Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 6, 1991 TAG: 9104060092
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
When John Hinckley Jr.'s bullets started flying on that day a decade ago, Secret Service agents simply pushed the president into his limousine, slammed the door and headed for 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. It was, said Secret Service agent Werner Herman Morlock, standard procedure.
Their responsibility was to get the president out of the area, then figure out later what had happened, Morlock told local members of the Daughters of the American Revolution this week.
The Alleghany Chapter of the DAR had invited Morlock to speak. Morlock, who was in the Roanoke area on personal business, spoke to the DAR members at The German Club in Blacksburg.
When Reagan was shot March 30, 1981, not even the president knew at first he had been struck by a bullet, Morlock said.
Instead, Reagan thought he was smarting in one side because of an agent's rough treatment in pushing him into the limousine. "The president said, `You really threw me in there hard,' " Morlock said.
Then, en route to the White House, an agent noticed dark blood trickling from the president's mouth. The agent knew immediately that Reagan had been hit, and he knew that it was serious. The limousine driver was ordered to rush the president to George Washington University Medical Center.
Morlock, who has been a Secret Service agent for 21 years, is an assistant division chief in the service's technical security division, which protects the president. He has a master of arts degree in criminal justice from George Washington University.
The agent gave DAR members a glimpse on Thursday of an agent's job - and headaches.
For one thing, Morlock said, the Secret Service does more than protect important people. Its first responsibility is to combat counterfeiting.
Still, those agents charged with ensuring the president's safety have their hands full, according to Morlock.
When a president goes on a trip, Secret Service agents go first, traveling all the routes the president will travel upon his arrival to find the trouble spots beforehand. They also take the president's car and helicopters ahead for foolproof transportation when the president arrives.
"We want to control the environment as much as we can," Morlock said. He said they take the president's car to foreign countries because "we know what that car is capable of doing. We know what that car is able to withstand in terms of explosives."
Also, said Morlock, the president can use the car for confidential talks with his aides if no other place is available. Even when not in use, the president's car is kept under 24-hour surveillance, seven days a week, he said.
Morlock said President George Bush's trip to Saudi Arabia had them worried about an Iraqi assault. Secret Service agents also feared that some disgruntled soldier, irate at being taken far away from home and family, might pose a threat to the president.
Though sometimes political considerations outweigh safety, the Secret Service does the best it can, Morlock said.
Some presidents, he added, are easier to protect than others. Nancy Reagan sent a "Thank you" to agents for their work when Reagan left office, Morlock said.
Bush, on the other hand, is an active man who is sometimes hard for agents to keep up with, Morlock said.
He said Bush's love for cruising up and down the Atlantic Coast in his speedboat during trips to Maine at first gave agents fits.
The first time Bush went there, the agents did not have a boat fast enough to keep up, Morlock said. "He waved to us as he pulled away."
Agents found a confiscated boat in Florida they believed could match horsepower with the president's - and on the next trip, their boat passed the Bushes'.
Morlock said agents stood up and saluted the president as they went by.
by CNB