.
And so, if for example, there is an attack that involves nerve gas or some other kind of environmental agent, the car can be completely sealed, and it has its own oxygen supply for the protection of the occupants.
It can only last for so long, and the main thing is to get the heck out of Dodge.
NARRATOR: Other vehicles in a presidential motorcade are also believed to carry counter-assault devices commonly found on military vehicles.
LICHTMAN: In the president's motorcade, there is also a car that follows the presidential limo who are the equivalent of SWAT teams, equipped with all kinds of devastating and advanced weaponry.
CORBI: There are a lot of tactical devices.
This is a very interesting one that was actually designed for the prison industries.
This is a gas canister.
It could neutralize the entire area around that presidential limousine so that everybody outside of it-- it would take about a day for them to remember their names, let alone do any harm.
NEIL: There's also something called chaff a highly-metallic ballistic device.
Blows up in the air, and it will confuse air-to-ground missiles.
NARRATOR: Protecting the president while on the road presents many difficulties for the Secret Service.
However, on January 17, 2009, an even more frightening scenario occurred when President-Elect Barrack Obama embarked on a 137-mile train trip from Philadelphia to Washington D.
C.
This old-fashioned whistle-stop tour evoked memories of past presidents, such as Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, who made similar trips campaigning across the country.
But this nostalgic form of travel left the president-to-be open to a variety of security risks.
LICHTMAN: This was probably one of the biggest security nightmares for the Secret Service in the modern history of the presidency.
OBAMA: Pray for us.
God bless you and God bless the United States of America.
LICHTMAN: He's riding a train, he's not in the special presidential limo or in Marine One.
He's stopping at a lot of small places.
He's exposing himself.
HAGIN: In a perfect world for the Secret Service, the president's schedule would never be announced in advance.
We know it takes quite a bit of time for our enemies to plan and to plot, and so the less advance notice they have, the better.
NARRATOR: Today, it is virtually impossible to move the president without the press, the public, and potential enemies knowing about it.
But there was once a time when a president could slip out of the White House and get a little privacy on a luxury yacht called the U.
S.
S.
Sequoia.
A 104-foot, wood-hull ship, known as Navy One.
It served a unique purpose in World War II.
The Sequoia provided Franklin D.
Roosevelt and Harry Truman a secure location to plan their war strategy.
SILVERSMITH: Roosevelt worked on D-Day on the Sequoia with military leaders from the United States and from Europe.
And following on that, Truman reportedly decided to drop the atomic bomb from the Sequoia.
NARRATOR: The U.
S.
S.
Sequoia was retired from service in 1977.
33 years after the sale of the original Navy One yacht, a new terrestrial transport has been added to the presidential fleet.
One that meets the needs of today.
A high-tech, heavily-armed bus called Ground Force One.
Coming up NEIL: One of the weapons that must keep the Secret Service up at night is the Barrett .
50-caliber.
How do you stop that bullet once it's flying through the air? Uh, I don't think they know.
NARRATOR: In July 2010, the Secret Service rolled out two new editions to the fleet of presidential vehicles mega buses known as Ground Force One.
Each sleek black coach is a converted 45-foot-long vehicle designed by the Secret Service and built in Tennessee by Hemphill Brothers at a cost of $1.
1 million each.
The Secret Service ordered the busses to save money.
Previously, the agency would have to rent and retrofit a bus each time one was needed for the president.
ATKISS: There's a whole series of agencies that are coordinated in building out that vehicle and designing the vehicle, putting in different features.
Run-flat tires, protective coatings and armoring and protective systems that would go into any protective platform for the president, a really extensive communications package, and then essentially all the features that you would want to see for a senior executive.
Office equipment, a suite of situational awareness tools to include access to television, uh, radio, things of that nature as well.
And this is the first time that they specifically designed a bus and are keeping a bus in inventory that was designed for the express purpose of transporting and protecting the president and other high-level Secret Service protectees.
In using the bus, it's typically for the express purpose of being seen and transporting the president through a series of towns in remote areas where the president doesn't typically go.
And as a result of that, there's a desire usually on the part of the staff to advertise where the president's gonna be, so that people can line the routes and be able to see him, and all that, of course, is anathema to the general Secret Service protective methodology.
NARRATOR: President Obama used Ground Force One in 2011 during a barnstorming trip across the Midwest.
