President Nixon's Inner Circle

 

President Nixon’s Inner Circle
The Florida White House on Key Biscayne Island (Pictured the 500 house)
Coordinates: 25°41′25″N 80°9′54″W / 25.69028°N 80.165°W
Country	United States
State	Florida
County	Miami-Dade
Elevation	3 ft. (1 m)

The friendships among Richard Nixon, Robert Abplanalp, and Bebe Rebozo formed one of the most enduring and influential personal alliances surrounding Nixon throughout his political career and presidency. More than political associates, the three men shared a deeply personal bond rooted in loyalty, privacy, wealth, discretion, and mutual trust — a relationship that endured through political triumph, scandal, resignation, and exile.

                    

                             Robert Abplanalp                                                                       President Nixon with Bebe Rebozo

    Origins of the Friendship  

President Nixon and Bebe Rebozo

President Nixon first met Bebe Rebozo in Florida during the early 1950s. Rebozo, a Cuban American banker from Key Biscayne, quickly became one of Nixon’s closest and most trusted companions. Unlike political advisers or party strategists, Rebozo offered Nixon something rare in public life: friendship without political demands.

Their relationship deepened during Nixon’s years as vice president under Dwight D. Eisenhower and became especially important after Nixon’s crushing political defeats in 1960 and 1962. While many Republicans distanced themselves from Nixon after his loss to John F. Kennedy and his failed California gubernatorial campaign, Rebozo remained steadfastly loyal. During Nixon’s so-called “wilderness years,” Rebozo provided emotional support, companionship, and a refuge away from politics.

 Sunday cruise to the Ocean Reef Club on the Coco Lobo

Rebozo’s waterfront home on Key Biscayne became a retreat where Nixon could relax, escape public pressures, and speak freely among trusted friends. Rebozo also had a getaway residence located at the Ocean Reef Club on Key Largo, where they frequently took boat rides down the Florida coast. 

President Nixon on Rebozo's houseboat 

Enter Robert Abplanalp

Robert Abplanalp entered Nixon’s inner circle during the 1960s. A self-made millionaire and inventor of the modern aerosol spray valve, Abplanalp had transformed Precision Valve Corporation into a global manufacturing empire. Politically conservative and intensely anti-communist, Abplanalp admired Nixon’s toughness, resilience, and worldview.

Like Nixon and Rebozo, Abplanalp distrusted the Eastern establishment and much of the national media. Nixon, in turn, especially valued Abplanalp’s financial support, discretion, and unwavering loyalty during periods when many political allies abandoned him.

By the mid-1960s, Abplanalp and Rebozo had become close friends themselves, helping create a tight-knit Florida-based social circle centered around Nixon.

The site of Walkers Cay Club , Press and WHCA support team stayed here

Among Abplanalp’s assets were two Islands in the Bahamas Walkers Cay and Big Grand Cay where they visited almost every time the President visited Key Biscayne.

The main residence on Big Grand Cay where the Inner Circle stayed

The Florida Inner Circle

By the late 1960s and early 1970s, Key Biscayne had become the center of Nixon’s private world outside Washington. The Nixon-Rebozo-Abplanalp friendship revolved around:

• Many boating excursions, in the Coco Lobo (Rebozo's houseboat) to the Ocean Reef Club on Key Largo where Mr. Rebozo had a home.
• private dinners,
• Golf outings, Inverrary Country Club where Jackie Gleason hosted many celebrities
• Numerous fishing trips, to Robert Abplanalp’s private islands (Walkers Cay and Grand Cay) in the Bahamas  
• and confidential political conversations.

Unlike the formal atmosphere of the White House, Florida provided Nixon with privacy and emotional comfort. He often preferred the company of old friends like Rebozo and Abplanalp to Washington insiders and political operatives.

Rebozo frequently hosted Nixon at his waterfront residence, where the president eventually purchased the 500 and 516 houses which were two adjoining properties where he spent many weekends away from Washington. Abplanalp owned private island properties in the Bahamas that became a weekend gathering place for the inner circle

The Key Biscayne Compound

This informal “Florida court” became, in many ways, an extension of Nixon’s presidency — a private world where trusted friends wielded influence outside formal government channels.

Political and Financial Support

Both Rebozo and Abplanalp played important behind-the-scenes roles in Nixon’s political and personal life.

Bebe Rebozo

Rebozo functioned primarily as Nixon’s confidant and emotional anchor. Nixon trusted him with deeply personal matters and often shared frustrations, anxieties, and political concerns that he revealed to few others. Their friendship was intensely personal rather than ideological.

Robert Abplanalp

Abplanalp played a more direct political and financial role arranging for real estate loans the President used to finance his San Clemente and Key Biscayne residences. As a major Republican donor and fundraiser, he helped Nixon cultivate wealthy business supporters and contributed substantial backing during the 1968 and 1972 campaigns.

Operating largely behind the scenes, Abplanalp belonged to an influential network of businessmen who believed Nixon would restore order and stability during an era marked by social unrest, antiwar demonstrations, and political turmoil. Although never a formal government official, Abplanalp reportedly offered Nixon strategic advice on both business and politics.

During Watergate

The friendships among Nixon, Rebozo, and Abplanalp came under intense public scrutiny during the Watergate scandal.

Investigators and journalists examined Nixon’s financial relationships with wealthy supporters, including Rebozo and Abplanalp, focusing on campaign donations, loans, and financial transactions connected to Nixon’s inner circle. Rebozo became a central figure in Senate investigations involving contributions from billionaire financier Howard Hughes.

Although Abplanalp faced scrutiny as a wealthy Nixon supporter and fundraiser, he was never a central figure in the criminal prosecutions that emerged from Watergate.

Despite the mounting scandal and Nixon’s growing isolation, both Rebozo and Abplanalp remained fiercely loyal even as many political allies abandoned him. Their loyalty mattered enormously to Nixon personally. During the final months of his presidency, Nixon increasingly withdrew from Washington advisers and relied heavily on longtime friends like Rebozo and Abplanalp for emotional support and companionship.

After Nixon’s Resignation

Following Nixon’s resignation in August 1974, both men remained loyal friends. While many former associates distanced themselves from the disgraced president, Rebozo and Abplanalp stayed personally devoted to him throughout his years of political exile and eventual rehabilitation.

Nixon spent considerable time in Florida and California reconnecting with trusted friends after leaving office. 

The three men shared:

• resentment toward Nixon’s political enemies,
• distrust of the media,
• and a strong belief in personal loyalty.

Their friendships endured until Nixon’s death in 1994.

Historical Importance

Historians often describe Nixon, Rebozo, and Abplanalp as part of an unusually private presidential inner circle. Unlike formal Cabinet members or White House aides, these friendships operated outside official government structures.

The trio reflected several key characteristics of Nixon’s personality and presidency:

• reliance on personal loyalty,
• suspicion of outsiders,
• preference for intimate informal relationships,
• and emotional dependence on a small, trusted circle.

Their Florida gatherings became symbolic of Nixon’s retreat from Washington’s political culture into a more private and controlled environment.

Legacy

The Nixon-Rebozo-Abplanalp friendship remains one of the most fascinating personal alliances in modern presidential history. It blended politics, wealth, business influence, emotional loyalty, and secrecy during one of America’s most turbulent political eras.

Although figures such as Henry Kissinger and H. R. Haldeman are more publicly associated with the Nixon presidency, Robert Abplanalp and Bebe Rebozo occupied a uniquely personal place in Nixon’s life.

The President and Henry Kissinger at the Key Biscayne Compound

For Nixon, both Bebe Rebozo and Robert Abplanalp represented something rare in his life: unwavering friendship during both triumph and collapse.

FEATURED 10-Ronald Reagan Presidency (1981-1989)-revised

 

President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)
The 1981 Inauguration of Ronald Reagan
Type Of Activity	Presidential Support
Location
Location	Washington DC
Date of Activity	1981-1989
Coordinates

Ronald Reagan 40th President of the United States

Conservative icon Ronald Reagan, the former Hollywood leading man and California governor who outwitted the American political elite to reach the Oval Office, was elected president of the United States on this day in history, Nov. 4, 1980. The first inauguration of Ronald Reagan as the 40th president of the United States was held on Tuesday, January 20, 1981, at the West Front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. This was the first inauguration to be held on the building's west side

His "triumph capped the rise of the new right/conservative wing of the Republican Party. And demonstrated that World leaders do not need to come from insider circles in order to be successful.

Reagan served as arguably the first true conservative U.S. president in over 50 years. [He] advanced domestic policies that featured a lessening of federal government responsibility in solving social problems, reducing restrictions on business, and implementing tax cuts.

1981 Inaugural Parade

Ronald Reagan’s presidency began on a dramatic note when, after the inaugural ceremony, he announced at a luncheon that Iran had agreed to release the remaining American hostages that they had held for 444 days.

1981 Inauguration

Larry Bethea comments: I was working night shift ^during the Reagan Inauguration, we were used to getting a call from then President Carter for a wake-up time and weather briefing but that night the new President didn't call down. The next night we awaited a wakeup call announcement from the new President, nothing. Finally we called a Stewart and relayed a message, the SAO (Special Assistance Operator) who took the call from President Reagan thanked us then told us "My Nancy" will wake him up each morning.

Within the first week of Reagan's Presidency President Reagan was at a evening function in DC and was about to return to the White House via motorcade when he heard the Secret Service use the informal callsign "The Boss". Reagan asked an Agent on his detail if he could borrow the walkie talkie. The Agent unplugged and handed his radio to the President. I was at Crown Base to hear President Reagan say. I have an official radio callsign and would appreciate if everyone used it, I'm not the Boss. The channel went silent, no one said anything until the SS Control Center confirmed, with a short brief comment, "was that Rawhide?" The Agent had his radio back and I could hear his huge smile saying "affirmative, that was Rawhide". After that the Secret Service and WHCA always used his proper callsign, Rawhide.

The 1981 Presidential Transition was a fascinating time for me and since then I watched each Transition I knew WHCA folks had to adjust to new People, new Personalities and attitudes and each Transition is also historic for the peaceful transition of power is rare in the history of Mankind..

Donald Cammel comments: Transition from one administration to the next is always interesting. I was there for transition from LBJ to Nixon, Nixon to Ford, and then came back for transition from Carter to Reagan. The support folks use this as a potential to drop certain services unless the new administration has already seen such services. Always looking to cut back on things like the 3 eye televisions from LBJ, reducing the number of News Summaries for example. Today, since WHCA is no longer a stabilized long tour, it is unlikely anyone working on a transition has any experience from the previous effort. In my era there were always many folks that had lots of experience. The Operations folks were constantly working with the new WH Staff on meeting their needs and expectations. Never sure whether we offered some services or someone asked for them.

The 1981 Assassination Attempt

Only two months after taking office as president of the United States,   President Ronald Reagan was steps away from the presidential limousine when John W. Hinckley, Jr., a deranged drifter fired  six shots from a .22-calibre revolver toward him while he was leaving the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. 

President Reagan exits the Hilton Hotel just before shots rang out

Three bullets severely wounded three members of Reagan's entourage and security detail – press secretary Jim Brady, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy and Thomas Delahanty, a D.C. police officer. One of the bullets, unbeknownst to Reagan or the Secret Service at the time, had bounced off the door of the limousine and punctured the president's lung before it lodged itself close to his heart. 

Critically injured Jim Brady

Larry Bethea remembers that on March 30, 1981 it became my Longest Day in the U.S. Air Force. I was walking into the White House compound when a Soldier from my section was walking out. She said Hi, and then alerted me that there was a assassination attempt against President Ronald Reagan. My first thoughts were mixed, and I asked her if she should be leaving under these circumstances. She said that she didn't know if the President was struck by a bullet but told me about others being hurt. She continued to leave as I rushed into the Duty Station to hear the Radios a buzz while the switchboard was quiet. Returning to the Radio room I heard Jerry Parr, the President's lead Agent announce that the President was coughing up blood and would reroute the President’s motorcade to the hospital.

Agent Parr was asked if the President had been struck? He looked over the President and couldn't find where. He suggested tackling the President into the Limo may have broken a rib on the transmission hump because they both landed on it. I then heard others say that ABC NEWS is already airing the Attempt and watched 2 or 3 minutes of their video before being ordered to the switchboard.

I returned to the switchboard room to find dozens of calls needing to be answered. I plugged into the board and started to patch calls; little did I know I would sit there for another 16 hours. While normally five operators could manage the switchboard, it required maybe eight on that day and sometimes calls were ringing for some time for we focused on our Emergency Procedures.

There are many untold stories around that day, Bell Atlantic technicians for instance rushed over to the Hospital and rerouted phone lines some were public phones being used by the press. They were disconnected in mid-sentence and the telco lines were routed between the White House and the Emergency Room at the Hospital.

The eight Military Personnel, including myself, were mostly in our 20's and yet only one person staggered, allowing grief to overtake her. She was pulled off the board and a few minutes later was back on the job doing her duty. She heard firsthand the Doctors report, how serious the wound was and how close it came to the President's heart. I heard a number of prayers that day, during a pause I glanced over to see one young man kneeling by the switchboard, I then realized he was praying.

The Vice President, George HW Bush was flying back to Washington DC on board Air Force II we had ground to air communications with him his entire flight. At one point he called and wanted to get a health status of the President. I patched him to the President's Doctor/spokesman and listened for quality assurance (SOP). After the call the Vice President called back asking to speak with the operator who he was just speaking with. I picked up the call, he was very concerned with me. He basically said, “I didn’t want you to pull the President's doctor away from his duties. I assured the Vice President the Doctor that he spoke to was overseeing the Doctors caring for the President. Once he realized this, he thanked me.

Another call I received was from Sarah Brady, she heard on the News her husband James Brady, the White House Press Secretary was dead. She wanted confirmation. I patched her to the Hospital, and she was told that her husband was still alive. She called back and informed me that her ailing Father-in-Law was visiting and to not upset him with any bad news that she would take all the calls. I respected her reasoned thought in such a crisis and informed everyone on the switchboard.

Agent Tim McCarthy is a large man, when he heard the first shot he turned towards the threat without moving from his spot. He took a bullet for the President and maybe the entire reason Reagan survived. A Hero! When he was loaded into an ambulance a fellow agent jumped into the front passenger seat. He informed the driver to drive to George Washington Hospital. The Driver worked for another Hospital and protested, for he feared he wouldn't get paid. The Agent assured the driver he would get paid, but the Driver continued to protest, that is until he was looking at the wrong end of a barrel. The Agent had no time for discussing payment and pulled his weapon to protect his fellow Agent. The driver then rushed over to GW Hospital.

In the Military there is a Chain of Command, from your immediate supervisor all the way to the Commander in Chief. At one point I glanced behind me to see most of my Chain of Command standing, watching us on the switchboard an Army Captain, a Marine Colonel, a Army 1 Star General, USAF General David C Jones Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger.

A few weeks after my Longest Day a very nice letter came to our section from the Sec Def, Caspar Weinberger. He couldn't believe what he witnessed, what my section accomplished and shared mostly his feelings of how impressed he was with our professionalism, how we handle such a crisis with disciple and calm.

