Officers Vie to Escort VIPs

For President Bush's inauguration Jan. 20, 2005, military assistants, joint honor cordons and joint ushers prepare to go to the Capitol platform. (Tech. Sgt. Cherie Thurlby)

The selection process began in September when the committee e-mailed a letter to local military installations requesting applications, Millmann said.

Many of the services did an internal screening first. The committee got about 100 applications, which were whittled down to 90, and then 70, from which about 30 will likely get the top assignments, Fong said.

Those who make the final cut will get a crash course of legal, ethical, protocol and logistical training from Jan. 5 to 9.

The training covers such things as "how to address the individual," Millmann said. "How do you address the [Cabinet] secretary? Do you say, 'the honorable'? Do you say 'Mr. Secretary'? Where do they sit in the vehicle?"

A full-blown inauguration dress rehearsal is scheduled for Jan. 11, and by inauguration day, Fong said, the MAs must be "perfect."

"It's not a Joe-the-sailor job," he said. "You look for a special skill set -- language, diplomatic skills."

All told, 90 people were interviewed by three-member panels sitting around a plain brown table in the building's unadorned, sparsely furnished Room 2519.

Millmann, who chaired more than 50 of the interviews, said applicants were scored on, among other things, use of language and "non-verbal" communication.

"Some people were just extremely nervous, or they're very timid" he said. "Some people just kept fidgeting. You need someone who's going to be able to take charge."

Each service's candidates were different, Millmann said: The Marines came to the interviews with a notebook and pen, and when asked at the end if they had any questions, invariably responded: "Not at the present time, sir." Naval officers were businesslike. The Army's candidates seemed a little older than the others.

Some applicants had served several tours of duty in Iraq. One had been wounded and had been awarded a Purple Heart. Several are West Point graduates, and one is among the first women to graduate from the Virginia Military Institute. Some are lawyers, or public affairs officers, or widely traveled.

"Some didn't live up to expectations," Millmann said. "Others wowed you."

He said the candidates would be told before Thanksgiving if they had been selected.

Air Force Lt. Col. Audra Griner, stationed at Andrews Air Force Base, was an MA for the 2001 inauguration of President George W. Bush.

"It was a pretty awesome experience," she said. "You get to witness the change of leadership of the United States of America. And to be a part of it, and to say that you were a part of it in your small way, is still pretty significant."

The daughter of a Philadelphia longshoreman, Griner escorted VIP Bradford M. Freeman, an old friend of the president's and finance chairman of his inaugural committee.

"I've been in the Air Force now 20 years," she said, "and it's still a career highlight. It really is."