OBAMA: Hey, how are you? How are you, sir? Good to see you again.
NARRATOR: The coach solved many logistical problems facing those responsible for moving the president.
NEIL: It was very difficult to daisy-chain Air Force One, Marine One, the presidential Presidential motorcades tie up traffic and create havoc.
I mean, moving the president around is a big pain in the butt.
So, the bus makes what you might call short, internodal transportation much more convenient for the president and the entourage.
NARRATOR: While traveling by bus was logistically easier than by plane or motorcade, it presented a new security challenge for the Secret Service.
NEIL: From an engineering and technology standpoint, Ground Force One might be a more difficult vehicle to up-armor.
One of the weapons that must keep the Secret Service up at night is the Barrett .
50-caliber sniper rifle which fires a round about that long and has a standoff kill capacity of a mile.
It will knock down a commercial aircraft, and it's legal for sale in a lot of states in the United States.
So, that's something that must worry the Secret Service more than air-to-ground missiles.
How do you stop that bullet once it's flying through the air? Uh, I don't think they know.
NARRATOR: In case of emergency, the bus is said to contain a fire-suppression system and tanks of oxygen in the event of a chemical attack.
And as everywhere the president travels, the bus carries a supply of his blood.
But who has the special skills necessary to operate the massive mega bus? ATKISS: So, within the Secret Service, there's a specific group of people who do a tour of duty as drivers of the limousine and from that group, they select a specific subset that then go through enhanced training that's specific for commercial vehicles, to ensure that they can apply some of the same methodologies that they would in a limousine to driving the bus.
NARRATOR: No matter what form of transport, the secret to moving the president safely is ultimately found in the capable hands of the men and women trained and ready to protect FUNK: You have the president's safety in your hands, much as the same way you, as a parent, would have your family's life in your hand.
Only, it happens to be the president of the United States, and it's not the family car, it's now the presidential limo.
CAYON: Being a pilot on Air Force One is just a surreal experience.
Watching the president walk to your airplane from the Marine helicopter it's just an unbelievable feeling, and the responsibility that you feel is overwhelming.
NARRATOR: As the threats facing the president grow in the 21st century in complexity and cunning, the Secret Service, using the most advanced and heavily-defended vehicles ever made, is more than ready to successfully and securely transport the president of the United States of America.
Captioned sponsored by A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS
JOSEPH J.
FUNK: You're taught how to crash through a blocking vehicle, what happens if the vehicle in front of you is hit with an RPG.
NARRATOR: But behind the bulletproof glass and armor plating are secrets secrets so frightening LIEUTENANT COLONEL GREG CAYON: The voice over the radio told us, "Air Force One, you have a bomb on board.
It will explode in five minutes.
" NARRATOR: so incredible JAMES SALAMITES: After the initial impact, I peered through my windshield and looked over at the president.
NARRATOR: so shocking DAN NEIL: A .
50-caliber sniper rifle will knock down a commercial aircraft.
(gun cocks, fires) NARRATOR: that they must be kept hidden from the public.
KENNETH WALSH: There is a electromagnetic skin on the plane designed to ward off impulses in case of a nuclear attack.
NARRATOR: There are those who believe in the existence of a book.
A book that contains the most highly guarded secrets of the United States of America.
A book whose very existence is known to only a select few.
But if such a book exists, what would it contain? Secret histories? Secret plans? Secret lies? Does there really exist America's Book of Secrets? It is the most technologically sophisticated aircraft ever built a flying command and control center designed exclusively for the world's most powerful leader.
CAYON: It is the seat of military command.
It is the most flexible airplane in the world and the most flexible monument that the U.
S.
has for the president.
DR.
CONNIE MARIANO (laughs): It's the only way to fly.
Uh, it is a magnificent aircraft.
CAYON: He can live on it, he can command battles from it, and he can be the statesman for the United States from it.
NARRATOR: Today's Air Force One aircraft is a militarized version of a Boeing 747, standing nearly six stories high and stretching out longer than the White House.
The floor plan is classified, but reports indicate there is roughly 4,000 square feet of space spread across three levels with enough seating for 70 passengers and 26 crew members.
Modifications include a private office for the president, a large conference room, and an extensive communications center.
NEIL: The president is at the head of a very large, sprawling complex military organization, and things happen all over the world, so he has to be in constant contact with national security advisors, the vice president, the joint chiefs, members of congress.