President Reagan came down to our section to personally thank us for our service, he left a crystal jar of his favorite jellybeans, but our NCOIC taped the jar closed so that the gift can be preserved for the section. I wonder what color those jellybeans are today?

Most Americans have no idea how close life and death was for Ronald Reagan that day. Nancy Reagan knew and did everything she could to protect her husband hence forth.

There was a huge team of people that came together that day to save our President, some parts were small, others were huge. Each part contributed to saving our President this day in 1981.

President Reagan was rushed to George Washington University Hospital for emergency surgery, Reagan joked with doctors as he was being wheeled into the operating room: “I hope you’re all Republicans.” The President was Released 12 days later,

An early Ronald Reagan accomplishment that has gone on to shape policy was his approach to labor unions that were operating outside of the law. In Aug of 1981 he took a hard line against air-traffic controllers who were unjustly striking, setting a precedent that has been pointed to for decades.

Reagan's economic and domestic policies had a major impact on the American people and have had for many years. One of the most well-known Ronald Reagan accomplishments was his tax cuts, which were designed to benefit the middle class. These Tax cuts were just one part of Ronald Reagan's overall economic approach known as Reaganomics, which decreased unemployment and inflation and, over time, revolutionized the country's economic structure.

Ronald Reagan energized new generations of Republicans, who continued to lead and develop the party in coming decades. One of the accomplishments of Ronald Reagan that clearly influenced later leaders was his charismatic, yet casual, speaking style, which ushered in a new era for political communication. Ronald Reagan also spearheaded a campaign to re-focus the country's attention back on its own people, an idea that has again taken hold in recent years.

Columbia, The First of NASA’s Orbiter Fleet

Commonly referred to as OV-102, for Orbiter Vehicle-102, Columbia was delivered to Kennedy Space Center in March 1979. STS-1, Columbia’s maiden voyage, launched on April 12, 1981, and was the inaugural flight in the Space Shuttle Program. It proved the operational concept of a winged, reusable spaceship by successfully completing the Orbital Flight Test Program – missions STS-1 through STS-4. The orbiter weighed 178,000 pounds with its main engines installed. Columbia was also the first orbiter to undergo the scheduled inspection and retrofit program. In 1991, Columbia returned to its birthplace at Rockwell International’s Palmdale, CA, assembly plant for upgrades and improvements. Her last flight was on January 16, 2003.

But back in 1981, none of that was assured. The space shuttle was a revolutionary spacecraft for its time, the first reusable spaceship and the first one designed to land on a runway like an airplane. Young and Crippen's STS-1 flight was also the first test launch of the shuttle. Never had NASA put astronauts on a spacecraft that hadn't been tested unmanned first. On Columbia's maiden voyage the shuttle only had the 2 brave men for Crew which later increased with payload specialists and robotic arm operator. The Military used the Shuttle for installing new satellites & repairing/updating older satellites.

The WHCA signal board is a 24-hour operation, processing, calls 365 days per year. Most of these calls are routine in nature; However, occasionally you do receive unusual requests.

This is a story of one of those requests handled by. Presidential. Communicator Wm. Larry Bethea. Jr.

 Hail Columbia

    By Wm. Larry Bethea. Jr.

     Sgt U.S. Air Force veteran, 1978-1982.

“As an Air Force airmen assigned to the 2045^th Com. Group, I was selected for duty to the White House Communications Agency. I reported for duty in January 1986. After months of training and testing I was awarded the position of presidential communicator, operating the tactical switchboard and radio network for the President, Vice President, Secret Service, and the Senior White House staff.

I arrived early for work on the morning of April 12 1981 and went to the break area to witness the history making first launch of the Columbia space shuttle which occurred at 7:00.03 am EST. After watching the liftoff, losing sight of the shuttle, seeing a streak of light racing to the stars I was called to the morning briefing. I was assigned to the special operator position and my duty was to respond quickly to the President, VP, and Senior WH staff, patching calls by telephone or radio anywhere in the world. At 07:00.12 vice President George HW Bush called from his car phone and wanted to speak to the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia.

Instructed me that he wanted to take the call in his office and would arrive in 10 minutes. I responded to the vice president like he had asked me to call his chief of staff not having a clue how to make the call. How do you call a spacecraft? I asked my supervisor and he didn’t have a clue either. Being born and raised around Washington DC with a family working within NASA I knew the Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt MD was a communications tracking facility. With approval from my supervisor I called the commercial number in the public phone book and told them who I was, what I wanted, and if they could help. The next thing I knew I’m patched to the pilot of the space shuttle Columbia, Robert Crippen.

It happened so fast that we had five minutes to spare so I asked NASA and the pilot if they could hold the line for 5 min. NASA responded by saying Sure no problem. With that pilot Crippen asked me if I could patch some music up to them while they waited, I said sure and patched country music up to the space shuttle. On an earlier trip with the President to Cleveland Ohio I discovered a radio station with country music that you could dial into and get their broadcast. I’m sure that was a first.

Anyway when the Vice President picked up his office phone I had to drop the music patch, answer the Vice President, and introduce the space shuttle crew. Easy, huh, not when making the introductions. The pilot interrupted, thanking me for the music, and the VP is wondering, what music? I didn't respond to the pilot Robert Crippin but instead re-introduced the crew. and assured the Vice President the crew was on the line. The vice president spoke to the crew, congratulated them for a successful launch, and wish them Godspeed. (From one veteran pilot to another in my humble opinion).

In my first 20 minutes of my shift, I made communications history by making the first phone call to a space. Shuttle for the Vice President of the United States and providing music for the space shuttle crew.”

President Nixon talked to the Apollo 11 astronauts on the moon in 1969 but that was a highly planned and coordinated call.

 Space Shuttle Columbia launched on April 12, 1981

Signal Switchboard, Crown Radio, and Echo Fox Radio Console

In January of 1981 the Signal Switchboard moved from the East Wing basement to the new a new area in the basement of the Old Executive Office Building, room 015. The old Western Electric WE 555 was removed and the Western Electric 608-D was installed in the OEOB, it was the only L shaped WE 608 in the world.

President Reagan visits the Signal Switchboard

The switchboard was "L" shaped. The two positions on the left in the photo above were "SAO"s Special Assistance Operators who handled Presidential calls. Pres. Reagan is saying in the photo above "... and you do this job with equipment this old?

WHCA  Signal Switchboard

The "Crash" notification system for group notifications of Presidential movements etc. 

The Nationwide Console (Echo Foxtrot) for SAM Aircraft Communications

The Washington Area System Radio Console  (WAS)

The Washington Area System (FM and UHF Radios) was used for all of the mobile communications to handheld radios and vehicles. I forget how many frequencies there were but there were a lot of them. 

The Western Electric 608-D was  switched over to the Dimension (System 85) in late 1989. 

Edwin Meese                                                                                                                                                                            by Scott Downey

I remember when RR's White House Counsellor Edwin Meese would come down to WH Signal on Thanksgiving and Christmas mornings and shake hands with those working on the holiday. To my knowledge he is the only person who did that during that era. Taught me an important lesson about leadership. He had been an Army Artillery Officer on active duty before joining the reserves. He retired as an O-6 in 1984, right around the time I met him. He went on to be US Attorney General during RR's second term.

I've got a story...                                                                                                                                                                by Diane Felts

It happened my first week at Signal, March 1983...

I had asked some of my cohorts on the Swbd what I could do during my lunch break. Someone suggested I take a walk across the street to Lafayette Park; they'd heard that Lorne Greene was there promoting a movie. Being a Bonanza fan, I headed over.

Once there, yes! Lorne Greene was standing in the park next to a horse. And he was being filmed and interviewed. I was totally awestruck. Then, someone tapped me on the shoulder, and when I looked at him, he pointed to the ground... I was standing in horses**t...

I tried to wipe off what I could off of my shoes (platform heels), and went back onto the 18 acres. All I could think of was getting to a ladies room so that I could clean off my shoes.

As I walked up through the arch to the EOB, I heard someone behind me yell, 'stand to the side'. I kept walking to the door, it wasn't very far to the door, I was totally focused on making it to the door, lol. Again I hear, 'stand to the side'. I had no idea what was going on, didn't know what it meant. I was so close to the door.

Next I felt a hand on my shoulder and was turned around to face a huge Secret Service agent (okay, he was huge to me, I'm only 5'2", weighed about 115). He then told me that he'd been yelling for me to move to the side... I started stammering (blubbering more like it) about being new, my first week, Lorne Greene at Lafayette Park, horses**t, I'm new...

Then the Boss and another agent walk up... President Reagan asked me if I was okay (was it that obvious?), and I started blubbering again... new, first week, Lorne Greene, horses**t... He asked me again if I was okay, I took a deep breath, and said I was, thank you for asking... He turned to one of the agents, and said, 'I think she's okay, besides, she's wearing my favorite perfume'.

They walked through another door, I went into the building, found a ladies room and cleaned my shoes. When I got down to Signal (in the basement), I sat down for a few minutes, composed myself, and never said a word about it... I was too embarrassed about stepping in horses**t....

“Tip” Two of my favorite Irishmen…                                                                                                                                                           by Marty Williams

               

Sometimes our “Wallpaper History” involves other notables more so than our principal. One of my favorites involved Speaker Tip O'Neil. It was September 1983, and I was still in DC on the switchboard. We got a call that President Reagan was going to make a critical call to the Speaker as soon as he got on Air Force-1 (AF-1) for the flight out of Columbia SC. 

A special assistance operator had the AF-1 operator on the line and the powers that be (or were) wanted an officer and a switchie to go to a DC hotel (I don't recall which one) where Tip was speaking at a dinner. I was to find a quiet, secure area in the hotel for the call to be taken and the officer (sorry don't remember who) was to go into the hall and when I gave him the high sign that the boss was arriving at the airport, he would bring the speaker out to be on the line. All went well (to start) I had a nice office space with a desk and a phone, right across from the hall from the event. The call was up from the hotel "holding room" through Signal switchboard to AF-1. I was on the call, waiting for word that the limo had arrived at AF-1.               

Speaker of the House Tip O'Neil with President Reagan

Word came that the boss had entered the airport, so I went out and signaled the officer in the event. He got the Speaker’s attention, who started off the stage. I ran back to the hold and the call and confirmed the call was still there. It was. But as soon as Tip started across the auditorium, the entire hotel phone system crashed!! (That's why we always had our own lines!) I ran out of the room and there in a narrow hallway between two ballrooms, both with large events, and across from the elevators and restrooms, was a bank of payphones. I called Signal, explained the situation, just as Tip walked into the hall! I quickly pointed out the phone and told him the president was about to come on the line. Well, the look I got was not happy. Lol. 

But the best was yet to come. As soon as they were talking, both events let out with hundreds of folks passing through to the elevators, restrooms, AND payphones (no cells yet!). And they were not quiet!... But the call went well, and the budget eventually got passed. Tip thanked me and gave a nod.... And the pucker factor subsided...

In front of a camera Tip O'Neal was a die-hard Democrat, but  get him one on one with President Reagan or on a phone call and they'd compromise and work out a deal. One time Tip would get credit, Reagan would get credit the next time. Real old school WWII leadership and a President looking out for his nation.

WH Cell Phone Service                                                                                                                                                          By Richard LePere

Think back to the dawn of the age of cellphones about 1983or1984 in the DC area. President Reagans Chief of Staff Donald Regan would take his boat out, and down the Potomac River. At the time there was limited cellphone coverage, not like today. He was warned ahead of time, where the limit was on the map. Nonetheless, he filed numerous complaints about failed cellphone calls, from his boat, that were placed outside the coverage area. In the end, additional cellphone towers were installed to create an overlapping footprint coverage area, just to support Don Regan. Which led to increasing WHCA’s annual operating budget. Which led to the Signal Switchboard’s System 85 adding a dedicated port expansion network, which then provided dedicated WH trunk access capability for all WH cellphone users. 

When you went off hook on your cellphone you had an immediate WH dial tone. Which led to many additional meetings with Congress to justify the new technology and the added expense. As I look back at what those initial brick cellphones has led to, in today’s telecommunications capabilities, networks, and SIP trunking is amazing. but WHCA no longer taxes the technology and telecommunications sectors to create or engineer new technologies specific to WHCA or its mission, like it did back in the 60s thru 90s. 

As an example, the engineers at AT&T and Lucent Technologies created software modifications to the PBX's that were geared specifically for WH use. The same technology wasn't released to the general public for, in some cases, 3 years. Instead, they're using whatever technology is being introduced to the general public, and having it modified to meet or exceed the security protocols required by WHCA and WHMO. Back in the day, WHCA had dedicated AT&T and Lucent Technology engineers and technicians that were on site at the OEOB. They all had clearances to be on site at the OEOB, and Anacostia to install, repair, and upgrade the PBX's in DC as well as our travel switches.

What's next? The development of new technology, to be used for everything from the military to education, was a key part of Ronald Reagan's platform.

1983 Augusta National Course                                                                                                                                                      by Marty Williams

 

Ike was a member of Augusta National where the Masters tourney is played. There's a hole on that course that has a huge tree that Ike's ball hit with regularity. So, the management of the course named it Ike's tree. lol

Back in Oct. of 1983 RWR went to play golf at the Augusta National Course, while he was spending a few days as the guest of Sec State George Schultz.

Tom Pike comments President Reagan and Sec. of State George Schultz were playing golf at the Augusta National golf course. There was a back gate to the course that local PD were supposed to be guarding and they weren't. But one strange thing that happened during his stay was that a good ole boy who seemed to be a theme for a country western song, lost his job, his wife left, he got drunk, and got into his pickup and rammed a side gate at the club because he wanted to talk to the president. He got into the pro shop waving a gun around and said, "I want to talk to the president" A couple of the staff were in there at the time. Lanny Wiles who was on the advance staff and Dave Fischer, Reagan's personal assistant. Fisher said, “I'm his personal aide, I'll go get him.” and left. leaving the club staff and Wiles alone inside.

Jeff Muenstermann comments I will never forget that Trip. Lt. Zimmerman was held hostage in the Club House. I brought the radio to the Club House for the gunman and handed it to the Lt. I then was told to escort Bud McFarlane back to his cabin and stay with him. It was a very intense time. It was before DES radios and I remember the Military Aide hearing my last name across the radio telling me at first he thought it was some code word he didn’t recognize...which was funny. It was  also the most hardware I’ve ever seen displayed by the Secret Service in a public setting.

Alan Zimmerman commented Jeff Muenstermann's comments on the Augusta National Gold Course incident: I was a CWO, not an Lt., and I wasn't held as a hostage. I was in the office on the other side of the wall from the Pro Shop. Fun fact: The hostage-taker became frustrated with lack of progress towards his demands and fired a shot into the base of that shared wall. About ten of us hit the floor with considerable quickness. And yes - Jeff brought me a Z/Y radio so I could keep up on what was going on with the hostage-taker and his demand for a call to the PRESUS. Jeff did a great job keeping me and everyone supplied with batteries, radio spares etc. as the incident stretched on (it was lengthy). Lanny Wiles was the last hostage to walk out. He did so by detecting the anxious gunman had been drinking and Lanny offered that the bar had a lot of liquor....and he could go get some booze for both of them. The gunman agreed - and Lanny walked right out the door. He was, IIRC, the last hostage to leave. I was told later that two others had locked themselves in a back room of the Pro Shop and remained silent and unknown to the gunman.

