Secret Service

Lloyd Painter spoke about the role of the Secret Service and his experience as an agent. The Secret Service actually started under Abraham Lincoln’s administration, principally to combat counterfeiting, but they weren’t in the protection business until President McKinley was assassinated. Today, the Secret Service continues to protect both national leaders and visiting foreign dignitaries.

 

Lloyd didn’t start out with this career in mind, but instead spent five years as a naval intelligence officer. He was a crew member on the USS Liberty, and was wounded in the 1967 attack on the ship in the Mediterranean by Israeli forces. He eventually made his way into the secret service where he went on to spend 28 years as an agent, protecting presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Clinton.