All this requires very robust and encrypted communications.
NARRATOR: The United States Air Force is responsible for Air Force One and treats every presidential flight as an official military mission.
Prior to takeoff, ground crews inspect the runway for any debris that could damage the plane, security teams scan the skies and surrounding landscape for potential threats, and flight crews inspect every item before it's loaded onto the plane, making sure the president remains safe and healthy while on board.
CAYON: All the food served on Air Force One is purchased by the Air Force One flight attendants, and what the flight attendants would do-- would, would make random shopping trips to any of the Washington D.
C.
grocery stores so there was no way for someone to, to infiltrate what was being served on the airplane.
Almost never do we buy anything at foreign markets just for protection, just to make sure the president doesn't get any kind of food that we have no knowledge of its background.
NARRATOR: If the worst happens and the president or anyone needs medical attention, there's an onboard health facility staffed by a full-time doctor.
MARIANO: In the medical compartment, there are two fold- out racks that you can put a patient monitor.
There is a fold-out operating room table with an operating room light.
There's oxygen.
There's equipment that you can use to defibrillate, put a chest tube.
I've sutured a Secret Service agent on Air Force One.
NARRATOR: But if there is a secret unknown to most of the public, perhaps it is the existence of a second, identical Air Force One that is used every time the president flies.
CAYON: We have swapped them in the middle of, uh, trips, and the people on board don't know the difference.
We actually will place their personal belongings at their seats in the exact same place when we have to switch and no one ever knows that we swapped.
The only way you can actually tell is the tail number in the back of the airplane.
WALSH: People might wonder, well, doesn't that cost a lot of money to have these two planes flying around? And it does, but the feeling is that they never want the president to be stranded.
NARRATOR: While many believe Air Force One is the name of the presidential plane, it is, in fact, a code name started in 1953 when President Dwight D.
Eisenhower's aircraft nearly crashed into a commercial airliner.
WALSH: He was on a trip to Florida, and the Air Force never wanted that to happen again, so they decided they had to have a special designation for the president's plane and they came up with Air Force One, and so whenever the president is flying, no other aircraft has anything close to that designation, so it's not confused.
So Air Force One is not the name of a particular plane.
It's the name of the plane the president happens to be on.
NARRATOR: In order to minimize the risk of a collision, airport flight controllers must clear the surrounding airspace for all Air Force One arrivals and departures.
WALSH: They pretty much freeze an airport for 15 minutes before and after Air Force One takes off or lands.
It does delay other air traffic, it does cause disruptions at airports, but the presidents love it because they never have to wait.
They get on the plane and they just take off.
NARRATOR: Security at nonmilitary airports is heightened to ensure that the aircraft is not tampered with.
Access to the plane is strictly controlled to prevent any explosives from being smuggled on board.
As an added precaution, only the left side of the aircraft faces public areas and buildings, protecting the president's quarters on the right side of the craft from unwanted exposure.
But despite the elaborate preparations and security measures, Air Force One has been threatened.
In 1999, while transporting President Bill Clinton from Athens, Greece to the U.
S.
, an unidentified voice came over Air Force One's radio, delivering a shocking message.
CAYON: The voice over the radio said, "Air Force One, you have a bomb on board.
It will explode in five minutes.
" The conventional wisdom said that the only way they could get a bomb on Air Force One was through the carry-on luggage.
NARRATOR: Immediately, Secret Service began to move all passengers to the front of the plane and their luggage to the back.
CAYON: During the time that we were doing that, the voice over the radio was counting down the minutes, over the-- giving us the four, three, two, one countdown, and at the end he laughed and said, "I hope you all die.
" Obviously nothing happened, and I've never gotten any update on whether or not the person on the radio was ever revealed or found.
NARRATOR: While the details of the frightening threat remain a secret, it is clear that Air Force One is a tempting target for a terrorist attack.
But could the simple act of distraction have once protected the president from a possible threat? WALSH: There was a famous case within the Secret Service, when President Clinton went to Islamabad.
That was probably the most dangerous trip that a president has taken.
The itinerary became public.
And the concern was that people with shoulder-fired stinger missiles would be fired at the president when he took off.
That was a case where they did have a decoy.
CAYON: What he actually did was walk around the C-17 in front of the press, but when he got behind the C-17, there was no direct angles for the press to see what airplane he got on.