The incident underscored the importance of our contingency planning and the briefs the night before the visit. We used pay phones in the hallway to call Signal, establish a "Shout-Down" circuit and put masking tape across the cradle so the connection would not be lost. It worked perfectly. Signal was always "ON" for the many calls coming their way. Bravo Signal!

When it was over, everyone was wrung-out from hours of the emergency. "Ches" Chesser was with the Limo the whole time. There is a great photo of the convertible chase Limo in the local newspaper the next morning. I got to lay down to sleep after the PRESUS retired very late. I slept about 30 minutes in the Main House dorm when my WHCA landline rang and I was told to go to Rawhide with an urgent STU secure call. The Marine Barracks in Beirut had been bombed with significant loss of life. Ten minutes later we were told to form a motorcade to go to Angel. It was around 2:00AM or so - with a torrential rain. Our suits were like we had fallen in a pool.

It was an honor to be with great WHCA team members from Radio, Switchboard, Signal, Royal Crown (that URC-112 worked great in the pouring rain!) and Ted Post at Angel. Everyone rose to the unexpected difficulty and adapted. And thank you Jeff - I remember how prepared and responsive you were. Bravo.

Tom Pike comments that WHCA had its trip board tied into the golf course's dimension 400. An employee in the pro shop called through the tie line and I answered the call. I put them through to the USSS command post. They took the President and Sec. Shultz to the Holiday Inn where we were set up. Mrs. Reagan and Mrs. Schultz had been shopping, IIRC in Charleston, SC or Savannah, GA. They brought them back to the hotel as well. I don't think it was diversionary. I recall the limo and follow up came to the Holiday Inn where we were set up. They put the president and Sec State in a room above the WHCA Signal board.

Marty Williams continued The USSS parked the Presidents limo on the course and put the president inside. He then proceeded to try and place a Y/Z call to the hostage taker. I caught the radio call. We put him through to the pro shop house phone and announced the call. The president started talking "This is the president. Who is this?" The guy cursed and hung up. I said "Mr. President, it appears the gentleman has hung up the phone, we will re-initiate the call" "Re-a-who?" "We'll get him right back on the line." “Oh, Ok” Which we did. The president called out a few times saying it was the president and for the guy to talk to him. The guy cursed again and ripped the phone off the wall. Good times. Eventually, Lanny Wiles convinced the guy to go out with him and get a bottle. The USSS nabbed him right away and that part of the weekend was over.

We had launched the Helos, had a fake diversionary motorcade and basically played with all the other bells and whistles. The best part was that back then, Y/Z (and all the frequencies for that matter) were not secure. The newsies had a scanner and were recording and broadcasting it in real time. The WHCA commander was standing in the switchboard and turned to the T.O. and said “we’re going secure and we’re going secure tomorrow!”

But this one happened during the craziness that was that night. The Marine Barracks in Beirut was bombed and this is how a “switchie” saw it. We were on the night shift, quite early in the morning, watching one of the “Halloween” movies for the 2nd night in a row. Things were slow.

Then a Full Period Voice line rang in from DC and it was the National Security Advisor. In a serious tone, he asked for the President. As a “cleared caller”, I rang him straight through. “Hyellow” “yes, Mr. President I have Mr. McFarland for you. Go ahead please.” They talked for about a minute and the call came down.

A moment later another cleared caller asked for the president (I’m old. Don’t remember who that one was). Now here I pause the story to again remind our listening audience about the switchboard relationship with Mrs. Reagan. We loved her because she protected the Boss, but she was tough. And I think she preferred the ladies of the Admin Board. You didn’t want to make a mistake on her calls, and you didn’t want to disturb her. Just take that as fact, regardless of what your interactions might have been.

Anyway, cleared caller number two, less than a minute from the last call. Rang through…. One ring... two rings…. Three rings… (oh please let him answer… please don’t wake her up... please…) “Hello!” (Crap!) “yes ma’am, we have a call for the president” “oh. (In a louder voice) “Ron, it’s those people again.” “Oh, ok.” (Flush…. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle… squeak) “Hyellow”…. I immediately dropped off the call.

1985 Inauguration of President Reagan

The Public open air inaugural parade on Pennsylvania Ave was canceled the due to the bitter cold. There was a swearing in the Grand Foyer on the stairway landing leading to the upstairs residence, and the next day President Reagan went to the Capitol Center where he was sworn  in at the Capitol Rotunda where he delivered his 1985 inaugural address. It was the Inauguration of President Reagan in January of 1985. WHCA personnel manning the Washington Area Radio System, one of the rare times we had two people working on the paging system.

Ronald Reagan is sworn in for his second term

Former members of the White House Communications Agency (WHCA) share their personal encounters and experiences

The1985 Reagan Inauguration

The Reagans were going to a multitude number of balls that night, not sure of the exact number but there were a ton of balls that night, so arrival and departure announcements were coming fast and furious. All one operator was doing was paging people while the other operator was attempting to make the Sierra voice announcements. Attempting because the White House staff was constantly talking all over us. Finally enough was enough and the mic was keyed with this announcement saying, “THIS IS CROWN, EVERYBODY SHUT THE HELL UP!” Nothing but complete silence followed and for the rest of the evening we had no problems on the frequency!

Don Cammel comments: I spent almost 20 hours babysitting an AV contractor setting up lights and sound at the Jefferson Memorial for the 1984 Inauguration. The ambient temperature was about -35 degrees and we were miserable. Monday morning report time for the event was 0500 and about 0800 they cancelled all the outdoor events. Then they made us stay another 5 hours in case they wanted to drop by between the multiple Inaugural Balls that evening. Most of us were sick in bed the next 3 days, and it took almost a month to shake the bad cold and lung congestion. That was back when I was still healthy. Again WHCA personnel had just spent the entire night working with a commercial contractor called the Naked Zoo to light the Jefferson Memorial. It was a great team effort, but nobody was disappointed when they called off the event and moved inside.

The ambient temperature that night was about -35 degrees, and we were miserable. Monday morning report time for the event was 0500 and about 0800 the Inaugural Committee cancelled all the outdoor events. Then they made us stay another 5 hours in case they wanted to drop by between the multiple Inaugural Balls that evening. Most of techs that worked outside that day were sick in bed for the next 3 days, and it took almost a month to shake the bad cold and lung congestion.

WHCA technicians spent almost 20 hours babysitting an AV contractor who was setting up lights and sound at the Jefferson Memorial for the 1984 Inauguration. Again WHCA personnel had just spent the entire night working with a commercial contractor called the Naked Zoo to light the Jefferson Memorial. It was a great team effort, but nobody was disappointed when they called off the event and moved inside.

WHCA rental trucks                                                                                                                                                              by Don Cammel

WHCA rental trucks on trip sites brought back an old memory. During the campaign season, I was the Trip Officer in Detroit, and at the end of the trip, the team drove to Milwaukee, WI and I jumped into NYC. A typical NYC visit normally involved assets and people to drive a rental fleet up the NJ Turnpike. On this occasion, the WHCA team was arriving via C-141 from another stop. My immediate mission was to find two 24ft Hertz rental trucks.

I called several locations, and then resorted to the Yellow Pages! Remember that era! I found the nearest Hertz franchise and on a Saturday morning, the owner answered the phone. I explained I need two trucks delivered to the tarmac at JFK. His response was...."I am just here today doing my F***king paperwork, I don't have an F**king Trucks for the U.S. Government to screw up!" Really a motivational speaker....so I then asked, since you don't have any trucks, do you have a competitor that you might want to send some business as I continue flipping pages in the Yellow Pages. He then asks, "What are you going to haul in these trucks?" I told him it was 30,000 pounds of electronic equipment mostly in small cases. He then asked....are they "dirty"? Mentioned that the last rental used a new truck to haul sides of beef and left a bloody mess! He then says....how can I get my paperwork done, talking on the phone?

 

I do have two brand new 24ft trucks that I need in 2 weeks, but I can rent them to you if you promise to take care of them! We rented the two trucks, and they jumped to 3 more stops and then drove back to DC. They were so new and in great condition, we kept them for about 90 days. This vendor was calling me every day asking when he could get his trucks back. We never did return them to NYC, but dropped them in Arlington. 

Christmas with the Reagans in Palm Springs                                                                                                                                     by Raymond Millaway

I was T.O. for two Reagan Christmas/New Years trips to Palm Springs in 1985 and 1986; great memories of staying at the Marriott Rancho Las Palma Resort and the daily events at the Annenberg's Estate (Sunnylands). New Years Eve parties with Frank Sinatra (arriving in his Rolls Royce with "FAS" on his license plates), Bob Hope (visiting his mushroom on the hill house), and many, many others. Mr. Annenberg was from Philly, the same as me. We hit it off right away as he hit golf balls on his manicured driving range. When I arrived at Sunnylands, I would say "how are you doing Mr. Annenberg?" He'd say, "just doing the best I can with what the good Lord has given me". He really was a rather humble person. I had the audacity to present him with a WHCA Plaque at the conclusion of my first trip there. He said, "this is great, let me show you where I'll put it". He then escorted me into his 'I Love Me Den'. It was where they watched football games when there were no parties going on. The Den was like a museum - who's who of everything and everyone - including the Shah of Iran, etc. Actually, the entire estate was like a museum - great paintings, mobile art, landscaping, etc. Ah yes, and then there was 'Roy Rogers' and ‘Gene Autry’. LOL...

The Annenberg Estate was a interesting site, set in Palm Springs proper. The story has it Mr. Walter Annenberg, tired of scheduling golf tee times so he designed his own Golf Course on his estate. The City of Palm Springs complained about the water required for a Private Course, so Mr. Annenberg cut ties with Palm Springs, put in his own Power Plant and dug his own water wells.

Though Sunnylands was a walled, private estate of Ronald and Nancy Reagans’ close friends who also held official U.S. posts — Walter Annenberg as ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1969 to 1974 and Leonore Annenberg as chief of protocol from 1981 to 1982 — the White

House sent an advance detail to Rancho Mirage a couple of weeks before the president and first lady’s scheduled visit.

During the Reagans’ stay, three large trailers were installed on the grounds.

“One was for White House Communications, one for Secret Service, and one for sharp shooters with night-vision goggles. There were about eight Secret Service agents per shift and about six White House Communications staffers. I don’t know how many sharp shooters there were, because they came after dark and stayed outside.”

During the New Year’s Eve dinner parties, There were servers for each table, and they lined up in the gallery. There were two Secret Service agents on duty in the service area while the servers picked up the food, watching everything that was served.

One year when a woman tried to crash the party as guests were arriving. Though she failed to get past the front door, the Reagans were forced to remain sequestered in the guest room while Secret Service dogs sniffed for anything that she may have planted in the property. Nothing was found, but the incident delayed the president and first lady’s entrance to the celebration by a half-hour.

Nancy’s New Year’s Eve gown was forgotten in the transfer from Air Force One to the Marine One helicopter.

“She was frantic so she asked a Secret Service agent go to the plane and get my dress, the Agent eventually found it and brought it to her. 

"Christmas Calls"                                                                                                                                                    by Larry Bethea

It was a tradition at the Signal switchboard to call members of the Armed Forces WORKING on Christmas to allow them a few minutes to talk with family. We focused on calling Overseas US Military Installations.

Back in the early 1980's long-distance phone calls were expensive and overseas calls were the most expensive. As an Airman I saw the Soldiers I'm working with focused on calling Army Installations, so I focused on Air Force Installations overseas. Using Autovon, (Military telephone system) and a Autovon phone directory, I knew every USAF Communications Center would be fully manned on Christmas, so that's who I called and some hung up on me! (before Caller ID) Some didn't believe me. I'd call back and give them a little nugget of proof that I was 1) at the White House and 2) providing a free call home, if they give me a number to dial.

The Autovon had priority calling, and at each Comm. Ctr. That I called knew or soon realized I had placed a "Flash" (highest priority) Call. Only a few locations in the World could call using "Flash", the Pentagon, the White House, and a few Major Commands. Sometimes they quickly accepted the information, thanked me and I would  provide a phone number, sometimes I'd even patch a few calls for one Comm Ctr telling the first Person to pass the word around within their workspace.

One Airman was quick, I mean he asked if I would do a White House Style introduction on his Family for they wouldn't believe he was calling for free and through the White House. I believe it's the only time I asked for their rank/grade and made the induction such as, this is the White House and I have a call from Senior Airman John Smith, would you accept his call. Of course they did! That was fun hearing the joy between Family Members as I monitored to make sure they were connected and had a clear telephone line.

In making the first Christmas Calls I quickly realized I had to adjust to and deal with time zones. One guy thanked me but didn't want to wake up his Parents in the wee morning hours of Christmas, Pacific Time.

So as we Celebrate the Birth of our Savior, I remember those working on Christmas day, our First Responders, our Military and even Utility workers who provide electricity, water and such.

Merry Christmas!!!

1986 Iran Contra Scandal and WHCA Back-up Tapes                                                                                                            by Mark Warren 

In 1986 the darkest hour of the Reagan administration would become known as the Iran Contra affair. After lengthy, nationally televised hearings, a special congressional hearings review board reported that Reagan authorized the sale of arms to Iran in exchange for help in freeing U.S. hostages in Lebanon. 

LTC Oliver North is sworn in by the Warren Commission  

Investigations revealed the money gained from the arms sale was illegally diverted to aid the Contras, opponents of the Nicaraguan Sandinista government. National Security Advisors Robert McFarlane and John Poindexter, as well as National Security Council aide LTC Oliver North were indicted by a federal grand jury and convicted of various charges regarding the Iran-Contra operations. McFarlane was later pardoned by President George H.W. Bush and both Poindexter and North's convictions were set aside on appeal for technical reasons.

President Reagan addresses the nation about Iran Contra

Here is the whole story of how TSgt Mark Warren working in the WHCA Comm. Center probably saved LTC Ollie North from going to jail over the Iran Contra (IC) issue. 

News of IC first hit the news Monday November 24, 1986, and President Reagan fired LTC North and others the next day. This happened to be Thanksgiving week and on Thanksgiving Day, a Master Sargent and I were covering the computer room so the operators could have the day off. We were discussing what had happened during the week including the deleting and shredding of documents and emails by LTC North and Fawn Hall.

I was responsible for our tape back-ups of the NSC’s system and realized we still had all of that deleted information on our 2-week back-up cycle of tapes, but as each day went by, we’d lose another day as the nightly back-up was done and would overwrite the oldest tape. As it was now Thursday, we had already overwritten 3 of the 14 tapes. I told the Master Sargent we should put all these tapes aside and replace them with brand new ones since they probably contained evidence. 

