Here's Where It Gets Interesting - Flying with Presidents with Wanda Joell

Episode Date: August 30, 2021

In this episode, Sharon is joined by Senior Master Sergeant Wanda Joell, the first African-American woman to serve as a flight attendant on Air Force One. Wanda gives an insider’s look into the most exclusive plane in the world - describing what the inside of Air Force One looks like and sharing stories about the various U.S presidents she served.  Throughout her 24 years of service, Wanda welcomed four presidents - George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama - aboard Air Force One. Wanda explains her unique responsibilities as a flight attendant, such as cooking the presidents’ favorite meals from scratch, and describes what it was like to be in close quarters with presidents during important moments in history. For more information on this episode including all resources and links discussed go to https://www.sharonmcmahon.com/podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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you know that I am fascinated by people with interesting jobs. That has always been a fascination of mine. Like how do you get to be the fire marshal? How does one even become the director of an estuary? I don't know why it's so interesting to me, but it really is. So today I am chatting with Wanda Joel. She for over 20 years was a flight attendant on Air Force One. Air Force One! Like where you are the flight attendant for the actual president. And that to me, I'm just like, nope, that is too interesting. I got to find out more. So enjoy this conversation as we do not dive. We're not diving in an airplane. That is bad news. As we ascend into this episode, I'm Sharon McMahon, and welcome to the Sharon Says So podcast.

Wanda, I am so excited to talk to you. Thank you so much for coming today. Why don't you tell everybody who you are, what your role was? I know they're going to be very interested to hear from you. Oh, absolutely. Good afternoon, everyone. My official title when I was active duty Air Force is Senior Master Sergeant Wanda Jo. And my job title while I was active duty was the Deputy Superintendent on Air Force One. And that's the airplane, of course, that transports the presidents of the United States. Okay. I'm fascinated by aviation. I'm also fascinated by Air Force One, just in general. I'm also terrified of flying. So that makes it like more interesting to me because I'm so terrified of it. I'm also just very interested in government and love to hear about all the little inner workings of how that kind of stuff goes down.

So I have a ton of questions. First of all, what made you want to go into the Air Force to begin with? I always had an interest in aviation. So after high school, I applied for quite a few commercial airlines. And back in the late 80s, a lot was going under, a lot laying off, a lot of airlines was closing. So basically I just put it together, Air Force, airplanes, maybe it's related, I'll try the Air Force. But to backtrack a little bit, what got me interested in flying was as a little girl, my family left Bermuda. I was only six. And on that airplane coming from Bermuda to the United States, I was inspired so much by a flight attendant. She was so compassionate. I was kind of emotional leaving my country and my family behind. At six years old, I said, that's what I want to be when I grow up. I just want to be a flight attendant to make somebody feel good. The service she provided was excellent. And I held onto that dream. So that's where it really all started. And so when you decided to enlist, did you

think to yourself, I hope someday I can work on Air Force One? You know what? When I enlisted, the flight attendants wasn't an option as far as a career initially. I found out that the Air Force even had flight attendants when I was stationed overseas in England. And I worked at the terminal in my first career field. And I found out that was a special duty assignment at Andrews Air Force Base. And of course, I had to submit a package. It took over a year and a half to get selected. Wow. When you're working in England, you said processing flights that were coming in.

What does that mean in the Air Force? I was in the transportation career field, and that's like a ticket agent at the terminal. I was kind of processing the military families. You could transport their household goods as well as process their tickets to their bases coming to England, through England to Germany, what have you. So it's kind of like a in route stop. And I was working at the terminal when I first saw the flights coming in. And so you had to apply to be a flight attendant. I would assume there's like very high levels of background checks involved in that. Am I correct in assuming that? Absolutely. It took over a year to get a

background check. My package took over a year. It's just that I think I submitted it maybe in late 85s, probably the later part of 86, I received a phone call. But you had to have a whole lot of recommendation letters. They checked out your records. Of course, the background check was number one. I speak at schools at career days since graduation. It's not, I let the young people know that they went all the way back to my junior high school teachers to see what kind of record I was keeping. So it's always important. You never know later in life what you're going to get. That's a great point. You need to make choices now. Exactly. That are not going to limit your career options later. Exactly. And I tell them they have a lot of different social medias today that I didn't have back in the day. So be careful what you say and

