Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff. Lauren bogobaum here, dark sunglasses, unsmiling mug's head on a swivel, the surreptitious earpiece of black suit. Everybody knows a Secret Service agent when they see one, right, But the United States Secret Service is way more than no nonsense automatons packing heat and putting their lives on the line to protect presidents and other political big wigs.
When the United States Secret Service came into being at the end of the Civil War, protecting people wasn't even in its DNA, and even today, only about three thousand, six hundred of the seven thousand plus U S Secret Service employees are the stern looking bodyguards known as special Agents, that protect the President and other select government officials. Some one thousand, six hundred fifty Secret Service employees are Uniformed
Division officers. They wear uniforms similar to police uniforms. It's their duty to securely lock down the venues wherever they
may be where the President and other officials appear. The Uniformed Division is responsible for security at the White House to the Naval Observatory, the residents of the Vice President, the Treasury Department and other places like foreign embassies in Washington, d C. Another two thousand, three hundred or so provide technical, law enforcement and other behind the scenes support, things like figuring out the safest routes for motorcades, the best and
most secure way to outfit the beast, a recent name for the president's main limo, how to avoid chemical attacks, and the more mundane governmental work of filing expense reports and answering questions from officers or agents who have trouble signing into their laptops. Most US Secret Service personnel aren't hanging out with the president, and it's hardly the stuff of Olympuss Fallen or white House down. When the U s Secret Service was formed in eight sixty five, it
was a bureau of the Treasury Department. Its mission was to battle widespread counterfeiting. At the end of the Civil War, nearly a third of all currency in circulation in the United States was fake. The Secret Service was there to help stabilize the financial system by ridding the country of counterfeiters.
So not exactly in the line of fire either. Still, it's important stuff and a key pillar in the Secret Services dual mission, which is protection of the government's top dogs and investigation of crimes regarding the financial system at home and abroad. The people of the agency take both missions very seriously. For the article this episode is based
on how Stuff Works. Spoke with a U. S. Secret Service spokesperson via email and they said, over the past decade, the Secret Service has made approximately fifty thousand arrests for counterfeiting, cyber and financial crimes and seized one point eight billion dollars in counterfeit currency. Secret Service has also prevented potential loss of approximately fifty three billion dollars. So does the
Secret Service still report to the Treasury? Nope. On March one of two thousand three, the U. S. Secret Service was transferred to the newly formed Department of Homeland Security, which now seems a better fit. But the Secret Service is still all over protecting the financial infrastructure of the nation. However, as actors like Clint Eastwood, Gerard Butler, Channing Tatum, and many other Hollywood types have shown, you can't get past the particularly American coolness that is part of being a
Secret Service special agent. They are the very real people willing to take a bullet to save others lives. Certainly it's not that exciting all the time. Former agent Jonathan Whackrow, who spent fourteen years with the Service, more than four of them on protective detail of then President Barack Obama, told Vanity Fair the best way to sum up being Secret Service agent is prolonged periods of boredom only broken
up by moments of sheer terror. The Secret Service agents saved Ronald Reagan during an assassination attempt in n They helped Jackie back into the convertible. When John F. Kennedy was shot in nineteen sixty three, they wrapped up presidential candidate Donald Trump and rushed him off the stage when someone shouted gun at a rally in They're there every inauguration day, providing a human shield as the president almost
invariably takes a stroll down Pennsylvania Avenue. It's pretty slow when it's not terrifying, but the pressure at all times is outrageous. Lieutenant Christopher Fagin told a bunch of Secret Service rookies and a business Insider video the Secret Service
has a zero fail mission. What that means, in Lehman's terms, ladies and gentlemen, is this, you don't get a bad day in the Secret Service, if you have a bad day and you don't do your job, you're going to change the world, and he doesn't mean for the better. It wasn't until the assassination of President William McKinley in n one that the Secret Service was tasked with protecting
the President, and becoming a special agent isn't easy. It's been reported that only one out of a hundred applicants makes it too special agent training, and a lot of them wash out once they get to the James J. Rowley Training Center in Laurel, Maryland. All recruits go through a six month training program. After they've been thoroughly vetted,
they're given a polygraph. They go through firearms training, driver training, where they're taught things like a vase of maneuvering, hand to hand combat training, your basic federal law enforcement training. Once they make it that far, they spend three to five years in a field office at home or abroad, and only then maybe do they move on to the second phase of the career in a protective division assignment. The best go on to the Presidential Protective Division, where
most serve a minimum of six years. After that, they move on to the final phase of their careers, which can include further protective assignments for their field office work, or a bump into specialty assignments, including things like training new agents, getting into work on electronic crimes, or being assigned to a congressional staff gig. Entry level special agents start at about forty nine thousand dollars a year. In phase three of their careers, they can make nearly a
hundred and forty five thousand a year. In one five women became the first female special agents, but it wasn't until that a woman, Julia A. Pearson, was the first appointed to lead the agency, and of the more than seven thousand employees today, just shy of a quarter are women. The Service insists, though that it's trying. Their spokesperson said the Secret Service is continually and actively recruiting to ensure
a diverse mix of employees. Part of these efforts include visiting colleges, hosting information sessions, and participating in career affairs. Today's episode is based on the article eight Secrets you Didn't Know about the Secret Service on how stuff works dot com, written by John Donovan. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio in partnership with how Stuff Works.
Dot com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Or more podcasts My heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.