He said we should call the boss, so we got the LTC in charge of ISD on the phone and I explained to him what was going on and my recommendation. His response was “well, nobody told us to do that, so I’ll check with the WHCA Commander on Monday”. Really??? We’d have overwritten 4 more tapes by then. We hung up the phone and I told the Master Sargent since he never really “ordered” me not to pull the tapes, I was pulling them, replacing them with new ones and if the boss wanted to fire me, then so be it and my WHCA career would end Monday.

 

He didn’t let the boss know what I was doing, and I pulled them, sealed them in 3 or 4 large Halliburton cases, marked the outside as CLASSIFIED and sealed them with the wire and lead seals, then took them to the Comm Center in the WH basement. I put all new tapes in the rack to be used for backups starting that night.

First thing on Monday morning the Master Sargent and I walked into our boss’s office, and I told him what I did. He must have thought about it over the weekend and seemed a little relieved but acted a little pissed that I did it against what he initially wanted us to do. He called the WHCA Commander and told him what I had done with the backup tapes. The Commander told my boss that I had done the right thing, and he would notify the WH Military Office, who then notified the FBI. I believe the FBI sent someone to the WH that very day to take possession of the tapes. So, my WHCA career didn’t end that day after all! 

   

We didn’t hear anything for weeks until the Tower Commission requested a short delay in submitting their report as they had “just discovered” a batch of WH backup tapes they needed to review. We had to print some of the emails for the commission and they released their report in late February 1987.

 

However, the real fun began leading up to the trial of LTC North. His defense team as well as the prosecution team wanted a printed copy of EVERY email from/to North, McFarlane, Poindexter and several other NSC staffers. We had to restore each tape to an alternate email system we installed, then we had to have a member of the defense or prosecution team present when we reviewed and printed them. We couldn’t print on dual paper to make both copies at the same time but had to do all this separately for each team and for each tape! I don’t know how many hours I (and a couple of my co-workers) spent doing this, but I read every single email related to IC. 

These emails proved that LTC North wasn’t a rogue marine doing whatever he wanted, but had approval from his bosses. The emails didn’t prevent him from being convicted of lying to Congress, but it did on some of the more serious charges and his conviction was overturned a year later in an appellate court.

I also came very close to having to testify before Congress during their hearings in 1987. The day I was scheduled to testify, I was in my service dress complete with PSB in my office at the OEOB when we got the call (thank God!) that I didn’t have to go! What a relief  I was the technician North was referring to in his book.

Reagan himself acknowledged that selling arms to Iran was a “mistake” during his testimony before Congress. However, his legacy, at least among his supporters, remains intact—and the Iran-Contra Affair has been relegated to an often-overlooked chapter in U.S. history.

Funding and development of the armed forces are a cornerstone of the list of Ronald Reagan major accomplishments, specifically the creation of the Strategic Defense Initiative to combat nuclear pressure. Ronald Reagan also took a hard stance against communism and is credited with bringing about major turning points in the Cold War. 

1986 Cincinnati In and Out                                                                                                                                                             by Anonymous Author

The only time in my WHCA career that I did a site survey with the USSS was in Cincinnati in 1986. The Boss was going to speak at a construction site in downtown. Since he and I were the only ones there, the agent went into great detail about how they were going to protect Reagan from potential shooters in the surrounding buildings. It was impressive to hear how they were going to use construction equipment and other everyday things to block views. It was so innocuous that the crowd would likely not even notice it. When the event was over, I went to retrieve the phone and happened to run into the same agent. I asked him how the event went, and his reply was “He arrived smiling and left breathing, so I guess it went pretty well.”

1986 The Reykjavík Summit Meeting

Reykjavík negotiations between President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev

The Reykjavík Summit, held on October 11 and 12, 1986, was the second meeting of US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. Following up on the previous year’s Geneva Summit, Reagan and Gorbachev continued to work toward and debate the possible terms of nuclear arms reduction at Reykjavík. The two leaders did not reach an agreement at Reykjavík, though many diplomats and experts consider the summit a turning point in the Cold War and ultimately the breakup of the Soviet Union. 

President Reagans visit to West Berlin

During President Reagans visit to Berlin in 1987 there was a speech site out on the tarmac of Tempelhof Airbase. Every time the ground radar swept past; we would pick up the signal. We tried everything including asking if the radar could be shut off during the visit. After they stopped laughing, they said no. We noticed that there were manhole covers that were close to where we wanted to run our cables. There were drain lines with water flowing under them, so we got a float and ran a line under ground and then used the line to pull the audio cables through. 

We managed to attenuate the radar signal enough that at least you never heard a loud prrrt every sweep of the radar. I would like to say that the audio cables were the nastiest thing we had to clean once we got back to the shop.

1987 at the Brandenburg Gate and the fall of the Berlin Wall

On June 12, 1987 President Ronald Reagan made his most memorable Quote “Mr. Gorbachev tear down this Wall” in Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate of the Berlin Wall, West Berlin. 

Berlin Wall 1987

On November 9, 1989, the East German government opened the country’s borders with West Germany (including West Berlin), and openings were made in the Berlin Wall through which East Germans could travel freely to the West. The President’s actions helped to end the Cold War and restored, however fleetingly, the country’s confidence and its faith in a better tomorrow.

Ronald Reagan gets a small piece of the Berlin Wall (1990)

Ronald Reagan discloses existing health issues

Ronald Reagan retired from the White House in 1989 to a home in the wealthy Los Angeles enclave of Bel Air. For the next six years, he spent his time organizing his memoirs and supervising the creation of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. 

During November 1994, Reagan revealed in a handwritten letter to the American people that he had been recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. 

Ronald Reagans announcement to the American People

To some observers Reagan’s declining health had been evident for many years. Mindful of her husband’s diminished capacity, Nancy Reagan occasionally would screen him from the press by intercepting reporters’ questions and then whispering an appropriate response in his ear. Reagan’s health problems made public appearances difficult for the former president, but his popularity hardly waned.

National Airport in Washington, D.C., was renamed Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport by Congress and President Bill Clinton in February 1998. 

 

Nearly a decade later, on June 5, 2004, he died at his Los Angeles home at age 93, Reagan was given a state funeral in Washington, D.C., and later buried on the grounds of his presidential library. Nancy Reagan died of heart failure in 2016 at age 94 and was buried alongside her husband.

The Ronald Reagan Memorial at the Reagan Library

Rancho del Cielo
The President’s Ranch
Type Of Activity	Visiting the Reagan ranch
Location
Location	Santa Barbra CA
Date of Activity	April 21 2018
Coordinates

Reagan Ranch Visit April 2018

by Kenneth W. Barbi

Summary

I had the opportunity to visit the Reagan Ranch (Rancho del Cielo) on April 21st as a guest of Young America’s Foundation to see the preservation efforts of Ronald Reagan’s Santa Barbara White House where many of us worked in the 1980's. The Ranch was purchased from Ronald and Nancy Reagan in 1998 to provide the family financial resources to care for President Reagan’s health. Its new owner, Young America’s Foundation WWW.YAF.ORG, is a conservative youth centered political action organization.

Background

Quoting from author Brad Thor, “Young America’s Foundation is the largest youth outreach organization in the Conservative Movement and the only group that uses the power of the Reagan Ranch to shape future generations. The Foundation is the exclusive owner and operator of the Reagan Ranch, having worked with Ronald Reagan and the Reagan family since 1962 to advance freedom. Today, Young America’s Foundation hosts conferences and seminars at the Reagan Ranch to inspire young people and policy makers with President Reagan’s freedom philosophy of limited government, free enterprise, and a strong national defense.”

The foundation hopes to make Rancho del Cielo the Mount Vernon and Monticello of the 20th Century. When the Ranch originally came on the market in the mid 1990's before Young America’s Foundation purchased it, there were unsuccessful efforts to have the Federal or California State Government buy it to preserve it as the real life home of a great US President.

My April Visit

When WHCA folks worked in Santa Barbara and at the Ranch, we learned a great deal about our humble President and no doubt have many fond memories of those days. I had not been back in over 30 years as my Air Force career progressed, and after retirement moved on to other interests. I was thrilled to be invited to the 20th Anniversary celebration of the purchase of the Ranch by a close friend and member of the Young America’s Foundation. Currently, the Ranch is not open to the public except by special invitation.

Meeting people we had worked with as customers such as Ed Meese, T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr., Becky Norton Dunlop, Dennis LeBlanc, and Frank Donatelli was refreshing. Meeting current Trump administration supporters such as Governors George Allen and Scott Walker; and White House Assistant to President Donald Trump, Marc Short (Director of Legislative Affairs at the White House), was very rewarding. Because of my professional association with President Reagan as one of his WHCA Trip Officers, I was well received at the receptions and dinners along with former Naval Military Aide, Rear Admiral JJ Quinn (back in 1987 he was a junior officer); and John Barletta, President Reagan’s chief lead Secret Service Agent and riding friend who oversaw Ranch Security. John is on Young America’s Foundation Board of Directors. Very few Foundation members ever met President Reagan personally as many of us did.

Preservation Efforts

From my recollections, the Ranch has changed little since the 1980's although the building WHCA used at the Ranch has been torn down, but our phones (all labeled up as we used to do) and a few Secret Service radios are still present!

The El Escorial Delux Hotel (which provided us accommodations; and served as our nerve center and communications center) is no longer a hotel, but rather El Escorial Villas.

El Escorial Villas Pool

  

El Escorial Villas viewed from the Harbor

The road up the mountain is still narrow and in terrible condition.

Views from the Access Road

Views from the Access Road

The 8 lock gate is still there, however, Rancho del Cielo’s lock has been replaced by a remote control bolt.

Rancho del Cielo Remote Gate Opener

The 8 lock gate to Rancho del Cielo 

8 Lock Gate off the Mountain Access Road

Drive up to Main Gate to Rancho del Cielo

Main Gate at Rancho del Cielo 

The helicopter pad was replaced by a field of Garania flowers at the Reagan’s request after they left office.

Garania Flowers in place of the Helicopter Pad

The secret service command post has been fully restored to the way it looked in the 1980's

Secret Service Command Post Overlooking the ranch House

Secret Service Command Post 

 WHCA Provided Secret Service  Telephone and Radios 

Duty Agents Desk in Command Post

Motorola HT-220’s

                                 P1350 Motorola base station

Motorola P-33 the Old Faithful Brick 

The Hay Barn has stayed the same as it was in the 80's

Front entrance to the Barn

Hay Barn Tack Rack

The Tack Barn is the same.

Tack Barn front door

Tack Barn

/              President Reagan's Ranch Vehicles                        

President Reagan’s Misc. Food Jars filled with important working hardware - nuts, bolts, screws, etc.

Tack Barn Interior

President Reagan’s Very Neat Work Bench

WHCA Phone

President Reagan's Garden Tools

President Reagan's Garden Tools

The bell Ronald Reagan used to call Nancy to mount up is still operational.

The home is virtually unchanged along with the patio, lake, and wooden phone pole fences that Ronald Reagan personally built while he lived there as President.

Among other things in the house is a wine cooler he purchased while living there as President. He dutifully filled out the warrantee card with his name, address, and phone number; and filled in the block - Occupation - Public Employee. That’s why we liked him so much!

Presidential Wine Cooler and Bar

Presidential Wine Cooler and Bar

Interior of ranch

Interior of ranch

A WHCA Phone - - No Dial Tone!!

Interior of ranch

In the bedroom pictured here, is a phone switch that I can’t identify.  It appeared to either switch to different lines or turn them off.  It is now inactive. 

 

Presidential Bed 

The Princess phone was Nancy's favorite phone

In the bathroom is the President’s famous Liberty Bell shower head, and a partially used bottle of Head and Shoulders he last used there.

The Liberty Bell shower head

Partially used bottle of Head and Shoulders

The guest house has been remodeled on the inside.

Guest House next to ranch house where  many dignitaries stayed. President Gorbachev declined to stay there because he thought it too austere

The Pond and Dock that President Reagan built is in great shape. He gave the canoe to Nancy and it is still there.

Conclusion

My only regret with this unique preservation effort is that very little of the actual WHCA communications equipment we deployed to the Ranch is on display.  Remember, the 1980's were the years of great change in techniques of Presidential Communications - - DES secure Motorola radios, E Mail, dial-in access, Grid computers; DSCS, Fleet SAT, and Ku-band satellite terminals to name a few - - no more Kleinschmidts!  Can some of that equipment be recovered and provided to the Ranch for future generations to see? 

Ken Barbi is an Electrical Engineer who graduated from the City College of NYC in 1968.  He received his commission in the Air Force in 1968, and came to WHCA in 1983 as a major.  He served as a Plans Officer when in town, and as a Trip Officer on the road.  In the Plans Office, he implemented new DSCS Satellite Terminals and was the first to establish commercial Ku-band satellite support for the President.  He retired after 26 years in the Air Force as a Colonel, and now lives in Annapolis, Maryland, with his wife Susan (also a retired Air Force Nurse Corp Colonel).  He can be reached at kenbarbi@verizon.net, 

WHCA’s Ku-Band Satellite Use
Generic 13 meter Ku-Band Gateway Antenna
Type Of Activity	Establish communications link
Location
Location	Bonn Germany to Washington DC
Date of Activity	May1985
Coordinates	38° 54′ 17″ N, 77° 0′ 59″ W

 Ku-Band Satellite Use at WHCA - - The Beginning                             

by Kenneth W. Barbi, (WHCA Trip Officer 1983 - 1986)  kenbarbi@verizon.net                

White House Communications Agency (WHCA) personnel have been on the front lines of challenge supporting our President with leading-edge technologies for over 80 years since we were formed as the White House Signal Detachment (WHSD) by the War Department on 25 March 1942. During my tour in the mid-1980's, we were using copper wire, analog unsecured POTS (plain old telephone service), Kleinschmidt teletype writers, unsecured VHF/UHF radio, and bulky STU-1 secure encrypted voice passed through MODEMS over analog circuits at 2,400 - 4,800 BPS. That was state-of-the-art in the 1980's.

That all changed when the new Reagan era White House staffers brought their personal Radio Shack TRS-80 Model-100 Portable Computers along on trips using them to pass important traffic back home without encryption.

 We were at a definite turning point driven by our times.  For our Commander, Col Larry Schumann, a new day had dawned.  The traffic had to be secured.  He commissioned a new start-up company - - GRiD - - to build laptop computers with an amazingly large (in that day) 10 MB hard drive. We commissioned NSA to develop PCM voice coding encryption for secure calls built into a standard desk telephone set.  Portable deployable AFSAT and DSCS satellite terminals, Mobile Communications Vehicles called Road Runners, and DES encrypted VHF/UHF handheld radios that had to be re-keyed every day soon followed.

Today in 2023, the WHCA has a unified digital architecture seamlessly integrating secure voice, data, and video over multiple transmission media into a mix of Internet Protocol (IP) networks.