NARRATOR: Flights into active war zones present their own unique problems.
During President George W.
Bush's 2003 Thanksgiving flight into Baghdad, Senior Pilot Colonel Mark Tillman executed an evasive flying maneuver known as JOSEPH W.
HAGIN: When you take the president into a war zone, it requires incredible precision.
And there was a good deal of debate as to what aircraft we should take.
Air Force One is so universally recognized that we thought that might be a problem.
There was a question of whether we should take an unmarked military transport plane.
In the end, we decided that it was most advantageous to have the capabilities of Air Force One, so we decided to use that platform to go.
But it remained very secret.
I believe there were probably five people on the ground in Iraq that knew we were coming before we landed.
NARRATOR: Missions in and out of dangerous areas can be planned for, but what happens if an attack comes while the presidential aircraft is in flight? What defensive and offensive capabilities are available on board Air Force One? Coming up BRIAN MONTGOMERY: There was a Continental Airlines plane in our vicinity that was not responding.
ALLAN LICHTMAN: There are all kinds of contingency plans, but not for that kind of chaos.
NARRATOR: Air Force One is designed to protect the president and remain airborne during the most extreme emergencies, but what secret procedures and protocols are in place if something goes wrong? JOE PETRO: The threats that now exist are much more dramatic than they have been in the past.
NARRATOR: While details are classified, Air Force One is armed with a series of safety features and military technology designed to ward off any potential attacks, including in-flight refueling capability, infrared missile and radar jamming technology and top-secret anti-nuclear defenses.
WALSH: There are security provisions on Air Force One that the Air Force doesn't like to talk about.
The countermeasures are really behind the engines so that they're designed to throw chafe into the air, and heat-seeking missiles would be diverted from the plane.
There is an electromagnetic skin on the plane designed to ward off impulses in case of a nuclear attack.
W.
RALPH BASHAM: If Air Force One is threatened, or the president's safety and security is threatened, the captain of Air Force One is ultimately responsible for that aircraft, and he makes decisions on what that aircraft should or should not do, and he knows better than anyone else on that aircraft what its capabilities are.
(sirens wailing) NARRATOR: On September 11, 2001, Air Force One was both a safe house and a moving target while transporting President George Bush out of Florida after the attacks in New York and Washington, D.
C.
MONTGOMERY: We took off, probably the quickest takeoff I'd ever experienced on Air Force One.
There was a Continental Airlines plane in our vicinity that was not responding.
So, we had to turn in the opposite direction.
LICHTMAN: The pilot, Officer Tillman-- he got a transmission that there was an unidentified aircraft that might be following Air Force One, and that Angel, as they called it, might well be the next target of the terrorists.
WALSH: People might not realize that that day someone called the White House and said, "Angel is next"-- Angel being the code word for Air Force One.
LICHTMAN: There are all kinds of contingency plans built into the operation of Air Force One, including for nuclear war, but not for that kind of chaos.
The pilot took evasive action, and he called for jet fighters Because nobody knew what was gonna happen and what the next target might be.
NARRATOR: The threat turned out to be a false alarm, but it revealed secret weaknesses to Air Force One's capabilities.
LICHTMAN: Apparently, Air Force One has defensive measures, but it doesn't have an offensive capability.
It doesn't shoot down other planes, which is why they need fighter escorts.
WALSH: People wonder, "Well, how often is Air Force One accompanied by fighter jets, escorts?" Very rarely, almost never, because it interferes with not only commercial traffic, but it causes safety problems because they have to clear a swath in the sky for Air Force One, and then they have to clear the swath for the fighter planes and their approaches.
The Air Force has decided that they could scramble jets at the last minute to be with Air Force One.
So whenever Air Force One is traveling, the Air Force knows exactly where it's going, and so, pilots are on alert.
NARRATOR: In the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, emergency protocols were engaged, allowing Air Force One to safely deliver President Bush to a secret location in Nebraska.
LICHTMAN: Why Nebraska? Because that's where the Strategic Air Command is headquartered.
MONTGOMERY: We went to Offutt Air Force Base, just outside of Omaha, Nebraska.
We pulled up to this large building-- three, four-story building, as I recall.
But instead of going into the building, across the street from the building was a concrete bunker, and that's actually where we went in.
And at that point, I will have to leave it at that.
NARRATOR: After the events of September 11, President Bush ordered critical improvements to Air Force One to upgrade the military aircraft's communication capabilities.
