I Am a Secret Service Agent
My Life Spent Protecting the President
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Adapted from Within Arm'’s Length for a younger audience, a rare inside look at the Secret Service from an agent who protected Presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.
Dan Emmett was just eight years old when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. From that moment forward, he knew he wanted to become a Secret Service agent, one of an elite group of highly trained men and women dedicated to preserving the life of the President of the United States at any cost, including sacrificing their own lives if necessary. Armed with single-minded determination and a never-quit attitude, he did just that. Selected over thousands of other highly qualified applicants to become an agent, he was eventually chosen to be one of the best of the best and provided protection worldwide for Presidents George Herbert Walker Bush, William Jefferson Clinton, and George W. Bush.
I Am a Secret Service Agent skillfully describes the duties and challenges of conducting presidential advances, dealing with the media, driving the President in a bullet-proof limousine, running alongside him through the streets of Washington, and flying with him on Air Force One. With fascinating anecdotes, Emmett weaves keen insight into the unique culture and history of the Secret Service with the inner workings of the White House. I Am A Secret Service Agent is a must read for young adults interested in a career in federal law enforcement.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A heart-pumping account of guarding President Clinton during a meeting with an unfriendly foreign dignitary opens Emmett's adaptation of his 2014 adult book, Within Arm's Length. In clear, straightforward prose he describes his role and the risks, exemplifying the commitment of the United States Secret Service to protect the president at all costs. While Emmett weaves examples of his assignments throughout, he rarely recreates that initial tension. He focuses primarily on his ambitions, training, and career, first as a Marine and then as a special agent for 21 years, largely with the Counter Assault Team and Presidential Protection Detail. Later chapters cover the daily lives of agents, the Secret Service today, and Emmett's move to the CIA in 2004. Readers will admire Emmett's discipline, commitment, physical strength, and endurance, as well as his understatement and dry humor ("Five agents cannot hold back a tide of elderly groupies" trying to greet Patrick Kennedy, he writes). However, their fascination with a career in the Secret Service may be tempered by the boredom and waiting that are such integral parts of it, and by Emmett's overall reserve. Ages 12 up.