 As one of President Reagan's trip officers, my one man team in the Plans Division developed the first Presidential usage of Ku-Band satellite service.  In May 1985 (during a European swing to Germany, France, Spain, and Portugal in commemoration of the 41st Anniversary of the Normandy Invasion), we set up our first international commercial Ku-Band link from Bonn, Germany, to Washington, DC.  We did a "down and dirty" deployment going from the drawing board to the field.  The entire effort was a joint collaboration between WHCA and COMSAT General.  This was one of my projects dependent on commercial assets rather than military assets like my other AFSAT and DSCS  projects. 

The deployment was not without challenges.  This is a picture (Figure 1) of us on the roof of our hotel in Bonn, Germany, after we block and tackle hosted the dish from the street.  I am immediately to the right of the dish with a camera around my neck.  Inside the hotel, our terminal equipment (Figure 2) provided  two encrypted T1 (1.544 Mbps) circuits to the hotel  trip site comm center from Washington.

.  Figure 1.  Official 1985 White House Photo-Ku-Band Dish on Bonn Hotel Roof 

 

Figure2.  Official 1985 White House Photo-Ku Band Terminal Equipment inside Bonn Hotel Comm Center

This was not the original dish I traveled over with from Andrews AFB on a C-141.  That dish got strapped down on top of a pallet loaded with equipment by an Air Force load master (named Murphy of Murphy’s Law fame).  It arrived deformed having the shape of the equipment containers under it.  Surprise - - that the antenna wouldn’t focus!!  Only two of these hand crafted dishes existed at the time so we had a back-up.  We got an emergency delivery of antenna number 2 a couple of days later pictured here. 

It was a memorable trip for me since our aircraft was contacted by CROWN (White House Communications Control) close to arrival by HF radio on the aircraft and was told not to land in Bonn.  We had to go somewhere else because anti-US demonstrations were happening there.  My pilot and I figured out where to land instead before we ran out of fuel!  Ah - - the trials of a WHCA trip officer. 

Soon after we came up on the air at a very low look angle to the US, we discovered periodic interference on our frequency.  Knowing spread spectrum transmission techniques (which appear like background noise) were used on 1980's commercial satellites, I contacted the National Security Agency (NSA) Watch Officer in the middle of his night shift for help identifying the source.  In about an hour, a Deutsche Bundespost monitoring van (like what the FCC uses to track non licensed transmitters in the US) arrived at our hotel with a team of technicians and a senior Bundespost official.  Shortly after that, the interference disappeared for the duration of the trip.  We had no problems when we moved on to Madrid or Lisbon. 

In Lisbon, Portugal, we set up our antenna outside of the Coyote Comm Center Coach seen here in Figure 3 with the terminal equipment inside the Coyote.

Figure 3: Author’s Photo Ku-Band Terminal outside of Coyote Comm Center Coach in Lisbon, Portugal

Since 1985 when the President travels away from Washington, DC, Ku-Band has become a WHCA staple, along with military satellite, and commercial leased digital circuits for getting digital signals back to the White House. 

 Figure 4. Generic 13 meter Ku-Band Gateway Antenna

WHCA has an approximately 13 meter Ku-Band Gateway Station antenna on the grounds of the Naval Support Facility Anacostia, DC, (Joint Base Anacostia/Bolling) which can be seen driving along I-295 or from Google Earth. Figure 4 is a picture of a similar gateway antenna.

At distant end trip sites, WHCA uses small transportable Ku-Band terminals (about one meter in diameter) shown below in Figure 5 operated by our personnel.  Nowadays, WHCA joins other Ku-Band systems on various rooftops around the world when deployed - - a long way from the naked roof tops of the 1980's! 

The current system is off-set fed and neatly packs into manageable transport cases.  WHCA is replacing these portables in 2023 with smaller center fed terminals.

Figure 5. Official 2022 White House Photo WHCA Technicians Setting Up Trip Site Small Portable Ku-Band Terminal

Rancho del Cielo
Type Of Activity	Reagan Ranch Support
Location
Location	Santa Barbra CA
Date of Activity	1980-1988
Coordinates

WHCA SUPPORT AT THE RANCH                                                                                                                             by Don Cammel/Marty Williams/Ken Barbi

The White House Communications Agency (WHCA) established two key operational locations, one. in Santa Barbara and the other at the President's Ranch. Both sites operated 24/7 with rotating 12-hour shifts to manage communication centers, switchboards, and radio consoles.

At the Ranch, WHCA set up two trailers on a hill, which also housed a hangar for HMX-1 (the Marine helicopter squadron), overlooking the communications center and the Secret Service command post. 

WHCA Trailers, HMX hanger and Admin Trailer

One trailer contained the switchboard with two Dimension 400 PBX systems. Initially, a smaller mini board was installed, but it was soon replaced by a Dimension 400 as the primary system. The mini board was then used as the backup. However, the first 400 would occasionally crash, so a second Dimension 400 was installed for emergency switchovers. This setup ensured that even if the primary switch failed, service continued on the backup, though active calls were lost.

The Ranch Communications Trailers

The second trailer held the radio base stations, satellite communications (Satcom) terminal, line-of-sight (LOS) microwave terminal, power equipment, and WHCA’s Ranch office. Another first for WHCA was a long haul secure video back to Sit Room from the Ranch by using an early adopter video CODEC. The circle mound behind this is a Lorain Navigation Beacon for aircraft. This area was, also known as “The Vortec” due to the nearby FAA Vortac facility, and sat at the top of the hill.

Secret Service Command Post at the Ranch

Further down, closer to the ranch house, was the communications center handling secure traffic and the Secret Service command post. The command post also had facilities for the President’s weekly radio address and a small conference room for meetings.

Road to the Ranch

The 8-lock entrance gate to Rancho del Cielo 

Access to the Ranch was difficult, with over an hour’s drive on rough roads often affected by washouts and fog. Low water bridges and mountain terrain added to the challenge. 

Harry Davis, remembers that he was traveling with the press Corp. on one trip to the Ranch, when we arrived with the press plane the press was given vans to ride up to the ranch. It was raining hard, but I don't think anyone knew how it would affect the trip up that steep winding road that led to the Ranch. At one point water was flowing over the road and as we were driving through our van started to hydroplane. It certainly got everyone's attention. It was an interesting ride that's for sure the road was pretty dicey. We had to drive through flood water flowing over the road. It was really interesting, the van that I was in started skidding towards the edge and from my vantage point I think we would have starved to death before we hit the bottom lol.

Richard LePere, remembers that on another trip, I was the nighttime Switchboard Lead for this Ranch visit, Paul Sensel was my backup on this trip. We were briefed early that the heavy rain was causing flash flooding on Refugio Road. The nighttime shift for Radio, Swbd, KU SatCom, and Commcenter climbed into a 5 Ton and grabbed a seat. Then, they hooked up 2 - USSS White Bronco's, the kind that OJ Simpson drove in the infamous video. We headed up Refugio Road with 1 USSS agent in the driver’s seat of each Bronco, the rest of the agents were sitting next to us on the troop seats. Our radios were chattering the whole time, with the USSS CP giving us updates as we headed up the hill. At one point the driver geared down, and increased the engine RPM! Why? Because the water level on Refugio Road had reached the floor of where our feet were resting, and both Ford Broncos were floating slowly downstream as we passed through a major flood area. Mind you this is a narrow road, with twists and turns. A hillside with culverts crossing the road, that weren't engineered to handle this much water. As the 5 Ton made it through the water, onto solid pavement, the 1st Bronco's front tires hit the pavement, and both the 5 Ton and 1st Bronco were pulling the 2nd Bronco out of the swift current! Both vehicles were in line, going straight up the hill, while the 2nd Bronco was at a 90 degree angle from us, being swept downstream. Its only lifeline was the tow strap connected to the lead USSS Bronco. Let me tell you, once we passed the worst sections of the flooding, we disconnected the USSS Bronco's, finished the drive up to the Ranch, and not until we were on the hill, with our feet firmly planted on solid ground, did we thank the Lord above. Oh, and the 2 USSS agents that were driving the 2 Ford Bronco's? Those boys, got out of the Bronco's shaking like a leaf! You see, the water level in the worst area, was so high, it was up to the driver's windows, as they started floating downstream. The only WHCA people that I remember from that night were Paul Sensel and Kim Beck from SatCom.

There were also several incidents of brake failures on the 24-foot Hertz trucks descending the mountain because drivers were unfamiliar with using lower gears.

24ft Box truck

In Santa Barbara, WHCA installed another Dimension 400 PBX in the GTE Central Office, where the switchboard was located. Other WHCA assets were spread across the various hotels used by the White House staff. The senior staff stayed at the Biltmore Hotel, where the WHCA communications center used GriD laptop computers with encrypted chipsets and small, portable HP inkjet printers to process secure traffic. The rest of the staff and press were housed at the Sheraton, which had a press office and briefing room.

The Ranch Communications Network

A DMC microwave system (23 GHz initially, later upgraded to 18 GHz with four T1 links) was installed between the Biltmore and Sheraton hotels, as well as a link to the Goleta airport. This marked WHCA’s first experience with LOS line of site microwave systems, which used two Aydin 4 GHz carrier systems with channel banks for main trunk communications between Santa Barbara and the Ranch.

El Escorial Hotel  pool

When WHCA started using KU-Band, COMSAT was the satellite bandwidth provider.  COMSAT was the down link with their large Washington, DC, antenna. Extending the link to building 94 in Anacostia, Then a digital M/W to the OEOB on the 4th floor in WHCA’s data center where the circuit was terminated and decrypted. WHCA finally got their own down link KU-Band antenna which they use today. 

                                                     El Escorial WHCA Hotel Villa with Ku Band satellite terminal

WHCA and Secret Service personnel stayed at the Tahitian Motor Motel across from the Sheraton, where the WHCA photo lab was also located, at least through 1984. During the President’s second term, the WHCA operations, including the switchboard, communications center, radio control console, and office—moved to the El Escorial Hotel, where a Ku-Band satellite terminal was installed, it was the only WHCA operated high data rate (T-1) system installed back to Washington.

WHCA Quarters across from the Sheraton

All the radio frequencies were operational with repeaters all over Santa Barbara and at the ranch. Radio coverage was designed to not only cover the Ranch but also blanket the Santa Barbara area with extended coverage to include a possible motorcade back to Pt Magu or even driving down US101 back to LA.

Stories from the Reagan Ranch

Ericson Cobra Phone                                                                                                                                                                                                          by Don Cammel

                                             The Ericson Cobra phone was Nancy's favorite

Nancy Reagan always had a Metered Business (MB) line in her bedroom at all hotels, Camp David, and the Ranch. Her choice of instruments was an Ericson Phone, often nicknamed the Cobra Phone.   I can’t remember for sure which color she preferred, but I can tell you for sure it was not “White”.

The characteristics of this instrument are unlike any other phone anywhere in the industry.  Similar problems like the old Princess phones where one pair was the POTS line, and the other pair went to a 12V power cube that powered the light on the dial.    The Erickson phone was 3-wires.   The hook switch was in the bottom of the phone, and this was available first with a Rotary Dial, and then upgraded to a touch-tone pad.  Because of the constant USSS Technical Services Division doing their constant sweeps, the often disassembled this phone, and couldn’t figure it out.   The microphone in the instrument was “hot” all the time and would allow anyone on the line to hear conversations in the room.  

The solution to this problem, was for both WHCA and TSD to work together and build an interface box with basically a physical relay disconnect when the phone went on the hook.  

We arrived for a Ranch visit, and the Cobra phone beside the bed was DEAD!   This was a permanent line, and we didn’t carry spares on a standard trip load, in fact, I don’t think we had any spares anywhere.   Being in Santa Barbara and AF-1 and Press Plane already in the air, we started scrambling to find a replacement phone.   We called back to DC and they were going to purchase one and send it counter-to-counter on American Airlines.

Meantime, we found a White Cobra phone on Wilshire Blvd in LA, so we had the team still in LA drive halfway up US101 to courier the replacement.  We knew that “White” would not make her happy, but were going to explain we were waiting on her favorite color to arrive.  We considered moving the electronics to the new phone, but they were constructed with poured epoxy in the curved handset.  

I finally had the correct phone after about 36 hours of continuous effort, plus USSS had to sweep the new phone, and we warned them not to blow out one of the components.   

All is good, and I am sent down from the top of the mountain to the Ranch house knowing that the President and First Lady are out horseback riding.  I go into the bedroom, and the space between the bed and the wall might have been 15”.  I laid down on the floor and up near the headboard was the connector block to the home brew relay box.  They were changing out the pairs, and I had a standard butt set clipped across the pairs.   I was on the floor for eternity, and had my molded earpiece in my ear listening to the movements.  

At one point, I had to change ears with the butt set and I pulled out my earpiece.   I am getting frustrated, and entire body is about to go into muscle spasms from being confined to 15” of space for probably close to 45 minutes.   

Suddenly, I hear a noise and the bedroom door opens.   Here comes the President in nothing but a towel.   As I raised up from almost under the bed, it definitely got his attention.   I apologized for not knowing he was back from horseback riding, and told him I would return at a later time.  

He put his hands on his waist, and I was hoping the towel would hold, and said, “No, if you are working on Mommy’s phone, we both should make sure we get that done”!  

He turned around and went to the shower.  I completed the install and departed rapidly.

Although the First Lady wasn’t happy that the phone wasn’t yellow the only thing, she wanted to know was a specific date that her phone would be installed.

Chief of Staff Donald Regan                                                                                                                                                by Scott Downey/Brad Colip/Richard LePere · 

Donald Regan was Ronald Reagans White House Chief of Staff in the Presidents second term in office. He was given a tour of the WHCA setup on top of the hill at the Ranch. Regan came into the room, never even acknowledged our presence, and just uttered “Oh this is that piece of shit that never works.” He promptly left and headed over to the radio/satcom trailer.

I remember on a couple of trips to the ranch, he wasn't happy with his hotel room and moved to a premium suite. Of course that required a fast re-install of his phone. We had to send someone out to check cable pairs, isolate the pairs and work the tone back to the hotel frame, then swing the cross connects. If you kept detailed cross connect records, you could have it working in 15 to 20 minutes. He would constantly complain about his phone service.

I think it was the First Lady that got him fired, because the switchboard had to keep 3 separate copies of the Presidential Call Log during his tenure as the Chief of Staff, whenever  he visited the Ranch . One copy for the First Lady, one for whom the Chief of Staff was calling, and one one who was calling in to speak to the Chief of Staff. He must have committed some sort of sin that pi**ed off the First Lady, and its rumored she eventually had the President fire him. Eventually things heated up so badly he eventually resigned.