CAYON: Within a week of that day, President Bush ordered the Air Force to put live television on board and to figure out a way to get Internet capability on the airplane, to do live meetings with his staff on the ground via the Internet.
Test one, two, three, three, two, one.
How copy now? CAYON: And that is the precursor to all the Internet that you have on airlines today.
NARRATOR: But while Air Force One is the premier aircraft for presidential transport, if there's a national emergency and the commander in chief comes under attack in the White House, it is Marine One, the presidential helicopter, that is the first vehicle called to action.
The Sea King is thought to be equipped with ballistic armor and anti-missile defenses.
FRED GEIER: Does the Marine One aircraft have the ability to attack or defend itself? Well, simply said, some secrets must remain secret.
NARRATOR: Those responsible for moving the president are drilled in emergency evacuation protocols.
MICHAEL BOHN: I can tell you with firsthand experience, because I stood in for the president on one of those drills.
And it was a highlight of my career down there.
The idea, if nuclear weapons are en route Washington D.
C.
, let's get the president out of town as fast as possible, get him into an area where he's safe, and continue to run the government.
And there's a program called continuity of government, COG, and it's designed to do just that.
And so, during a continuity of government exercise one time, I played the president.
And I got onto the presidential helicopter and flew to, uh, a secret location in the mountains near Camp David.
NARRATOR: Allowing the president to make a quick getaway is why a helicopter was added to the fleet.
When the commander in chief is on board, the chopper flies under the call sign Marine One.
LICHTMAN: Marine One came into being around 1957, and the reason was, what if you were the president and you wanted to get somewhere fairly quickly, more quickly than in a car, but you really couldn't fire up a big presidential plane? The ideal answer was the helicopter.
And Marine One never flies alone.
There are always other decoy helicopters flying with it.
Deception is part of the art of protecting presidents.
NARRATOR: Unlike the cramped helicopters used by his predecessors, President Obama's Sea King has nearly 200 square feet of interior space.
The plush cabin has room for 14 passengers, and features a small office space, bathroom.
And Marine One also has room for the communications equipment required to keep the president in contact with the Pentagon and White House at all times.
GEIER: The communications are all similar, and we can interact with all of the White House communications.
Although the cabin is very comfortable and spacious, there are limited facilities on board.
So it's all mission dependent.
And they may take additional medical equipment on certain flights in certain areas.
NARRATOR: If an emergency situation does arise, Marine One has several high-tech security features, including a reinforced aluminum alloy fuselage capable of withstanding high-speed crash impacts; the ability to continue flying, even if one of its three engines fails; and the latest military-grade laser detector and radar warning systems.
Military protocol for a presidential helicopter flight includes a marine assigned to meet the president wherever he lands.
On a trip to a remote area in the Grand Canyon, President Bill Clinton was greeted at dawn by a solitary marine standing at attention, ready to serve his commander in chief.
LICHTMAN: Clinton was genuinely surprised, in such a remote area, to see a marine standing there.
He didn't know why.
(laughs) GEIER: When the president comes out, he will give him the appropriate greeting, and then he remains with that aircraft, providing the security for that aircraft.
NARRATOR: Marine One's importance to the presidency is reflected in the fact that the helicopter is transported overseas on every trip made by the president.
GEIER: Overseas operations are much more difficult because the aircraft has to be flown to an Air Force base, disassembled, flown to the location overseas, assembled, and then prepared for the presidential mission.
NARRATOR: But Marine One isn't the only vehicle traveling with the president.
He also flies with a heavily armored limousine called The Beast.
Coming up SALAMITES: All of a sudden, the black limousine came out of the alleyway much faster than I was going.
(tires screeching) (crash) I can't believe who I just had a car accident with.
(sirens wailing) (sirens wailing) NARRATOR: When the President of the United States is driven through the streets of Washington, D.
C.
or other cities around the world, he rides inside a specially modified vehicle known simply as Cadillac One, Limo One, or The Beast.
RON KESSLER: The Beast is kept in the basement of Secret Service headquarters on H Street.
It's polished and, uh, watched at all times.
To get into Secret Service headquarters parking, you have to have all kinds of clearances.
It's very well protected.
NARRATOR: Built by General Motors, there are believed to be at least two, and the vehicles are constructed atop a GMC truck chassis.