what you post. Exactly. That's such a good point too, because nothing is ever really deleted from the internet. Okay. So you get a call. What was it like then accepted to this special duty assignment? Oh my goodness. At Andrews Air Force Base, they have quite a few aircraft, but I started flying with the vice president of the United States. So Air Force One wasn't automatic. I started flying with the vice president, different Senate congressmen. Then you kind of move up a little bit. What kind of training does somebody in your position need? We get a lot of egress training. So the commercial airlines will open up slots. I've been to American Airlines training facility. I went to Savannah. We have a Gulfstream down there. So you learn emergency procedures pretty much for airplane.

Same kind of thing that the commercial flight attendants go through. That's just the safety of the passengers. So we had to learn all that. And I end up going to culinary school. A lot of big things that we learned there when I went through, they don't prepare now. But I got a lot of good extra skills going to culinary school as well. But it's not a requirement that you had to have culinary background. Because the flight attendants that came through with me, they came through from all different career fields within the Air Force. So we all cross trained. We had firemen, we had policemen, we had people in medical. So it's all different trades.

Did you feel like you needed the culinary background? Were you actually preparing food? Yes. All the meals on Air Force One and Air Force Two are cooked from scratch. So it helped because everything's first-class service. You know, we have China. The people who didn't have culinary backgrounds, how did they learn how to cook on Air Force One? Right. That's a good question. But you know what? They're trained. We don't just throw you in the galley and say, want this meal, this four course meal. No. When you first start out, you're gradually upgraded to cook position. It's different positions because there's 10 flight attendants on Air Force One. So you have people that work in the aisle, people that are cutting

up the salads and desserts, and then you have a bartender. So when you get in the cook position, you're gradually working your way to fix a good meal. Wow. When the passengers come on board, do you give them a menu and you're like, here are the options today? How does that work? If you're in the aisle, we will set up the cabin. We don't have a menu. We have a menu card and it will give you your choices for that leg, wherever we're going. So you have options. Yes. Of course, the president, we can make probably multiple options to put together a meal. If he doesn't want the entree, if he doesn't want the salad,

he could definitely get something different. Figure something out. Right. But we present our menus, the flight attendants as a whole, whip it around the table, look at our legs, where we're going, destination,

and we'll present our menus down to the White House for them to choose. Okay, okay. And see what's fitting for that particular the White House for them to choose. Okay, okay. And see what's fitting for that particular trip. So they get to choose their menus as well. And then we'll, of course, go shopping and prepare the meals on board.

So they have some input as well. It was the job of the flight attendants to shop for the food? Exactly. We do it all. A lot of people think everything's catered, but these hands have done it all. Oh my goodness. We cook, yes ma'am. We do the dishes. We put it all. A lot of people think everything's catered, but these hands have done it all. Oh my goodness.

Yes, ma'am. We do the dishes. We put it away. We serve it. That's like our home away from home. I had no idea that the flight attendants were actually shopping for groceries for the president. Yes. That's amazing. Okay. So tell me about what your schedule is like when you are working in the Air Force as a flight attendant. How many flights are we talking about? Do you spend a ton of nights away from home? How does all that scheduling work?

We would probably get a schedule, a set schedule. I'll say maybe 30 days out. But a lot of times you have deviations. You never know what's going to come up. And you can just sit home and watch the news and know the president has to go see the floods or go see some kind of disaster or he wants to be at a graduation. So you have to be kind of spontaneous. It's not eight to five. Right, right. So let's say you get your schedule and then, oh, some natural disaster happened. The president needs to go visit that. Is it a lot of quick turnarounds

where you land, the president does have one hour speech and everybody just like goes back where they came from? It doesn't seem like there's a lot of overnights. Am I wrong in that assumption? Oh yeah. There's quite a few overnights. Yes. You can go from DC to LA and we can do a red eye. But for the most part, we have overnight travel. Sometimes you could be out for a few days as well, or they call it an out and back, which is one day there and back. So yeah, depends on his attendance or his schedule. Sure.