Dr Henry Kissinger                                                                                                                                                                                                              by Marty Williams   

During the early Reagan years, Dr Kissinger was appointed Super Envoy and served almost as a shadow Secretary of State. Most of us got use to talking to him at Signal. As the second term wore down, there was less daily involvement. And he seemed kind of “out to pasture”. One day, at the Ranch, I was working the board when a call came in from a guy claiming to be Dr Kissinger. His voice was as American as mine. I had so many calls from the real HK in the past, I knew his voice well. “Hallo vite house, dis is dr Kissinger, would you get me de president”. I asked the caller to repeat himself. Again in clear English he said he was Kissinger and wanted to talk to the president. I said “Dr. HENRY Kissinger?” Yes, he said and for me to get him the president. Sir, says I, it’s been my pleasure to talk with Dr. Kissinger on many occasions and I’m am comfortably sure you are not he. He got upset and hung up. After a few minutes I thought, maybe someone was calling for Dr K or something strange like that. So, I called his residence. His wife answered and I said it was the White House calling, explained the situation and asked had Dr. Kissinger been trying to contact the president.

No, said she, but let me get him for you. Oh no, said I, no reason to disturb him. She told me that he was just sitting around bored and would love to chat with the White House. He came on the line with his distinctive tone and we chatted for about 15 minutes. Even the greats have the need for reaching out to familiar memories.

I’m shipped                                                                                                                                                                                    by Marty Williams

It was another easy day at the ranch. Rick Steiner and I were on the Ranch Switchboard. Nothing happening. Nothing on the schedule. A call came in for one of the agents on duty that day. Rick caught the call and called down to the command post to see if the agent was there. The agent on the desk told Rick that the agent he wanted was at the Tack Barn. Knowing the boss had been in the Tack room earlier, Rick asked where the president was at that moment. The agent said he was in the residence. So, Rick rang the secret service/staff line in the room adjacent to the tack room. It rang several times and then was answered with a “hello” (insert Reagan sounding voice here) Rick asked for the agent and got “no. Nobody here but me.” He said thank you and turned to me and said, man, I swear that sounded like the Boss. He’s better than you. (I used to do a pretty good Reagan impression),so we called down to the CP again to recheck on the location of the president. They confirmed that he was still in the residence. With this, Rick figured the guy who answered was doing a bit, so he called back down. “Hello.” “Hi there”, says Rick. “I do a pretty good Nixon impression”(which he did) “but I had to tell you that you do a GREAT Reagan!” A slight pause and “Well, Thank you very much. I’ve been doing it for 73 years,” the call ended, and Rick turned to me and said, “I’m shipped!” No such thing happened and apparently RWR thought it was kind of funny…

I remember the Boss’s call to the Queen of England during this same trip and I was logging it into the call log. I found out that the queen’s official title was going to be longer than the allotted space on the log. There was no way we could shorten anything and have it still make sense. In the end it was decided to just use D.O.F. (Defender Of The Faith).

I had the privilege of meeting Queen Elizabeth in February or March of 1983. She was in the United States for a visit to San Francisco and the President's ranch. I was on press plane duty which meant I was travelling with the White House Press corps. Like most trips there were always things that stood out. One of them was the fact that someone had lined the motorcade route with both United States and British flags. For an outsider the Union Jack is somewhat hard to tell when it is right side up but if course not so for a British citizen. Well, at random someone mistakenly placed a Union Jack upside down along the route and someone on the Queens detail must have noticed.

Fast-forward to the Queens Royal Yacht sitting by a dock in the San Francisco harbor. President Reagan boards the Yacht and the British just for a moment raised the US Flag upside down then immediately lowered it and put the flag right side up.

After a meeting on the Yacht and (it might have been the next day I don't recall anymore) we boarded Marine helicopters and flew down the coast to Point Mugu where due to bad weather we had to motorcade up to President Reagan's ranch. It had been raining HARD! So the road to the ranch was under water at stream crossing's. The press was in a 12 or 15 passenger van. Well, we start through the water (did I forget to mention that the water was flowing very hard?) The van started to get pushed towards the edge of a steep cliff. It caused a whole lot of pucker factor.

After the event at the Ranch we then flew down to Los Angeles for some events down the there. 

Doctor Hutton                                                                                                                                                                           by Marty Williams

While Switchboard does get to talk to many celebrities, politicians and even occasional royals. A/V and Radio got to “see” a lot of cool things. Occasionally switchboard would get to see an event. At the Ranch, we sometimes got to do what to us, though sometimes boring, was always kind of cool just to do. Whenever the Boss would go for a ride or to do some brush clearing on his 688 acre Rancho Del Cielo, there was a WHCA car of sorts that followed behind the secret service follow up. Later in the years, the secret service follow up was a Hummer, but at the time of the story, both their “Halfback” and our WHCA Car were army Jeeps with canvas covers. Well, this particular day I was excited because I was going to get to ride along. In the WHCA Jeep there was a radio guy driving and the duty Trip Officer (TO) in the passenger seat. Crammed in the back was me and next to me was the very newly appointed presidential doctor. I was impressed. I’d read that he was a noted surgeon from Walter Reed. I was sure the Boss was in good hands. About an hour into the ride, he reached into his bag, pulled out a book and started to read. After a bit, I glanced over to see what this highly trusted physician to the president was reading. I immediately recognized it. It was a thin, hard cover, green book with a big Red Cross on it along with bold letters saying FIRST AID! I let out an uncontrolled hoot… he laughed, and he assured me that for the kind of stuff he’d most likely have to deal with on a trail ride was more likely in that book than everything in his Medical field…

Rental Vehicles                                                                                                                                                                                                                   by Don Cammel

On the topic of rental cars, my hero was always Larry Little. Most of the Hertz/Avis agents always took care of the Trip Officer when he was renting his fleet of Trip cars for a site. The AVIS relationship in San Clemente almost became part of the WHCA family. For years, there was always a high profile vehicle or two that would end up as part of the fleet. It just happened that  someone showed up to pick up COL Schumann at a Trip location in a bright RED Cadillac.

Loading equipment getting ready to depart

He went totally Postal, and a memo was issued that forbid us from accepting anything considered a luxury car, convertible, or anything "flashy" was the wording. Larry was already on an Advance in Santa Barbara preparing for a visit to the ranch and driving a Cadillac. When he became aware of the memo, he went to the car agency and wanted to downgrade. It was not about price, because we were paying the same rate, but all about image. Several days went by but no luck, they were just out of cars during a Holiday season. It is rumored that this vehicle experienced a total failure of the headlights, and they had to bring in a replacement from Los Angeles. I never asked how hard you have to swing a tire iron to break a headlight! 

Telephone Support for President
President Reagan in the Oval Office
Type Of Activity	Presidential Travel Support
Location
Location	Travel communications support
Date of Activity	1985
Coordinates

Telephone Support for President Reagan                                                                                                                                                   by Kenneth W. Barbi KC3OYM kenbarbi@verizon.net                                                                                                                                                    (WHCA Trip Officer 1983 - 1986)

SECURE VOICE

The White House Communications Agency (WHCA) provided secure voice telephone support on the 18 Acre White House Grounds, and at all Trip Sites for President Reagan.  Our secure switchboard was called Cartwheel - - a water tower (Figure 1) - - located in Ft. Reno Park, Washington, DC.  When we visited the site, we could not wear uniforms nor could we have a military-base sticker on our car.  The STU-I (Figures 2 and 3) we used in 1984 was cumbersome.  A STU-I used data transfer speeds of 2400 to 4800 BPS over standard dial-up telephone lines, cost $35,000 per set, and had a weight of 250 pounds.

Washington secure phones and trip site secure phones would connect directly through standard analog telephone lines to Cartwheel for calls.  We did not have multiple trip site STU-I phones because there was only one unit deployed on each trip.

                               Cartwheel Water Tower- The WHCA Secure Switchboard Facility                                                                                                                   Photo from John Cross' whcacannonball.blogspot.com

Figure 2. STU - I Instrument   

Photo from the Crypto Museum

                                        Figure 3. STU - I Hardware with Instrument On Top of Cabinet                                                                                                                                                             Photo from the Crypto Museum

By 1986, we were using the new STU-III phones (Figures 4 and 5). They came in two colors - white and black. WHCA personnel had them in their homes with a White House security key for their work.  Both styles encoded voice into analog signals for transmission over copper wire on standard dial-up telephone lines. The STU-III was very easy to install anywhere where there was a standard telephone line.

Figure 4. STU - III Phone Photo from the Crypto Museum

Figure 5. President Reagan on a STU - III Phone Official White House Photo

CELLULAR PHONES

The only cellular phones at WHCA in the 1980's were the Motorola "Get Smart shoe size" DynaTAC 8000X phones (Figure 6) used as part of the original cellular feasibility study.  There was only service in Washington, and WHCA participated in that feasibility study  They never had a Presidential support role.  At the time, it was believed cellular phones were not reliable (having a 30 minute talk time and 10 hour recharge time), and not secure.  Cellular phones remained that way for some time, but thankfully are now secure and reliable.

Figure 6. Original Motorola DynaTAC 8000X Cell Phone

PAGING SYSTEM

In town and on the road, WHCA had a Motorola Paging System located at the Old Executive Office Building (EOB) Switchboard and at the Trip Site Hotel Command Post.  Both White House and WHCA Staff members were assigned a Motorola Pageboy II Pager (Figure 7).  The system worked very well although women had difficulty wearing the devices, as their clothing styles generally had no belts to clip them on, and they often fell from where they were clipped.

Figure 7. Motorola Pageboy II Pager

NON-SECURE VOICE

In the 1980's, our primary voice communications was non-secure analog voice over the same copper wire standard dial-up telephone lines we used for secure voice.

At the White House, there were two switchboards.  One was run by White House civilian staff operators for the public to call.  The other was the WHCA "Signal Board" for official use and for foreign governments to use to get in touch with the principals.  This latter facility (referred to as CROWN) was also the White House VHF, UHF, Nationwide, and the Motorola Paging System main control.  Nationwide was a UHF CONUS full duplex Air/Ground radio connection to Air Force One operated by WHCA, and supported by AT&T ground radios throughout the United States.  It operated on 415.7/407.85 MHz and was code named "Echo Foxtrot".  The Chesapeake & Potomac (C&P) Telephone company had a Number 5 Crossbar Switch (Figure 8) in the basement of the Old EOB next to the WHCA switchboard operator's room which provided phone service to all offices on the 18 Acre White House Complex - - our personal Centrex.  The Signal Board was a bank of "cord boards" where our operators knew at all times where the President was (and what phone to forward calls to) after they VETTED the caller.

Figure 8. C&P Number 5 Crossbar Switch

President Reagan never dialed a single number.  If he picked up the phone to call someone, our operators always answered by saying "yes please" because he might have been on a different phone or it might have been someone else, so they always wanted to be polite.  He might ask to speak to an old college buddy - John Smith - who he had never called before.  Through some sort of magic, our operators would figure out who John Smith was, where he was, his phone number, and get him on the line!

When wife, Nancy, called, it went right through.  If any foreign leader or head of state called, it went right through, albeit, a bit slower, because those kind of calls got allot of senior staff attention.  An interesting event occurred once when I was out of town. My wife called the Signal Board and asked to talk to me because our cat was stuck atop a tree in Annapolis, Maryland, where I lived.  The Signal Board operator immediately found me in Santa Barbara, California, and routed the call to me to help her - - WHCA is a family!

At Trip Sites, before the AT&T divestiture, things were easy because our AT&T representative would deal with all the individual companies.  We had an AT&T Washington Headquarters representative travel with us on trips.  Our central command post hub was a portable leased Dimension PBX (Figure 9) that was set up in a bedroom at the hotel where the White House Staff, Secret Service, WHCA, and the President stayed.

Figure 9. AT&T Dimension PBX

Setting up voice communications became trickier after the divestiture or if we were overseas.   US Telephone Company (Telco) contacts were identified to us in Washington before we left. The regional Telcos were used to our needs, but foreign telephone providers (often official government entities) were amazed at what we required.

In our hotel bedroom Command Post next to our Secure Communications Center, we had the trip city VHF radio command console, connected by Telco dry-pair copper to all the repeaters our radio teams had set up.  Dry-pairs are just wires with no battery and ground applied from the Telco central office. By 1985, everybody carried a Motorola Digital Encryption Standard (DES) secure VHF radio connected to their appropriate functional network. Prior to that, our radio nets were not secure which the press loved.  The press was really upset when we added the DES.

The Dimension Trip Site Switchboard would have one local published number with multiple central office trunk lines, one non-published number for emergency use (which Trip Officers could connect remotely from any phone such as a public coin-operated or private phone by dialing our access code to get full telephone connectivity for the President), trunk tie lines to other Trip Sites if it was a regional swing, and numerous trunk tie lines back to Washington.  To call a Trip Site Extension, you would dial the three digit number.  To call a Washington Extension you would dial 45 - wait for a dial tone - then dial your number.  To call the White House Signal Switchboard, you would dial 8. To call a local number, you would dial 9 - wait for a dial tone - then dial.  For long distance or the Trip Site Switchboard, you would dial 0. 

Beyond that, Telephone Companies had their hands full.  We ordered dedicated analog dry-pair circuits from the Dimension Trip Site Switchboard to every phone we wanted in town.  Most trips had over 100 lines.  The Dimension provided the battery and ground to operate these instruments.  There were many phone lines to the airport for Air Force One's arrival, emergency medical facilities where the President might have to be taken, event sites, holding rooms, under bleacher seats at sports venues, Marine One landing locations, White House Staff/Secret Service Agent/WHCA Personnel hotel rooms, event halls, and McDonald's Restaurants (if the President planned to eat a Big Mac).

Western Electric 500 Series phones (Figure 10) were installed.  It was a large grid of copper connected spoke and hub, which usually took a week or more to set up. Every line had to tested, and have a phone plugged into it.  After the trip, we had to go out and reclaim every one of the phones.  Woe to someone who absconded with a WHCA phone.

 Figure 10. Western Electric 500 Series WHCA Telephone with Appropriate 

Labels shown in Figure 12 at a Parsippany, NJ, Trip Site

Occasionally, we would have to commandeer a public coin-operated or private phone to establish a connection to the Dimension Trip Site Switchboard for the President should he stop somewhere unexpectedly.  We placed this label (Figure 11) on the phone to protect it from getting hung up, and left it off-hook lying there ready for use.

Figure 11. DO NOT HANG UP LABEL from a Trip Officer Trip Book

We carried roles of labels (Figure 12) to affix to phones.

Figure 12. Roles of Labels for Any Occasion

We had what many called a Bluff Label (shown in a role at the bottom right of the above stack) (Figure 13) to discourage theft which did reduce our losses!

Figure 13. Bluff Label

AIR FORCE ONE TELEPHONE SERVICE

Air Force One is operated by the 89th Airlift Wing of the United States Air Force at Joint Base Andrews.  Whenever Air Force One landed, the plane - then a VC-137C Boeing 707-353B tail number 27000 - was met by a WHCA Trip Officer.  The Trip Officer would plug two land lines (always Extension 201 and 202 connected to the Dimension Trip Site Switchboard) into a small compartment under the cockpit in front of the wheel well of the plane.  This was a job I did many times as depicted in Figure 14.  The President's pilot, USAF Col Robert Ruddick, never wanted a "follow me" truck to meet him at airports.  He was pre-briefed and knew exactly where to taxi to his precise parking spot.  That's where a Trip Officer would stand (the target perhaps) with the plane coming straight at them ready to plug it into the Dimension Trip Site Switchboard.  No one ever got run over!