The custom-designed superstructure consists of five-inch-thick armor plating made from a combination of aluminum, titanium, ceramic and steel.
The windows can withstand armor- piercing .
44-caliber bullets.
Even the fuel tank is protected by a special foam designed to prevent an explosion if it suffers a direct hit.
FUNK: The new vehicle that President Obama is driving is at the top of the evolutionary chart of protective vehicles.
Even a lot of people within the Secret Service don't know what capabilities these vehicles have.
Part of our ability to counteract people that would do us harm is they don't know exactly what capabilities we do have.
And we like to keep it that way to keep the bad guys second-guessing.
For example, the weight of the vehicle is a very classified number, because if people know how much a vehicle weighs, they'll be able to know how much armor is in vehicles.
That's why certain aspects of the vehicle are very, very tightly controlled secrets.
They're classified information.
NEIL: The glass in the presidential limo is about five inches thick.
It's glass sandwiched with a very dense plastic material.
And the purpose of that is to slow down the bullet as it goes through.
AL CORBI: The bullet is actually the least dangerous element when you have normal glass, because the spall that comes off-- thousands and thousands of small pieces of glass flying through the air at a very high velocity-- do a lot of damage.
If you were to have the polycarbonate, it stops the bullet, but it also, as you can see, stopped all of the spall.
So it protects the people inside not only from the bullet, but actually the more deadly threat, the glass spall.
FUNK: There's a nylon or Kevlar doughnut inside the tires, which allows the vehicle to continue to run, should somebody decide to shoot the tire out or if you have a blowout.
You can continue driving along without having to pull over and change a tire.
WALSH: When a president travels and lands somewhere or takes off, the motorcade, and those armor-plated limousines, become part of a barrier.
They always put the limousines and the rest of the motorcade between the plane and a crowd.
Also, when a president goes through a crowd and shakes hands on a tarmac, both limousines are just outside the television frame.
So you don't see them, but they're right there, in case there's a problem.
NARRATOR: But who is authorized to drive Limo One? And what kind of secret skills must they learn if they are to transport the president? BASHAM: People are assigned to the transportation section of the Secret Service, and they are then selected, they are trained, and they train constantly.
FUNK: The training that you go through encompasses everything, from the ability of these vehicles to handle themselves in inclement weather.
You're taught to avoid blocking vehicles.
So, what happens if the vehicle in front of you is hit with an RPG or something like that? NARRATOR: Maneuvering the armor-plated Beast is hard enough, but in an emergency, the limited view out of the driver's window makes it doubly difficult.
FUNK: You're looking through ballistic glass, which distorts your vision.
The structures that hold in windows are much different than in an everyday car.
You have numerous blind spots.
It's not a vehicle that is fun or comfortable to drive.
CORBI: The technologies are there these days to make very strong, hardened vehicles.
The problem is, the technologies that someone can hold in their hands will still destroy them.
The protection is having-- and as you've seen in a lot of the convoys-- a number of cars, and really not knowing which one the person's in.
If you could be protected in a car, you'd only have one going down the street, but that's just not the case.
And a lot of times, they probably wouldn't be in the convoy you're looking at, because that would be the greatest decoy of all.
NARRATOR: Safety and security are priority number one when moving the president.
Advance planning and strategic preparation are the secrets to an uneventful drive.
FUNK: I think if America had a book of secrets, the one thing that the public would be surprised to see is the extent of preparation and security that goes into a presidential visit.
They see certain aspects of it on TV.
That planning for that visit took five days of ten to 12, 14-hour days.
BASHAM: You don't want to get committed necessarily to just one route, but everything on that route then is surveyed.
Whether it's manhole covers, or whether it's buildings, all of those are looked at and taken into consideration of what may or may not pose a threat.
NARRATOR: But even detailed planning cannot always guarantee the president's safety.
In 1975, President Gerald Ford's motorcade was speeding through Hartford, Connecticut while local motorcycle cops protected his route by leapfrogging from intersection to intersection.
Meanwhile, 19-year-old James Salamites was driving home with his brother and a few friends from a local restaurant.
JAMES SALAMITES: When I left the restaurant, I proceeded down Market Street, noticed that there was a green light, and all of a sudden, the black limousine came out of the alleyway, and I swerved quickly to move out of the way (tires screeching, thudding) but I hit the front fender.
NARRATOR: The teenage driver had hit the President of the United States.
