IN THE SECRET SERVICE

IN THE SECRET SERVICE                     JERRY PARR & CAROLYN PARR
Posted:  March 29, 2014

  Meet Jerry Parr. In 1981, he was the agent standing next to Ronald Reagan when John Hinckley, Jr., stepped out of the crowd, intent on killing the president. "In the Secret Service" is an adrenaline-filled ride through the life of the agent who saved Ronald Reagan's life. Jerry spent much of his life as a silent eyewitness to history, with a gun at his fingertips. What motivates a man who is ready at a moment's notice to step into the path of a bullet? In "In the Secret Service, " you'll also follow Jerry's inner journey. That journey led him from the halls of the powerful to the streets of the poor in Washington, D.C., to the mountain passes of war-torn El Salvador to help orphans.You won't want to miss this insider's perspective on the Secret Service and a look into the heart of a man who was--and is--ready to sacrifice himself for another. At times heart-pounding, at times heartrending, this richly textured memoir of a Secret Service Agent will first move you to the edge of your seat, then to the depths of your soul.

HUBBY'S REVIEW:
I found this book to be very interesting about all of the different duties that the Secret Service are in charge of besides the counterfeiting which I knew about. They now have many more duties and some have come from that tragic day when President Kennedy was assassinated. Mr. Parr starts off with how he got into the Service and the duties that he started out doing at the very beginning. Hired maybe a year before President Kennedy death he was in store for a first hand at the rapid growth of the Secret Service. Also for much critique by the public, congress and the new man they were protecting Johnson. Changes were made some good like an increase in personal, more training hours etc. some were not so go and over time discarded. Because of this time he is promoted a little faster than normal but you still have to your job and his given an assignment of guarding foreign dignitaries’ when they come to this country and then he would also at times travel with the President depending on the country. There were some funny and interesting stories in this part. Sometimes he would be pulled for a campaign detail and then after Nixon left office he was on protection detail for President Ford and for President Carter just for a little while. By the time President Reagan was in office he was now a supervisor and he was one of the agents in charge. He would go over schedules and make every agent was up to date training wise and if an event was happening they would run scenarios multiple times days before the event. The day President Reagan was shot they had just ran through another scenario a few days before of if there was a shooting and going to the very same hospital they went. When the shooting happened he got his body around the President and pushed him the car. After they were in the they noticed he was having trouble breathing and that he was bleeding, he ordered the driver to go to the hospital where from there he got with hospital staff and then they made sure that know you was not authorized came into the er. He did mention that one of the doctors was from the service and he was able to find the wound in the lung. He did not find out about the other people being shot until a few hours later. This was a good book at a life of a Secret Service Agent and what they go through on a day to day basis. I got this book from net galley.