                                              Figure 14. Major Barbi Plugging AF One Immediately After Landing in Cincinnati, Ohio, in Oct 1985                                                                      Official White House Photo 

The Telco responsible for the lines had to use a then standard Four-Prong Connector (Figure 15) that fit the planes.  The Trip Officer had to make sure it was wired correctly (with no tip/ring reversal) and the lines were in the correct order on the pins.  We always carried spare Four-Prong Connectors just in case the Telco didn't have the correct plug.  It was especially important on overseas trips where they didn't exist.

Figure 15. Four-Prong Two Circuit Phone Plug

The two phone lines would be connected to the on-board communications center (Figure 16) operated by Air Force personnel and made available to everyone on the plane. CMSgt Jimmy Bull and SMSgt Jerry Rankin were President Reagan's operators. Those local "land lines" were a real savior on many occasions for Air Force One according to crew members.

                                                                                               Figure 16. President Reagan Visiting the AF One Communications Center                                                                                                                                                                                          with Operators CMSgt Jimmy Bull (left) and SMSgt Jerry Rankin (right)                                                                                                                       Official White House Photo

CONCLUSION

The telephone element of a Trip Site puzzle was a small piece of the action.  Our gear load filled a C-141 aircraft and took 50 or more WHCA troops to implement.  It still does today and is a marvel to see.  I hope more WHCA personnel will write about their experiences in future postings.

Ken Barbi is an Electrical Engineer and radio amateur KC3OYM who graduated from the City College of New York in 1968.  He received his commission in the Air Force in 1968 and came to WHCA in 1983 as an Air Force Major.  He served as a Plans Officer while in town, and as a Trip Officer on the road.  In the Plans Office, he acquired new Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS) Satellite Terminals and was the first to establish commercial Ku-Band satellite support for the President.  He retired after 26 years in the Air Force as a Colonel from the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), and now (as when assigned to WHCA) lives in Annapolis, Maryland.

WHCA Transforms Presidential Communications
Type of Activity	Modernizing Communications
Location
Location	Washington DC and Others
Date of Activity	1992 through Present
Coordinates	38°53'51.2"N 77°02'20.9"W

From the time that I left the White house Communications Agency in 1974 to the present day the challenge for WHCA is to ensure the Agency consistently provides leading-edge technologies that enable the President and his staff to lead the nation effectively. In its role as the premier service provider for presidential communications, WHCA not only showcases Defense Department capabilities during all presidential events, but also the capabilities of the most technologically advanced country in the world as WHCA travels globally supporting the President in his role as head of state. 

WHCA’s challenge was to provide reliable, redundant, robust secure and non-secure voice, data and video to the president anywhere, anytime and by any means. The terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001, coupled with emerging requirements from a tech-savvy administration, highlighted the need for reliable, real-time, secure information flow to the President and his staff. 

Col. Michael D. McDonald, USAF (Ret.), saw a lot of changes in presidential communications systems during his three-year tenure as the commander of the White House Communications Agency (WHCA)—changes that went into high gear after the terrorist attacks. Although a lot has been accomplished, the colonel says continued improvements will help the President and his staff take full advantage of the benefits of technology. WHCA's commander, captures the essence of this aggressive modernization plan thus: With the right technological solutions, we intend to transform WHCA — all components — into a fully integrated, network-centric organization. With a rapidly deployable command, control, communications, computers and intelligence packages that allow us to put together a secure presidential communications support team anywhere in the world within 72 hours once we receive an execute mission.

WHCA, which is in Washington, D.C., is truly a joint agency staffed by members of all the armed forces. Its responsibilities include providing the President and his staff with information systems both at the White House and on the road, so he can communicate with the military forces at every level.

WHCA is organized into six operational units. Three of these units are the presidential communications commands that travel to a location before the president arrives and set up the communications hub. All the capabilities that the President has at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue literally need to move with the president. The President must have these capabilities at his disposal whether he’s at a location stateside, on Air Force One, HMX-1 [Marine Helicopter Squadron-1] or anywhere he goes in the world. This includes both classified and unclassified capabilities.

The remainder of the units supports specific missions. The Washington Area Communications Command provides the fixed infrastructure that facilitates all White House communications. Audio and video capabilities at locations outside of Washington, D.C., are the responsibility of the Visual Information Command. For example, this unit established the two-way videoconferencing systems. 

Today WHCA’s technologies mirror those found throughout industry and the civilian world. Previously, the communications setup was designed as a single system that met the needs of the President. Now, it is a system of systems, and WHCA is in the process of incorporating an Internet protocol [IP] supported network.

Specifics of this information technology transformation plan include a realignment of core functions and missions in WHCA, coupled with a myriad of technological upgrades. Many of the improvements to systems began prior to September 11. At the end of 2000, the U.S. Defense Department assessed the state of the president’s communications capabilities. This was DOD looking at DOD support to the commander in chief.

WHCA started looking at each one of the stovepipe systems the Agency had and looking at their capacities and capabilities, what Internet technology could provide, and began moving down that path. WHCA hit everything from the office phones to the mobile systems that travel with the president on the road to the aircraft and have been moving down that road, evaluating all applications.

Figure 1 . White House Communications Agency current support for daily operations.

Figure 1 above depicts how WHCA supported daily operations prior to September 11 for the President and his staff. As this illustration indicates, there were separate infrastructures to support multiple voice, data, video and radio systems. Each of these systems requires an extensive amount of labor to install, operate and maintain. WHCA didn't have the personnel on hand to operate and maintain all these disparate systems. Couple this issue with support of the travel mission using scenarios, required a substantial financial investment in IT equipment and services was required. 

A light bulb went on, and a lot of the equipment—while it still worked and could still provide service—probably would not meet the information needs that would be coming along in 2000 and onward. What September 11 did was underscore everything that the DOD had noted. WHCA had already begun a massive effort, and by September 11 it had a good idea of what was needed to do. Then the terrorist attacks happened, which created an even greater sense of urgency.

The assessment that WHCA completed revealed approximately 41 projects that required work. WHCA singled out 11 of the largest and most complex to hit first. Known as the Pioneer Project, this work included upgrading all the IP networks supporting WHCA’s portion of the White House operation. It converged data, voice and video on those networks. It brought a new mobile band to the table that was IP capable. It brought new technologies to the Red Switch, the secure voice environment. It also expanded the use of various military communications satellites. 

Those things are now coming to fruition. It’s a long-term plan that will continuously upgrade the President’s communications and keep them upgraded. Col MacDonald claimed that the changes that have taken place have improved communications tenfold over the past three years. 

What the country needed that day was a homeland security equivalent of the military’s Global Command and Control System, and nothing like that exists in the civilian world. The lack of connectivity at that point in time made life interesting.

The Federal Aviation Administration had the right type of systems in place and that is why it could assess the situation and direct aircraft to land safely, but the White House needs the same kind of situational awareness, the colonel states.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security must determine how to link all the people in different areas of homeland defense and security, such as local fire departments and emergency personnel, by applying the right technology. 

Col. McDonald emphasizes that the events of September 11 resulted in more than just upgrades in technology. The WHCA now works very closely with other agencies like the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Office of Naval Research and is teaming with industry. Teaming arrangements have been put into place, and new teams continue to be formed.

This would have happened eventually, but it would have been much slower. Many companies have been working with WHCA, and companies, on their own dime, did a lot of integration and experimentation in order to help WHCA provide robust services.

A huge amount of innovation has emerged from the events of September 11, For example, videoconferencing onboard Air Force One, made possible by IP networking, will allow personnel to send and receive e-mail as well as to take advantage of voice over IP communications. “The challenge we now face is that we have to move faster and not just in the military but in the White House as well. Now, whenever the president goes somewhere, 20 to 25 people must deploy to the destination five to seven days in advance of the president’s arrival. 

We need to expand the use of IP so that only 10 people are needed, and they can deploy only 72 hours in advance of the President anywhere in the World.

Force transformation 

Recognizing the need to create a more streamlined, fully modernized communications-support agency in response to the events of September 11, 2001 — and the unprecedented levels new presidential communication commands were created. Camp David, the agency's remote detachment at Thurmont, Md., was also re-flagged as a subordinate command, providing telecommunications support for the presidential retreat. 

September 11 also exposed challenges in providing secure, redundant communications support for the President and his staff. After the initial attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the White House lines had an immediate impact involving WHCA was a sudden surge in secure voice traffic and the White House staff was literally waiting in line to use secure data communications.

Mobilized by the September 2001 events, WHCA quickly assessed critical communications-support systems for the President and his staff. WHCA realized that it must provide an infrastructure that assures communications for the President and his staff under all threats providing reliable and redundant communications support.

Systems supporting these missions must be redundant, secure and reliable in a global environment faced with significant information-assurance challenges, from day-to- day operations through crisis management and national-security emergencies. Therefore, the primary goal of providing the President and his staff with capabilities consistent with "corporate executives in the corporate environment" requires a major paradigm shift in the way WHCA currently does business. In order to meet these requirements and the growing expectations from the President and his staff for instantaneous, global, secure, redundant and reliable communications support.

What WHCA has done

Overhauling the agency's aged and failing legacy computer systems has been an ongoing project. Our most recent achievement in this endeavor was successfully fielding encryption cards and computer systems to WHCA and WHMO staff members for sending secure email transmissions. Upgrades to our special-mission circuit program include digitizing key communication links using secure terminal equipment and installing voice-over-Internet-protocol voice/ data equipment, upgrading both secure and unsecure video conferences with his senior staff and advisers. Technical upgrades to Air Force One include installing live DirecTV, providing real-time information concerning world events to the President and his staff.

Specifically, a converged network will enable WHCA to integrate its five divergent networks into a single architecture supporting all voice/ data/ video requirements, while simultaneously expanding and improving service to the president and his staff regardless of location.

Figure 2. The illustration shows converging and streamlining network architectures
into one seamless converged data and voice system. 

Also, events of 9-11 highlighted the criticality of our secure voice system and its vulnerabilities. A massive effort is currently ongoing to modernize our secure voice systems supporting the president and his staff. This includes new equipment and software upgrades, coupled with the installation of Real Time monitoring technologies.

To enable real-time monitoring of deployed systems and assets, WHCA network engineers designed a state-of-the-art operations center, modeled after the Defense Information Systems Agency's Global Network Operations and Security Center. This operations center stood up Sept. 1, 2002, providing 24 hours a day, seven days a week support for our travel and fixed communication sites. Embedded in this new command-and-control facility are network monitoring tools and firmware systems, enabling us communications managers to make informed decisions in reallocating resources to meet priority needs.

In 2002 the Special Missions Command was established and handles communications for unique missions in fixed locations such as Camp David or the President’s personal estate, this mission has remained largely unchanged through present day. When the Government updated their contingency operations orders and plans in 2003, WHCA was tasked with creating and maintaining a Continuity of Operations facility that would ensure all services being provided by WHCA would be available should a major issue affecting Washington DC cause services to be limited. In late 2003 WHCA opened the Signal Support Element which established a facility outside of Washington, DC designed to ensure communication reliability for the President and all White House staff and supporting various Government Agencies.

In 2015 as the Agency and Special Missions Command began supporting All White House computer and network requirements it was discovered that a more robust call center was required to supporting the increase of over 3,000 White House customers. The Command was again called upon to solve a major issue facing the Agency. In late 2015 the Special Missions Command stood up the White House Information Technology Service Call Center at Camp David and began providing unprecedented support to the newly converted White House staff. As the travel and customer service requirements began to pick up it was determined that with the changing technology and pace required a change in how the Command trained and equipment it provided its members. 

At the beginning of 2016 the Special Missions Command conducted a major personnel and mission capability shift which established a team of well-rounded and highly cross-trained members. Out of this needed change was born the Special Missions Command, a Cross Functional Team which assumed the enormous task of providing all travel and Emergency Action support for the President while at Camp David, the President and Vice President while at their private residence and routine travel support for the President and Vice President around the world.

Next steps

Through its government-industry partnership outreach program, WHCA is developing strategic partnerships with key government organizations and industry officials to fulfill these critical communications requirements for the president and his staff. These relationships bring the WHCA modernization team together with the strength and expertise of government agencies and industry to solve complex telecommunication problems. Cooperation through this initiative has yielded a variety of partnership opportunities including DISA, USSS, Navy Research Lab, National Security Agency, National Security Council, U.S. State Department, Cisco, Dell, Compaq, Avaya, and SAIC — to name a few. WHCA’s goal in this endeavor was to reduce support costs and improve the readiness of WHCA's telecommunication systems through innovative government/ industry partnerships. 

Results of current teaming efforts with our industry partners include testing a myriad of wireless devices. Specifically, we're testing a new generation of high-speed mobile services including data-enabled wireless phones, virtual private- network systems, pagers, computers, printers and personal digital assistants using 802.11, infrared and Bluetooth technologies. As mobile computing and telephony converge, the challenge is to overcome the lack of robust authentication solutions to support these smart mobile devices. WHCA is currently working with NRL, NSA and leading industry counterparts to remove those obstacles.

The goal is developing and fielding an NSA-approved, secure encryption standard that provides end-to-end integrated security in wireless and wired environments for the president and his staff. A new mobile communications van placed in service in 2018 replaced WHCA’s aging Roadrunner fleet used to support presidential-motorcade movements. These state-of-the-art replacement vehicles were developed with NRL's assistance. These new vehicles will provide highly capable, robust, mobile communications platform providing secure streaming video, data and secure communications to the presidential limousine and support vehicles.

The way ahead

As WHCA expands the boundaries of its enterprise network to the President and his staff, a highly mobile, scalable, IP based, secure communications infrastructure will meet those demands. This new infrastructure will enable WHCA to reduce their operational footprint and rapidly disperse a critical workforce (and other) resources to meet multiple mission requirements while simultaneously providing significantly enhanced telecommunications support to the President and his staff. Riding on a single-converged-network platform, these communication packages will provide increased bandwidth to our fixed and travel locations, secure commercial wireless-communications support and seamless network connectivity between fixed and travel locations.

Also, maximizing the use of commercial-off-the-shelf telecommunication products and collaborating with industry/ agency counterparts ensures that WHCA remains on the leading edge of proven, reliable and new technologies supporting the President and his staff.

The Reagan Presidential Library
Main Entrance to the Reagan Library
Type Of Activity	Visiting the Reagan Presidential Library
Location
Location	Simi Valley CA
Date of Activity	May 6 2012
Coordinates

 In May of 2023 my son (Robert) and I flew to Los Angeles to tour the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, even though I was no longer a member of WHCA, much of the communications used in 1980 had not changed since I left the Agency in 1973. There was a working teleprompter that I checked out, a Camp David exhibit, and Reagan Ranch (Rancho del Cielo) exhibit. It was a real pleasure to tour the museum and the Air Force 1 Pavilion, Where I could once again, see the oval Office, Air Force One (27000), Marine One, and the Presidential Limo.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, is a prominent and well-regarded institution dedicated to the life and legacy of the 40th President of the United States. The Reagan Presidential Library is a must-visit for anyone interested in American politics and history. It offers a comprehensive look at Ronald Reagan's life, presidency, and the significant events that occurred during his time in office.