What are the flight attendants doing while the president is engaged in all of these meetings with world leaders? So the flight attendants, that's their downtime when the president's at his meetings, but you have to stay close by because you never know if things could change. He might need to divert and come back home or the itinerary could change. So we have to be close by the hotel, but it is our downtime. They can maybe sightsee a little bit, do a little shopping,

try out the restaurants. And so it depends where we go. If there's any restrictions, of course, sometimes you got to stay close by the hotels. You never know. It would make sense to now that you mentioned it, that part of the thing of working with the president is you have to be prepared for all scenarios. And if something really bad happens, you can't wait for flight attendants who decide to go skiing for the day. They need to be nearby. Exactly. I can tell you a perfect scenario on that one. We went to Waco, I want to say with President Bush, 43, on his vacation trip. And he decided he wanted to go spend Thanksgiving with the troops in Iraq. And I was planning on going to have Thanksgiving

dinner from Waco to Houston with my family. So that was over three hours. So we had to change our plans, of course. And then we had to stay close by in case he decided to do that. So good thing we were close and prepared to go. So we would get the meal ready and take off. So short notice. Yeah. Yes. I'm Jenna Fisher and I'm Angela Kinsey. We are best friends. And together we have the podcast Office Ladies, where we rewatched every single episode of The Office with insane behind the scenes stories, hilarious guests and lots of laughs. Guess who's sitting next to me? Steve! It is my girl in the studio! For real! In the studio! Every Wednesday, we'll be sharing even more exclusive stories from the office and our friendship with brand new guests.

And we'll be digging into our mailbag to answer your questions and comments. So join us for brand new Office Ladies 6.0 episodes every Wednesday. Plus, on Mondays, we are taking a second drink. You can revisit all the Office Ladies rewatch episodes every Monday with new bonus tidbits before every episode. Well, we can't wait to see you there. Follow and listen to Office Ladies on the free Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts. All right. Talk a little bit about all of the different administrations you've worked with. The United States military serves all presidents. You're not being hired specifically by the president. So you've worked through several different administrations. Tell everybody

a little bit about the presidents that you've worked with. Oh, yes. I have been through four, almost four and a half different administrations. Because when I got hired in 86, President Reagan was in office and I wanted to say President Bush 41, we call him Daddy Bush. He had just got elected. So I was an augmentee, like a part-timer from Air Force Two going back and forth to Air Force One. So during that time in the early nineties, they decided to choose me as permanent. So I ended up doing the last of President Bush 41's administration. And of course I stayed throughout that time. And then of course I did eight years with President Clinton, eight years with President Bush 43, and about two and a half years with President Obama. What a unique position you were

in working in very close proximity with a variety of presidents in a very enclosed environment. You know, a lot of people who maybe work in the White House, they work at an office down the hall, their interaction with the president might be maybe five minutes a day. They may not even interact with the president at all. But here you are sometimes for many, many hours at a time, for years at a time, working behind the scenes with presidents. Tell me all of the things.

All the secrets. Tell me all the classified information. Right, right. Just kidding. We won't go to jail. Yes, right. But I would love to hear more about whatever you can share about. Yeah, so like the administrations, like you said, they do change. But the the crew Air Force One, I mean, we do have retirements and we do hire,

but a lot of people stay the whole time because who wants to leave? So it's hard to get a slot on Air Force One. That's why I ended up doing 24 years total. And I ended up doing four administrations because it's easier since I got my background check. They did the clearance and did all that to keep me. They start all over again with someone else. In our career field, flight attendants, it takes 10 on one jet. So we have two Air Force Ones. So that's 20 flight attendants. So we have to stay prepared and heavy in our manning and our career as well.

And of course, the pilots and you have the communicators. You have the security. You have a navigator. We have all kinds of crew members. Sometimes it's about 23 to 28 crew members. So that's a big crew along with the 75 to 80 passengers. That's a big load. Tell me a little bit about the differences between the presidential administrations. What was it like to work for George W. Bush versus Clinton versus Obama versus Bush 41? What were some of the differences between them? Well, you know, a lot of the administrations, I can see a lot of difference. I would say maybe the Bushes were a little bit more reserved and a little business type. And maybe the Clintons,