SALAMITES: President Ford leaned over in his seat and looked directly at me, him having quite an astonished look on his face.
And as soon as I saw him, my eyes lit up, and I just put my head down, because I says, "I can't believe who I just had a car accident with.
" NARRATOR: But the specially-reinforced presidential limo remained operational, and quickly sped away from the scene.
FUNK: It was an accident, a tragic event which could have been worse, but it allowed the Secret Service to explore and to look at the best way to support the president in his motorcade, and we refined how we do things.
What you'll see now is stationary police officers at every intersection, not allowing that potential hazard to happen.
NARRATOR: But what if the president's limo is stopped, not by a teenaged driver, but by heavily-armed kidnappers, enemy aircraft or covert terrorists? What secret weapons and counter-assault technologies might be on board the Beast? Coming up STEVE ATKISS: This is the first time that they specifically designed a bus for the express purpose of transporting and protecting the president.
LICHTMAN: This was one of the biggest security nightmares for the Secret Service in the modern history of the presidency.
NARRATOR: May 24, 2011.
London, England.
Three weeks after the death of Osama bin Laden, President Obama conducted a state visit to Britain under heavy security, moving about the city in a motorcade consisting of nearly 20 heavily-armed vehicles.
But what secret protocols were added to enhance his safety? And why do some of the vehicles in the motorcade, known as the "secure package," split off from the group? FUNK: The Secret Service's ability to protect the president is based on getting out of harm's way as fast as possible.
We don't want to stay and fight.
We want to get him out of there.
The staying and fighting is left to other elements of the Secret Service and to the local police.
NARRATOR: But if the president cannot escape the scene, the Beast comes equipped with several top-secret modifications designed to repel an attack.
FUNK: The capabilities of these vehicles in detecting attacks is what keeps the Secret Service on the cutting edge.
It's our ability to prevent an attack by recognizing what is potentially coming our way, that these vehicles are in a cutting edge of technology.
The best asset that these vehicles have is the ability to detect certain potential attacks on a president of a chemical or NEIL: The Beast is an independent environment, a survival pod in the case the worst should happen.
And so, if for example, there is an attack that involves nerve gas or some other kind of environmental agent, the car can be completely sealed, and it has its own oxygen supply for the protection of the occupants.
It can only last for so long, and the main thing is to get the heck out of Dodge.
NARRATOR: Other vehicles in a presidential motorcade are also believed to carry counter-assault devices commonly found on military vehicles.
LICHTMAN: In the president's motorcade, there is also a car that follows the presidential limo who are the equivalent of SWAT teams, equipped with all kinds of devastating and advanced weaponry.
CORBI: There are a lot of tactical devices.
This is a very interesting one that was actually designed for the prison industries.
This is a gas canister.
It could neutralize the entire area around that presidential limousine so that everybody outside of it-- it would take about a day for them to remember their names, let alone do any harm.
NEIL: There's also something called chaff a highly-metallic ballistic device.
Blows up in the air, and it will confuse air-to-ground missiles.
NARRATOR: Protecting the president while on the road presents many difficulties for the Secret Service.
However, on January 17, 2009, an even more frightening scenario occurred when President-Elect Barrack Obama embarked on a 137-mile train trip from Philadelphia to Washington D.
C.
This old-fashioned whistle-stop tour evoked memories of past presidents, such as Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, who made similar trips campaigning across the country.
But this nostalgic form of travel left the president-to-be open to a variety of security risks.
LICHTMAN: This was probably one of the biggest security nightmares for the Secret Service in the modern history of the presidency.
OBAMA: Pray for us.
God bless you and God bless the United States of America.
LICHTMAN: He's riding a train, he's not in the special presidential limo or in Marine One.
He's stopping at a lot of small places.
He's exposing himself.
HAGIN: In a perfect world for the Secret Service, the president's schedule would never be announced in advance.
We know it takes quite a bit of time for our enemies to plan and to plot, and so the less advance notice they have, the better.
NARRATOR: Today, it is virtually impossible to move the president without the press, the public, and potential enemies knowing about it.
But there was once a time when a president could slip out of the White House and get a little privacy on a luxury yacht called the U.
S.
S.
Sequoia.
A 104-foot, wood-hull ship, known as Navy One.
It served a unique purpose in World War II.
The Sequoia provided Franklin D.