THE REAGAN MUSEUM

Main Entrance

Entering the Library with the statue of President Reagan at the entrance

The Ronald Reagan Museum houses a vast collection of artifacts, documents, and interactive exhibits that provide insights into Ronald Reagan's personal and political life. from his early years to his Hollywood career, his time as Governor of California, and his two terms as President We were able to explore various aspects of his presidency, from his economic policies to his stance on foreign affairs. There are 18 galleries that pay tribute to America’s 40th president and his accomplishments by capturing his patriotic spirit, his respect for individual liberty, his belief in global democracy and his support of economic opportunity.

Views of the surrounding area from the Reagan Library

The Museum is situated on a stunning hilltop location with picturesque views of the surrounding area. The setting alone is worth the visit, as it provides a serene and peaceful atmosphere. The Reagan Library rests on a majestic hill overlooking the breath-taking topography of Southern California.  The 100-acre campus, with picturesque views reaching out to the Pacific Ocean, lush gardens, and a serene setting, pays tribute to one of the nation’s most liked leaders.

Teleprompter, Camp David & Rancho del Cielo Exhibits

I had to try using the Teleprompter 

Bob chose to take a horse ride at Rancho del Cielo

Ronald Reagan always loved the outdoors and made sure to make time for nature during his presidency. Camp David and Rancho del Cielo, his two retreats while in office, allowed for the president to relax and ride his beloved horses. Rancho del Cielo, also known as the Western White House, was the private residence of President and Mrs. Reagan located in the Santa Ynez Mountains of California.

My home for five years

The Camp David Exhibit

Camp David is a presidential retreat, its facilities maintained today by the US Navy Seabee’s. Camp David was built during the Roosevelt administration and allowed for seclusion while still having quick access to the White House in Washington. The President could also host heads of state and other guests in a secluded and peaceful environment.

I was assigned to WHCA at Camp David for five years as a microwave radio technician installing and maintaining the M/W, FM radio and telephone systems necessary for daily operations at the facility, as well as supporting the President and USSS when visiting the site.

The Oval Office

The Reagan Library offers a full-scale replica of the Oval Office during the Reagan presidency. Featuring Ronald Reagan's Oval Office desk, this exhibit allowed us to step into the Oval Office and get a sense of what it was like for the President during the time he occupied the office. 

Ronald Reagan's Oval Office desk

Replica of Ronald Reagans Oval Office

Air Force One Pavilion:  

One of the most popular exhibits at the Reagan Library is the Air Force One Pavilion. Opening in 2005, the Air Force One Pavilion features multiple historic Presidential transportation exhibits and the Annenberg Discovery Learning Center, and it is the highlight of the Library. The Air Force One Pavilion at the Reagan Library is one of Southern California’s “must-see” destinations!

The upper floor of this three-floor exhibit starts with the Mezzanine Gallery. The Museum highlights President Reagan’s face-to-face diplomacy with world leaders on economic relations, strategic relations, and arms control as he travels on Air Force One. The Secret Service and their role in protecting the President while he travels displays on a gallery wall on this level.

Air Force One Pavilion

SAM (Special Air Mission) 27000, better known as Air Force One, flew 444 missions and carried seven presidents from 1972 to 2001.

President Richard Nixon first used the plane in 1972, and famously traveled to his San Clemente, California home following his resignation in 1974. President Ronald Reagan sent predecessor

President Jimmy Carter to West Germany to greet the 52 American hostages freed from Iran in 1981. 

Reagan used Air Force One more than any other president, registering over 660,000 miles aboard the plane. President George H.W. Bush was the last to use the SAM 27000 model as a primary means of transportation, and President George W. Bush was the last to use it as Air Force one when he and First 

Lady Laura Bush flew to TSTC Waco Airport in 2001.

SAM 27000 was retired to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in 2001. See it through the years in today’s gallery.

Telephone Access Panel in the Nose of AF1

There is a small access door in the nose of 27000 where we would plug in the two telephone lines for the aircraft and the ramp phone, a four prong plug, upon all arrivals and unplug at departures.

The second floor of the Pavilion focuses on the history of Air Force One, Explore a 120’ mural which represents all 22 aircraft that has ever flown a U.S. president.  It also showcases the Stan Stokes’ mural, History of the Flying White House, featuring aircraft from FDR’s Dixie Clipper to the current Boeing 747.  

Air Force One Pavilion

We are about to start our tour of AF-1

The Air Force One Pavilion, allowed us to step aboard the actual Air Force One aircraft a Boeing 707 that was used by President Reagan during his time in office. 

 AF-1’s Cockpit

 27000’s (Angel) Radio Room

    The tour gave me a chance to see the Radio Room again, where I had spent so many hours on the ground communicating with 26000 and 27000 from various trip sites around the world, while I was with WHCA It's a unique and immersive experience that gives you a sense of what it was like to travel as the President of the United States and see the many places where he spent time working, meeting with advisors, and relaxing with his family.

The President’s office aboard Air Force One

This Flying White House, tail number 27000, served seven U.S Presidents from 1973 to 2001, including Presidents Nixon, Carter, Ford, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush. For Ronald Reagan, this was the plane in which he hand-wrote many of his speeches, signed important legislation and even officially started the Daytona Beach, Florida NASCAR race via phone.

But the Air Force One Pavilion is about more than just his plane. The lower floor of the Pavilion also has the Marine One Gallery, which showcases President Lyndon Johnson’s Marine One helicopter.

The Cockpit  of Marine One

The interior of Marine One

We were  able to tour the actual Marine One helicopter that flew President Johnson.

Marine One

I am standing near the phone jack on Marine One

 I have a lot of history with this chopper. When I was with WHCA during LBJ’s and Richard Nixon’s presidency, I would plug in the telephone lines at many arrivals and departures including President Nixon’s at the Western White House in San Clemente.

On the Lower Floor It has a presidential motorcade featuring President Reagan’s 1984 parade limousine, and a secret service suburban as part of an exhibit on presidential motorcades, which rounds out the Presidential transportation exhibits. The presidential limousine is always preceded by the lead car, LAPD used a normal police vehicle,  a standard equipped 1982 Chevrolet Impala converted for this purpose. LAPD has also been using two lead Kawasaki  motorcycles to provide additional protection for presidential motorcades since 1976. 

LAPD lead car and lead motorcycles

The USSS’s follow-up Vehicle

The Secret Service motorcade follow-up vehicle, also known as the "Halfback", is a specially outfitted Chevrolet Suburban that follows the President's limousine in the motorcade. It is staffed by Secret Service agents who are responsible for providing additional security to the President and their family.

President Reagan’s parade limousine also known as Stagecoach, was a modified 1984 Cadillac Brougham d'Elegance that is heavily armored, and has a 76 millimeter higher roof, a telephone system, rear bumper platforms and grab bars for security agents as well two special headlights, which were only intended to illuminate the flags waving on the front fender standard holders.

President Reagan’s  parade limousine

We were able to walk around the Limo and could see the vehicle up close, but not close enough to see if the FM radios were installed. The USSS used these radios for the security measures in place for the President's transportation. The limousine did have the phones installed in the rear seat.

President Reagan’s personalized license plate

The Ronald Reagan  Ballyporeen, Irish Pub

The Ronald Reagan Pub is located at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California. It is a popular spot for visitors to the library, and is known for its casual atmosphere and pub fare. Experience the actual Irish pub from Ballyporeen, Ireland when he visited on a diplomatic trip in 1984 which now sits within the Pavilion and serves as the Library’s snack shop. The entire interior was dismantled (bar and all!) and shipped to California to become the Ronald Reagan Pub which sits under the wings of Reagan's retired Air Force One.

Visitors can also enjoy refreshments in the “Ronald Reagan Pub” - an actual Irish pub which was donated to the Library from Reagan’s ancestral Irish village of Ballyporeen, Ireland.

Entrance to the Ronald Reagan Irish Pub

The Ronald Reagan Pub is a great place to relax and have a drink or a meal after visiting the library. The food is good, the drinks are cold, and the service is friendly.

Taking a break at the Ronald Reagan Irish Pub

Time to rest and enjoy a brew

BERLIN WALL

This exhibit showcases a section of the Berlin Wall, a powerful symbol of the Cold War era. Visitors can learn about Reagan's role in bringing about the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

A section of the Berlin Wall 

The Iron Curtain took shape following World War II as a fortified border between the nations of Eastern and Western Europe. But as an idea, the Iron Curtain stood for the profound division between communism and democracy, oppression, and freedom. The Soviet Union dominated life on the eastern side of the border and enforced its brand of communism in its satellite states. Ronald Reagan took on the enormous challenge of bringing down the Iron Curtain.

Since receiving the Wall, President Reagan’s wish has come true many have visited the Wall at the Reagan Library and learned its lesson of freedom and democracy for all.

Reagan's Memorial:

Located on the library's grounds, the memorial site is the final resting place of President Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan. It offers a peaceful and reflective space for visitors to pay their respects.

The Ronald Reagan Memorial at the Reagan Library

Ronald Wilson Reagan passed away on June 5, 2004, at the age of 93. His death induced an outpouring of respect, grief, and honor. Mourners around the world left flowers and trinkets at makeshift memorial sites. The former President laid in repose here at his Presidential Library on June 7-8, 2004. His casket then laid in state in the U.S. Capitol from June 9-11, 2004. Over 200,000 mourners made the journey to say their final goodbye to the former president. Dignitaries from 165 nations attended the public funeral held at the Washington National Cathedral. President Reagan was laid to rest during a private funeral service at sunset on June 11, 2004, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.

 The Memorial Site is on the western portion of the Library Campus and is adjacent to the Library’s piece of the Berlin Wall and the replica of the White House South Lawn.  The Memorial Site looks out toward the Pacific Ocean. Since I visited the grave site in 2012, Nancy Reagan was laid to rest beside President Reagan.

Remembering President Ronald  Reagan and the First Lady Nancy Reagan

Overall, the Reagan Presidential Library and Museum is a must-see for anyone interested in American history and politics. The museum's exhibits are informative, engaging, and well-presented. Visitors of all ages can learn something new about Reagan and his time in office.

Ronald Reagan's trip to ancestral home in Ballyporeen, Ireland in 1984

by Marty Williams

Ballyporeen 12

This didn’t happen on St Paddy’s Day, but it is my favorite Irish memory of my favorite Irish President. At the Economic Summit, in London, in June of 84, I was working the switchboard the morning after President Reagan arrived from Ireland. At just the time that the Trip Officer (TO) was bringing the White House Communications Agency (WHCA) Commander (CDR) through the Switchboard area, the Boss’s line rang in to my console. (For non-operators, when the Boss’s line went off you heard a loud, annoying, stress inducing, modulating tone), the pencil comes up and you start taking notes. With the Reagans two things could happen. One, Mrs. Reagan, could be calling. if she was, the conversation was going to be short, the information would be given quickly, and there would be no opportunity to have it repeated. The call might go something like this: “Crestview 5-4724” (click) and we’re done. You had better have gotten it all. (yes, that’s how folks did phone numbers in the old days).

Now if it were the Boss, it would most likely be a long conversation that could take a meandering route to what he wanted. Anything said along the way could be the call information and would need to be written on the Presidential Call Log for the archives. Obviously, I had the full attention of the CDR and T.O. The call went something like this: “Hello, Signal (the designator for the WHCA Switchboard). I have an unusual request for you, I probably shouldn’t bother you with it, I mean I asked my staff to take care of it yesterday, but I guess it didn’t happen. Well anyway, yesterday, when I was in Ballyporeen, Ireland, I was there because my grandfather came from there, so it was a kind of homecoming, well, there was this young woman I met there, she was a nurse who took care of war wounded in Baghdad. She was there for a homecoming too. I told my staff I wanted to talk some more to her, but I guess they didn’t come through. Her last name was (ok, here comes some help) Clancy.(some help) that would make her name (ok, here we go) Nurse Clancy. (Ahh) I shouldn’t bother you with this, its just too hard.” “Not a problem sir” “Well ok, give it a try”

So i went into action. The CDR and TO were giving me “the look”. I figured I needed information in another country. So I got on to the international operator. They got me to an Ireland information operator. And she got me to the Ballyporeen Switchboard operator. Yes, I said switchboard. The town still had an operator. I asked how many Clancy’s there were in town. She had about 30 listings for Clancy. But the most popular one was the Clancy Pub. I figured if anyone might know, a small-town pub might be a good place to start.

President Reagan enjoys a Brew at the Pub

I had her put me through. In a full brogue the proprietor answered. I explained that it was the White House calling and that President Reagan had met a Nurse Clancy the day before and wanted to talk to her again. I asked if he might know a Clancy who was a Nurse for war wounded in Baghdad who was home for a visit. “Sure and I do! It’s my daughter Margaret. MARGARET! Get your arse down here, the President of the United States wants to speak to you!” Margaret got on the phone, and I gave her a quick briefing. Then I called the president back. “Hello” “Mr. President, about your call to Nurse Clancy” “Oh, I know, that was too hard. Don’t worry about it. Thanks for trying” “Mr. President, do you still want to talk to her?” “Well yes” “Well sir, her name is Margaret and she’s on the line. Go ahead please”. Total time request to connect, less than six minutes. As he chatted with her, I realized I didn’t have a number for the log. So I retraced the call and got the Ballyporeen operator again. She gave me the number. Ballyporeen 12. The TO and CDR were duly impressed. A few minutes later the call came down and the boss called in again. “That was amazing, how did you do that?” “Magic Sir”. And though it may not qualify as “saving the day” it was an Oh Yeah! moment… Was privileged to have many of those over the years, but this is one of my favorites.

Rancho del Cielo

The President’s Ranch

Type Of Activity

Visiting the Reagan ranch

Location

Location

Santa Barbra CA

Date of Activity

April 21 2018 

Coordinates

WHCA’s Ku-Band Satellite Use

 Generic 13 meter Ku-Band Gateway Antenna

Type Of Activity

Establish communications link

Location

Location

Bonn Germany to Washington DC

Date of Activity

May1985 

Coordinates

38° 54′ 17″ N, 77° 0′ 59″ W

Rancho del Cielo

Type Of Activity

Reagan Ranch Support

Location

Location

Santa Barbra CA

Date of Activity

1980-1988

Coordinates

Secret Service Command Post at the Ranch

Telephone Support for President

President Reagan in the Oval Office

Type Of Activity

Presidential Travel Support

Location

Location

Travel communications support

Date of Activity

1985

Coordinates

WHCA Transforms Presidential Communications

Type of Activity

Modernizing Communications

Location

Location

Washington DC and Others

Date of Activity

 1992 through Present

Coordinates

38°53'51.2"N 77°02'20.9"W

The Reagan Presidential Library

Main Entrance to the Reagan Library

Type Of Activity

Visiting the Reagan Presidential Library

Location

Location

Simi Valley CA

Date of Activity

May 6 2012

Coordinates