On the occasion of President Jimmy Carter's 100th birthday, his Secret Service official reflects on the mission of his life

Plains, Georgia — As a former President Jimmy Carter When he left the White House in 1981, few expected that his humble hometown of Plains, Georgia – population 557 – would become his launching pad into the world – including his U.S. Secret Service command.

“We flew from the middle of nowhere in Africa all the way back to nearby Americus, Georgia,” recalls Alex Parker, a longtime special agent under Carter who traveled to more than 140 countries with the 39th president.

Carter, a peanut farmer turned Navy submariner turned governor turned president turned humanitarian, received another title as he lived to be 100 years old on October 1st. The US Secret Service's longest protection mission.

A dangerous mission

Special Agent in Charge Bill Bush was one of the first Americans to cross the border into North Korea after the end of the Korean War when he accompanied Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter to the DMZ.

“The State Department and many other agencies told us, 'Hey, you can't carry weapons into North Korea – you can't do this, you can't do that,'” Bush said. “My question to them is always, 'Tell me how many times you've been to North Korea and what it's like there?' And of course no one had ever been.

Bush laughed as he explained the surprisingly pleasant cooperation between US intelligence and North Korean security forces. “We have never been treated nicer anywhere or in any country,” added Bush, who traveled to 127 countries with the Carters.

The senior Secret Service agent also secured Carter's dangerous mission to Haiti in 1994, commissioned by President Bill Clinton and aimed at averting a full-scale U.S. invasion.

“President Carter called me at home and said, 'I need you to pack a bag, we're going to Haiti tomorrow morning,'” Bush said. Just before he took off from Andrews Air Force Base, he learned that he would also be tasked with protecting two other top envoys: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell and Senator Sam Nunn.

Peace in the Middle East

In his mission as chief peacemaker, Carter regularly ignored warnings from intelligence officials and instead pushed his protective bubble into war zones and humanitarian crises.

“Sometimes when we had bad information, I would bring it to him and have him read it,” Parker said. “He sat there and read it and then finally wrote his initials on it – to sign it.”

In 2008, Carter planned an ambitious tour of the Middle East that included meetings with Hamas leaders in Gaza. US intelligence had been warned to cancel the trip after threatening intelligence emerged in the region.

“He handed me (the information) and said, 'Alex, we're moving on.'”

On the flight home from Egypt, Parker said the former president's words stuck with him. “'Alex,' he said, 'I will spend the rest of my life bringing peace to Israel and the Palestinians.'”

A valuable detail

The dangerous mission of traveling around the world with Carter was not without its advantages.

On the night Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, he called Parker – his main agent at the time – with a strange request.

“'Alex, let's have a little meeting so we can take a picture,'” Parker said, recalling the former president's request. Carter wanted him to call in all of his Secret Service agents.

“We took a picture of all of us holding it and surrounding him and Ms. Carter on the steps… He said to me – he said, 'You're a part of this too. I want you to share (the prize) with us, so let’s take a photo.”

Protect Rosalynn Carter

Another reward for the agents assigned to the Carter Command was the protection of former First Lady Rosalynn Carter.

“She was just such a gentle person — there was nothing about her that didn’t make you feel welcomed or welcome,” said Nick Steen, who led Carter’s command from 2017 to 2019.

And while the former president rarely waited for command because of his obsession with punctuality, current and former agents described Rosalynn Carter as patient and understanding.

While agents reported occasional arguments, the lasting impression was of the couple's enduring affection. Agents might catch them holding hands in the back seat.

Even in their late 90s, the Carters occasionally went for a joyride. During their final appearance at the annual Peanut Festival Parade in Plains, the two took a spin in a red 1946 convertible. Special Agent in Charge Don Witham drove the four-wheeled gift from country singers Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood that marked the Carters' wedding year, while the Carters beamed in the back seat.

“There was a light in his eye that reminded me of days when we would take him out for peanut butter ice cream,” Witham said.

