Getting Stopped by the Secret Service - Army Navy Game, 2011

in #adventure10 months ago

How This All Started

Back in 2011, @afturner and I were invited to an Army vs Navy as a guest of a military member. Because of that, we had no seats and the game was 100% packed tight. We ended up sitting on the player's heated seats on the sideline for the entire time which was simultaneously very cool and anxiety inducing.

You'll have to excuse me, because I do not follow football at all and really had no idea what was going on most of the time. So I don't really know the terminology. However, each time that the players would return to the benches, Amanda and I would end up in the middle of the huddle with the coach and the players crowding around us yelling out plays. Then the TV cameras would come in and I must have looked like a deer in headlights there in the background.

Sitting on the side of the bench taking in the hot air blowing out.

Little did we know, but President Obama was about to show up to the game and sit right behind where I was positioned. All of a sudden, secret service started to pour in and surrounded us. The President walked across the field and shook hands and took pictures with various service members while I sat there on the side of the field trying to look like I somehow belonged there. (Also freezing my butt off!)

Obama sat down about 20 feet behind me up in the bleachers while secret service men lined up standing about 8 feet behind me in a row. They had the stereotypical glasses and earpieces that you see in the movies, and kept doing that thing where they put their hand up by their ear and talk, and then go back to standing up straight and putting their hands together.

@afturner and I were laughing and trying to take pictures of him while pretending to do selfies such as the following image.

I know he's in there, but couldn't find him in the photo

There were so many officers surrounding the President that I had a hard time getting a photo of him. Also I didn't want to get approached by a secret service member, so I tried to keep it cool. Finally I managed to get this next photo when a gap in the officers appeared.

All the hats made him easier to spot

We kept snapping off photos, and I was probably being that annoying guy, but how often do you get such an opportunity? At any rate finally we got over the excitement and started trying to follow the actual game. It was pretty cool because at one point the Navy Leap Frogs parachuted in which was cool to watch.

In the above video, you can See Obama sitting in the bleachers behind me (his head is turned away). You can use the photo above the video to reference his position.

A Misunderstanding

After the game ended, we met up with my sister-in-law, who was a photographer for the Leap Frogs at the time. I can't remember exactly what it was, but she urgently needed to either get something, or drop something off with another service member somewhere under the building.

As everyone was crowding out of the stadium, we got lost walking through a maze of passages trying to find the room where she needed to do her thing. Eventually we accidentally ended up in the room where the President's motorcade was parked and were spotted by a group of secret service men.

We turned around and continued our search around the facility, but kept accidentally ending up in some private area that was designated for Obama and his people. At one point we ended up in a meeting room, another point we ended up in a snack room. Then we went into a room where there was a single Presidential limo all on its own. We were starting to freak out, because we were just trying to find a particular guy and kept accidentally looking super suspicious!

Stopped in our Tracks

Of course we knew it would eventually happen, but finally, two secret service men seemingly popped out of nowhere in front of us, and one guy behind us. They started to question us but luckily my sis-in-law was able to explain what we were doing. It also helped that she was in uniform. We weren't doing anything weird, but I can see what it must have looked like!

A blurry photo I tried to quickly make without drawing attention to myself

After realizing what was going on, I overheard one of the service men radio someone and tell them that everything was ok. Apparently they had been monitoring us for about 30 minutes.

Finally we managed to find the person that we were looking for and everything was sorted out. It turned out that he was actually in the bigger room where the motorcade was located so we walked around for nothing.

Well, perhaps not completely for nothing. I now have this story, and the memory of it. We had a great laugh and have been talking about it for years now. I still don't know anything about football, but at least I got a bit of an adventure.


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Awesome. One time in Washington DC I walked up to a food Truck to order lunch. I ordered fries and when I reached up to grab them standing next to me was Harrison Ford, looking like a regular guy also ordering fries. I was surprised at how short he was. He seemed so big as Han Solo. I didn’t know what to say so I just said “How ya doin” he just looked at me, grinned his crooked grin.

On July 14th 1971, after the Bastille Day parade on the Champs-Élysées, with other cadets of the École navale (the French Naval Academy), we were invited to the garden party at the Élysée Palace, the residence of the French President.

There, we saw the President, Georges Pompidou and the Prime Minister, Jacques Chaban-Delmas. The President told us nothing, but Chaband-Delmas talked to us for several minutes. 53 years later, I still remember, while I often forget what I have done last week.