Roosevelt and Harry Truman a secure location to plan their war strategy.
SILVERSMITH: Roosevelt worked on D-Day on the Sequoia with military leaders from the United States and from Europe.
And following on that, Truman reportedly decided to drop the atomic bomb from the Sequoia.
NARRATOR: The U.
S.
S.
Sequoia was retired from service in 1977.
33 years after the sale of the original Navy One yacht, a new terrestrial transport has been added to the presidential fleet.
One that meets the needs of today.
A high-tech, heavily-armed bus called Ground Force One.
Coming up NEIL: One of the weapons that must keep the Secret Service up at night is the Barrett .
50-caliber.
How do you stop that bullet once it's flying through the air? Uh, I don't think they know.
NARRATOR: In July 2010, the Secret Service rolled out two new editions to the fleet of presidential vehicles mega buses known as Ground Force One.
Each sleek black coach is a converted 45-foot-long vehicle designed by the Secret Service and built in Tennessee by Hemphill Brothers at a cost of $1.
1 million each.
The Secret Service ordered the busses to save money.
Previously, the agency would have to rent and retrofit a bus each time one was needed for the president.
ATKISS: There's a whole series of agencies that are coordinated in building out that vehicle and designing the vehicle, putting in different features.
Run-flat tires, protective coatings and armoring and protective systems that would go into any protective platform for the president, a really extensive communications package, and then essentially all the features that you would want to see for a senior executive.
Office equipment, a suite of situational awareness tools to include access to television, uh, radio, things of that nature as well.
And this is the first time that they specifically designed a bus and are keeping a bus in inventory that was designed for the express purpose of transporting and protecting the president and other high-level Secret Service protectees.
In using the bus, it's typically for the express purpose of being seen and transporting the president through a series of towns in remote areas where the president doesn't typically go.
And as a result of that, there's a desire usually on the part of the staff to advertise where the president's gonna be, so that people can line the routes and be able to see him, and all that, of course, is anathema to the general Secret Service protective methodology.
NARRATOR: President Obama used Ground Force One in 2011 during a barnstorming trip across the Midwest.
OBAMA: Hey, how are you? How are you, sir? Good to see you again.
NARRATOR: The coach solved many logistical problems facing those responsible for moving the president.
NEIL: It was very difficult to daisy-chain Air Force One, Marine One, the presidential Presidential motorcades tie up traffic and create havoc.
I mean, moving the president around is a big pain in the butt.
So, the bus makes what you might call short, internodal transportation much more convenient for the president and the entourage.
NARRATOR: While traveling by bus was logistically easier than by plane or motorcade, it presented a new security challenge for the Secret Service.
NEIL: From an engineering and technology standpoint, Ground Force One might be a more difficult vehicle to up-armor.
One of the weapons that must keep the Secret Service up at night is the Barrett .
50-caliber sniper rifle which fires a round about that long and has a standoff kill capacity of a mile.
It will knock down a commercial aircraft, and it's legal for sale in a lot of states in the United States.
So, that's something that must worry the Secret Service more than air-to-ground missiles.
How do you stop that bullet once it's flying through the air? Uh, I don't think they know.
NARRATOR: In case of emergency, the bus is said to contain a fire-suppression system and tanks of oxygen in the event of a chemical attack.
And as everywhere the president travels, the bus carries a supply of his blood.
But who has the special skills necessary to operate the massive mega bus? ATKISS: So, within the Secret Service, there's a specific group of people who do a tour of duty as drivers of the limousine and from that group, they select a specific subset that then go through enhanced training that's specific for commercial vehicles, to ensure that they can apply some of the same methodologies that they would in a limousine to driving the bus.
NARRATOR: No matter what form of transport, the secret to moving the president safely is ultimately found in the capable hands of the men and women trained and ready to protect FUNK: You have the president's safety in your hands, much as the same way you, as a parent, would have your family's life in your hand.
Only, it happens to be the president of the United States, and it's not the family car, it's now the presidential limo.
CAYON: Being a pilot on Air Force One is just a surreal experience.
Watching the president walk to your airplane from the Marine helicopter it's just an unbelievable feeling, and the responsibility that you feel is overwhelming.
NARRATOR: As the threats facing the president grow in the 21st century in complexity and cunning, the Secret Service, using the most advanced and heavily-defended vehicles ever made, is more than ready to successfully and securely transport the president of the United States of America.
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