A President's Pastimes

Fly fishing wasn't the only hobby overseen by Carter's command. When Carter, then in his late 50s, began skiing, members of the Secret Service were sent to a ski school in Colorado.

“The president had never skied before,” Bill Bush explained. “And so he and Ms. Carter took lessons in Colorado. I picked a group of agents and went to school in Colorado. It was a tough school…but we became pretty good skiers.”

Alex Parker ran alongside the former president for 21 years, often crisscrossing the back roads of the farmland that surrounded Carter's home of Plains, Georgia, or jogging in foreign cities.

“He was competitive and always trying to tire me out,” Parker said. “I was a lot younger, but he kept up.”

The special agent occasionally ran backwards so he could speak to the president face-to-face in the middle of training. “And it would make President Carter angry,” he chuckled.

After a particularly strenuous nine-mile run in Hawaii, Parker was warned not to push the president, a message conveyed by the first lady.

An efficient traveler, Carter gained a reputation for napping in the car while agents took him from point A to point B.

“He had a special pillow for our rides, and you would have been better off having that pillow,” joked Nick Steen, former special agent in charge from 2017 to 2019.

“It’s 10 miles from Plains to Americus,” Parker said of the drive to the nearest airport. “He would be snoring when we got there.”

“One day I said, 'Mr. President, how can you fall asleep so quickly?'” Parker continued. “He looked at me and said, 'Alex, my consciousness is clear.'”

An aging mission

As the Carters grew older, so did the mission, and agents consistently planned for the worst-case scenario: medical evacuations. “‘We always had a doctor with us,” Steen said, “which isn’t always the case for a former president.”

EMT teams traveled to remote locations with the former president's command. Even in his 90s, Steen remembered Carter's very active life. “I took him to two Habitat for Humanity buildings. We went fishing in Mexico. It was tiring for me, so I guess he was exhausted by it too, but he did it anyway.”

Don Witham recalled that even at the age of 98, Carter often asked to drive a car, even though former presidents are not allowed to drive vehicles on the open road.

“He definitely knew what he wanted and he would make it clear to you,” Witham said. “I tried to approach it in a sensible way to explain that he doesn’t have a driving licence. And he asked, 'Where is the nearest driver's license agency?'” single closing quote

Last July 4, agents briefly took the former president to nearby Americus to watch the fireworks. The former Marine veteran who was there Hospice care since February 2023He sat in a hidden place for 45 minutes and enjoyed the performance with some agents.

“At 99 and nine months old, he wanted to watch the fireworks. That’s how patriotic he is,” Witham said.

Sunday school and life lessons

Codenamed “Deacon” by his agents because of his love of Scripture and devotion to his faith, Carter rarely missed an opportunity to teach Sunday school at his local church. The former president appeared almost weekly at the Maranatha Baptist Church – a modest, one-story house of worship filled with wooden pews and surrounded by mint green walls and olive green carpets.

“No matter where we were or what we were doing, he would be home Saturday night so he could prepare his lessons for Sunday morning,” Nick Steen said.

Even after he was no longer fit to teach, Carter regularly attended services, his wheelchair parked near the front pew while his lead agent sat in a folding chair behind him.

“One Sunday in particular, the sermon was about making the world a better place,” remembers Don Witham. “And (the former president) very quietly bowed his head and said to himself, 'I tried.' And I reached forward and put my hands on his shoulders and said, 'And sir, you did that.'”

“This moment was special for me because as a 98-year-old he still wonders if he has done enough,” Witham continued. “Even though he was in Africa eradicating disease. He built houses for people who hadn't done enough.

“He was so condemned,” Steen said. “In his faith and his desire to make the world a better place.”

Together, Bush, Parker, Steen and Witham represent 46 years of service to former President Jimmy Carter, but only a fraction of the hours they spent providing around-the-clock protection for the 39th president since 1976.

“He will be remembered as a humanitarian who tried to help the world,” Bush said with a smile.

“I have to say,” Parker added of his former boss, “mission accomplished.”