Plains, Georgia — When former President Jimmy Carter exited the White House in 1981, few anticipated his no-frills hometown of Plains, Georgia — inhabitants 557 — to turn out to be his launch pad to the world — together with his U.S. Secret Service element.
“We'd fly from the middle of nowhere Africa all the way back to nearby Americus, Georgia,” recalled Alex Parker, longtime Special Agent in Charge of Carter's element, who traveled to over 140 international locations with the thirty ninth president.
Carter, a peanut farmer turned Navy submariner turned governor turned president turned humanitarian, earned one more title as he turned 100 years previous on Oct. 1. The longest protecting mission of the U.S. Secret Service.
Courtesy of Alex Parker
A harmful task
Special Agent in Charge Bill Bush grew to become one of the first Americans to cross into North Korea after the Korean War ended when he accompanied Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter to the DMZ.
“We were told by the State Department and a lot of other agencies that, ‘hey, you can't carry weapons into North Korea – you can't do this, you can't do that,'” stated Bush as he recounted slicing by way of bureaucratic purple tape. “My question always to them, ‘tell me how many times you've been to North Korea and what it's like?' And of course nobody had ever been.”
Bush chuckled as he defined the U.S. Secret Service's surprisingly nice coordination with North Korean safety forces. “We never had been treated any nicer anywhere, in any country,” Bush, who has been to 127 international locations with the Carters, added.
The lead secret service agent additionally secured Carter's harmful 1994 mission to Haiti, commissioned by President Bill Clinton and aimed toward averting a full-scale U.S. invasion.
“President Carter called me at home and said, ‘you need to pack a bag, we're going to Haiti tomorrow morning,'” Bush stated. Moments earlier than taking off from Andrews Air Force Base, he found he would even be charged with defending two different excessive profile envoys: chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell and Sen. Sam Nunn.
Peace in the Middle East
In his mission as peacemaker-in-chief, Carter routinely flouted warnings by intelligence officers, as a substitute driving his protecting bubble into conflict zones and humanitarian crises.
“Sometimes when we had some bad intelligence, I would take it down to him and let him read it,” Parker stated. “He'd sit there and read it, then ultimately put his initials on it — to sign off on it.”
In 2008, Carter mapped out an bold tour of the Middle East that included sitting down with leaders of Hamas in Gaza. The U.S. Secret Service had been warned to nix the journey after threatening intelligence surfaced in the area.
“He handed [the intelligence] to me and said, ‘Alex, we're still going.'”
On the flight house from Egypt, Parker stated the former president's phrases caught with him. “‘Alex,' he said, ‘I'm going to spend the rest of my life trying to bring peace to Israel and trying to bring peace to the Palestinians.'”
A prized element
The harmful task of circumnavigating the globe with Carter was not with out its perks.
On the evening Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, he known as Parker — his lead agent at the time — with an odd request.
“‘Alex, let's have a little meeting so we can take a picture,'” Parker stated, recalling the former president's request. Carter wished him to summon all of his Secret Service brokers.
“We took a picture of all of us holding it, surrounding him and Ms. Carter on the steps … He said to me — he said, ‘You guys are part of this, too. I want you to share [the prize] with us, so let's take a picture.”
Courtesy of Alex Parker
Protecting Rosalynn Carter
Another reward for brokers assigned to the Carter element was defending the former first girl, Rosalynn Carter.
“She was just such a gentle person – there was nothing about her that did not make you feel comfortable or welcomed,” stated Nick Steen, who led Carter's element from 2017 to 2019.
And whereas the former president's obsession with punctuality meant he not often waited on his element, present and former brokers described Rosalynn Carter as affected person and understanding.
While brokers recounted the occasional bickering, the extra lasting impression was of the couple's persistent affection. Agents may catch them holding palms in the backseat.
Even of their late 90s, the Carters participated in the occasional pleasure trip. During their remaining look at Plains' Annual Peanut Festival Parade, the two took a whirl in a 1946 purple convertible. Special Agent in Charge Don Witham drove the four-wheeled reward from nation singers Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, which marked the 12 months the Carters had been married, whereas the Carters beamed in the backseat.
“It was a light in his eyes that reminded me of days that we'd take him for peanut butter ice cream,” Witham stated.
