Officers Vie to Escort VIPs
Inauguration Job Is Much Coveted

By Michael E. Ruane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 24, 2008

One young officer drummed his fingers on the bottom of the table during most of the interview.

Others sat stiffly in their chairs, hands on their knees. Some looked overweight or wore wrinkled uniforms or unpolished shoes.

But last week, as the final military officers vying to be chosen as VIP inauguration escorts cycled through their interviews in an office building near the Mall, their questioners were seeking perfection.

A panel from the Armed Forces Inaugural Committee on Tuesday wrapped up the intensive, months-long process used to identify the ideal people for the high-profile, high-stress jobs. The candidates had to look sharp, sound intelligent and be articulate, diplomatic and self-confident. They also had to know the city and possess that quality known as "good military bearing."

The military assistants, or MAs, as they are called, have the task of squiring the VIPs through numerous inaugural events, and Washington's inauguration traffic maze, while the world looks on.

Family members of President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden -- called SIPs (significant inaugural participants) -- might require escorts, officials said, as might Cabinet-level nominees or other DIPs (designated inaugural participants).

It is a once-in-a-lifetime, much-sought-after job, interviewers said, especially this time, for the installation of Obama, the country's first black president. And all of the candidates were excellent, they said.

But only "the best of the best" make the list being submitted for final selection to the committee brass, officials said. The escorts must be requested by the Presidential Inaugural Committee, which determines the size and nature of the inauguration.

The main job for an MA is getting his or her "package" to events on time: to ceremonies, prayer services, the swearing-in, the parade, luncheons, balls. Timing is critical, and failure is "not an option," said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Arthur C. Fong, the first- and second-family military assistant coordinator.

Each MA will have a car and a driver, who for this inauguration will have a cellphone with a global positioning satellite device allowing the car to be tracked at a command center downtown during the inauguration, Fong said.

The MA must know which streets to take, which entrances to use, where to park and what credentials will be required.

The committee tries to strike good background matches between the MAs and VIPs. In addition, the MAs "will have to be smart on the person they're escorting," Air Force Capt. Robert Millmann, of the committee's ceremonies directorate, said.

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."