Free Life Inside the Bubble: Why a Top-Ranked Secret Service Agent Walked Away From It All by Dan Bongino Page A

leadership and personal responsibility among the students and would reward those who may not have been the most skilled but displayed the greatest character.
    Tim and I agreed that if we were going to rewrite this training program, we were going to make it state of the art. We sought out the best personnel for each specific subject area and attended training programs to learn the most updated investigative tactics in the field. Tim attended an interview and interrogation school in Florida, while I attended a surveillance school run by a prominent intelligence agency. We both solicited help from the Drug Enforcement Administration in rewriting the program’s undercover tactics section. The redesign was a yearlongproject and we both felt much pride in the end result, which took the best pieces of information from talented subject matter experts and created a high-quality training program.
    Redesigning the curriculum was not our only responsibility, as it was expected that after an initiation period each instructor would become a class coordinator and manage a recruit class. The responsibility of managing your own class of recruits was a cherished one in the training center. Most federal agencies relegated this responsibility exclusively to supervisory staff, but the Secret Service allowed nonsupervisory personnel to perform the task with the idea that it taught and reinforced leadership skills for the students as well as the trainers.
    The pressure on instructors was great and there were no excuses if your class failed to perform to the required standards. Trainees would not hesitate to destroy your credibility in their evaluations if you were not attentive and effective, and this was a significant factor in motivating the instructor staff to provide an ongoing, quality product. This experience was to teach me more about leadership than my entire body of experience to that point. I quickly learned that ranks and titles do not make men or women effective leaders. My first few months with the class, many of whom who were significantly older than I was, were tumultuous. I moved between a desire to be everyone’s friend, to anger and frustration when some would take advantage of my friendly demeanor. Learning the delicate balance between goodwill and perceived weakness is a lesson that cannot be learned in a textbook.
    Leadership in the real world is not pretty or glamorous, but it is deeply rewarding. I learned toward the conclusion of the trainee’s program that leadership is not easily compartmentalized into flashy sound bites or a slogan on a poster. It requires the ability to allow people to cry when they need it, and to tell them to stop crying when they don’t. Being an effective leader means having the ability to tell those you like that they are wrong and those you don’t that they are right, and to show your human failings when there is a lesson to be transmitted. The class graduated from the Secret Service training center with their heads held high, and I graduated from the management school of life with a fresh new outlook on how to lead and, more importantly, how not to.

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DIGNITARY PROTECTION AND THE FIGHT TO PROTECT
    A FTER THREE YEARS instructing and managing new recruits at the training center, it was comforting to know that my turn to join the elite Presidential Protective Division was approaching. It is a little-known fact that very few members of the Secret Service reach the ranks of the president’s protection detail. It is the ultimate career achievement for a Secret Service agent to protect the president and is held in even higher esteem than a promotion. I worked hard to reach the point where I was in a position to be considered and had one more step in front of me before I could join the elite PPD. Eachagent was assigned to the Dignitary Protective Division (DPD) first for a “trial run” before being selected for either the president’s or vice president’s protection details.
    This was a new