Courtesy of Don Witham
A president's pastimes
Fly fishing was not the solely interest supervised by Carter's element. When Carter — then in his late 50s — took up snowboarding, members of the Secret Service had been dispatched to a ski college in Colorado.
“The president had never been snow skiing before,” Bill Bush defined. “And so he and Ms. Carter took lessons out in Colorado. I selected a group of agents and went to school in Colorado. It was a tough school … but we became pretty good skiers.”
Alex Parker ran alongside the former president for 21 years, typically crisscrossing the again roads of the farmlands framing Carter's native Plains, Georgia or jogging in overseas cities.
Courtesy of Alex Parker
“He was competitive and used to try and tire me out,” Parker stated. “I was much younger, but he kept up.”
The particular agent often ran backwards so he might communicate with the president head to head, mid-workout. “And it would make President Carter angry,” he chuckled.
After a significantly grueling nine-mile run in Hawaii, Parker was warned to not push the president, a message relayed by the first girl.
An environment friendly traveler, Carter grew a repute for energy napping in the automobile as brokers whisked him away from Point A to Point B.
“He had a special pillow for our drives, and you better have had that pillow,” joked Nick Steen, former Special Agent in Charge from 2017 to 2019.
“It's 10 miles from Plains to Americus,” Parker stated of the commute to the nearest airport. “He'd be snoring by the time we got there.”
“One day, I said, ‘Mr. President, why, how can you go to sleep so fast?'” Parker continued. “He looked at me and he said, ‘Alex, my conscience is clear.'”
An growing old mission
As the Carters aged, so too did the mission, with brokers persistently planning for worse-case situations: medical evacuations. “‘We always had a doctor with us,” stated Steen, “which for a former president, isn't always the case.”
EMT groups would journey with the former president's element to distant locations. Even in his 90s, Steen recalled Carter's very energetic life. “I took him on two Habitat for Humanity builds. We went fishing in Mexico. That was strenuous on me, so I imagine he was worn out by it as well, but he still did it.”
Don Witham recalled that even at 98, Carter typically requested to drive a automobile, though former presidents aren't allowed to function autos on an open highway.
“He definitely knew what he wanted and he would make it clear to you,” Witham stated. “I tried to go about it in a sensical way to explain he doesn't have a driver's license. And he said, ‘Where's the closest driver's license agency?'”
This previous Fourth of July, brokers whisked the former president away, briefly, to close by Americus so he might watch the fireworks. The former navy veteran, who has been in hospice care since February 2023, sat for 45 minutes at a hidden location, savoring the show alongside a few brokers.
“At 99 and nine months, he wanted to go see the fireworks. That's how patriotic he is,” Witham stated.
Sunday college and life classes
Codenamed “Deacon” by his brokers for his penchant for scripture and devotion to his religion, Carter not often missed a chance to show Sunday college at his native church. The former president made near-weekly appearances at Maranatha Baptist Church – a modest, single storied place of worship crammed with wood pews and encased by mint inexperienced partitions and olive carpeting.
“No matter where we were or what we were doing, he was gonna be home by Saturday night so he could get his lesson prepared for Sunday morning,” stated Nick Steen.
Even after he was now not match to show, Carter commonly attended providers, his wheelchair positioned subsequent to the entrance pew as his lead agent sat behind him in a folding chair.
“One Sunday in particular, the sermon was talking about making the world a better place,” Don Witham recalled. “And [the former president] very quietly, put down his head and said, ‘I've tried,' to himself. And I reached forward with both my hands and put them on his shoulders, and I said, ‘And sir, you've succeeded.'”
“That moment was special for me, because as a 98-year-old man, he's still questioning whether he's done enough,” Witham continued. “Even though he's been to Africa and eradicated diseases. He's built homes for people that didn't have them. He's fed those that are in need of food. He did all of this — yet he's still questioning at 98 years old, whether he's done enough.”
“He was so convicted,” Steen stated. “In his faith and in his desire to make the world a better place.”
Together, Bush, Parker, Steen and Witham characterize 46 years of service to former President Jimmy Carter, however simply a fraction of the hours spent defending the thirty ninth president, round the clock since 1976.
“He'll be remembered as a humanitarian that tried to help the world,” Bush stated with a smile.
“I've got to say,” Parker added of his former boss, “mission accomplished.”