Dang, that's totally crazy. I know those big stadiums can be like a maze sometimes. My wife's cousin played for the broncos and one year we went to watch him play the colts in Indy. After the game he came and got us and took us down into the stadium where the bus was waiting to take them to the airport and all the players, coaches, and sports reporters were there. It was crazy! What a great memory for you!

because I do not follow football at all and really had no idea what was going on most of the time. So I don't really know the terminology.

Hehehhehe that makes the two of us, I don't understand jack about football and whenever I try to understand it my brain doesn't just take it, Lol I am tired of trying too hard as not all of us were born to like football.

Honestly I am that way about pretty much all sports. I have been a bit of a computer nerd my whole life. I did get into wrestling for a few years in school, but when football season came around, and the other wrestlers joined, I was like... nah!

Those would be some awesome seats! I've been courtside in NBA games but never in football! A very cool experience to have the president show up, and you got some nice shots too. That's a great memory, and the secret service didn't drag you off to some dark room for questioning!

I imagine the secret service must be pretty well trained and able to spot the difference between people who are lost, trying to get a glimpse of the president, or actually up to no good. In a way I was glad that they stopped us because it made me feel better about the president's safety. They were super courteous and respectful. I wish the cops had gotten the same training!

Police in this country just don't get adequate training, and there is no excuse for it. The secret service are some of the best trained federal agents, with good reason.

How's your son doing?

acá en mi país Venezuela, si se me acerca el presidente de veras que le diría unas cuantas cosas a la cara y no muy buenas precisamente..

Según mi criterio Obama fue un excelente presidente aunque mi favorito fue Kenedy, he leído mucho sobre el..

Si, Kennedy fue mi favorito tambien. Es horrible que se murio tan joven. Todavia tenia mucho que hacer para el pais.

Y lo más triste fue lo de John F. Kennedy Jr. también era muy admirado por mi.

Hahahaha... That was a funny story... 😂 Can't decide what was funnier, you recording the second video pretending to take a photo of the girlfriend, or imagining how you are constantly bumping into the wrong rooms and places with Secret Service guys...

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But, in the end, it's an unforgettable memory! 😃

It kind of sucks that I can't remember all of the specific details like I did right after it happened. There were a lot of little funny nuances that I didn't mention because it was so long ago now. It looked sooo bad but was totally innocent.

pretending to take a photo of the girlfriend

Dude.... The secret service guys were giving me serious hard looks when I was filming. lol!

Oh my, I can clearly understand how suspicious it must have looked. Imagine you walking around and just ending up in all the wrong places, certainly not a good look.
But you're right, it's the memories. The fact that you can now look back and have such a good laugh. Must have been such an exhilarating moment. Really nice.

It was an interesting experience for sure. And the memories are great!

Haha, this was kinda hilarious, thank Goodness it's a memory now where you can just laugh over it. I know you kove adventures haha, so im sure you did enjoy the little time at the stadium with a bit of adventure.

Plus can you teach me how the reward.app works?

Yeah, it's pretty funny looking back on it now.

As for reward.app, I am only just trying it out for the first time. When you create a post, you can set the beneficiary to reward.app and it does several things. 1% of the author rewards go reward.app, 4% of the author's rewards are paid out to voters (This can be adjusted to whatever you want) and the author receives 45% of the total post payout as liquid Hive and HBD. This is so you don't have to unstake to get your earnings. The guide: https://peakd.com/hive/@reward.app/reward-app-quick-guide-updated

Personally, I thought I'd use it for a few posts because I want to buy some packs for the Rise of the Pixels game that's coming out.

Wow, that looks good, I think I will try this out on my next post too. Thank you so much for the help.

I bet the reason why the secret service wasn't stopping you was they were too busy having absolute hilarious fun with you guys.

You know they were watching you the entire time and everybody in the entire secret service team knew what was going down... And it was this!

What you would give to have been hearing the other side of their conversation now...

Finally you bumbled your way to a great story and experience. Right on! That's dope!

#freecompliments

We were even having a conversation about that wondering what they must be saying on their radios. There is no way anyone actually thought we were a danger! At least I hope not.

popularity shower

I am not sure I understand the comment. What do you mean?

eso sí que fue una aventura presidencial, y con el hombre más importante y poderoso del mundo de esa época...

@tipu curate

Sorry, please curate posts not older than 1 day.