we kind of sat back a little bit, had a little leisure time to chat. And a lot of times we had different perks. I got to go to the White House at every Christmas party with the Clintons. And then the Bushes invited us to Easter egg rolls. So we got a little incentive being a part of the crew. The 4th of July, we got to see that on the lawn at the White House. And like I said, every year we went to the Christmas parties. But on board, we, of course, we're in the Air Force. That's our commander in chief. We had to stay professional, of course, safety first and keep that in mind. And we treat everyone the same. So what's the big difference? Unless they come in and they want to do something to the interior of the airplane. I've seen some carpet changes. I've seen some different types of China on board,

but the service is the same. What we do for each administration doesn't change. Right. Do you feel like people stuck with it because there was something that they really loved about being around the president and first families? Why do you think people didn't want to move out of this career field? It was an honor. I mean, just to get selected, I feel it now that it was an honor to be a part of the Air Force One crew. And we're a family. We still keep in touch. The folks that went ahead of me and the folks that are still there. And so we have reunions and what have you. And so we're planning one, I believe, next year, the Air Force One crew. I could have stayed forever if I didn't have to outlive, I guess, my time in service. But if I could have did 30 didn't have to outlive, I guess, my time in service.

But if I could have did 30 plus years on Air Force One, I mean, the airplane is smooth. You said you don't like flying or having to fly. I think if you get on that airplane, it is so smooth, you probably would say, oh, okay, I could do this. Yes. You know, I have actually had that thought many times where I'm like, you know, if I was going to fly on Air Force One, I feel like I would be able to get over it. You know, I can tell the difference too. If I'm like, you know, if I was going to fly on Air Force One, I feel like I would be able to get over it. You know, I can tell the difference too. If I fly commercial, I could feel the difference being on Air Force One so long. I could feel, I know we have the best pilots. I know we have the best mechanics. Exactly. That's what I have thought too. Like there is no shortcuts on maintenance on Air Force One. These are the absolute best pilots in the world.

But what I'm specifically afraid of on airplanes is turbulence. Specifically, that is what I'm afraid of. Even though intellectually, I know that it's just air bumps, like bumps on a road. My body says, nope. My body is like, this plane is crashing. The roller coaster, right? It's crashing and we're going to die. It's unpleasant to feel that. Have you ever had any scary moments on Air Force One? I see the mechanics prepping the airplane before we leave.

And if anything's wrong, even if the weather's bad, they're not going to take the chance. And anything broke is going to be fixed before we leave. I've had a tail swap from one plane to another where they couldn't fix it in time to get the president where he needed to be. And so that's just maybe something minor. And they'll take care of that. And that plane will meet us where we need to be. But nothing scary. I have had experience a little bit of turbulence in the back part of the airplane.

But it's very smooth. I mean, to get a 747 probably off the ground is a miracle. We hardly felt any winds in the front end of the airplane. And the back, like I said, you have some tailwinds, but it's nothing really bad. Not drastic. Yeah. I would imagine, too, that they would reserve the smoothest air for Air Force One. Like all of the UPS pilots where there's no passengers on board, you guys go where it's real bumpy. Commercial, you guys get the media.

Air Force One, you get the premium air altitude. Right, right. You get the best airways. The smoothest air possible. Everyone else has to land. Get out of our way. That, right. We get the best airways. The smoothest air possible. Everyone else has to land, get out of our way. That's right. Tell me a little bit more about the plane itself. I've seen plenty of diagrams.

I've watched videos. I've looked at pictures. But tell me about what it is like to ride on Air Force One. We can, like I said, hold about 75 to probably about 80 passengers on each 747 airplane that we have. But you have the presidential suite in front of the airplane where he could come in and he could go right into his office. There's an office up there as well. And the suite has two beds made for him to relax.

And there's a shower, his bathroom, what have you. And you come out of there, there's a medical annex. They carry a medical annex, which you carry a couple of doctors and nurses on every trip. If they have a surgical bed in there, if they had to do any minor surgery until we got back to Washington for the president to keep him safe. And there's a refrigerator in there where they can carry the president's blood. There's all kinds of little hookups where they could take him medically. There's two galleys. You have a forward galley, one in the front that takes you to the first half of the airplane, meals. And of course, there's a galley in the back.

And the galley is huge. It's a nice size galley where you have the ovens and the stove tops. Like I told you, everything's cooked from scratch. So we got everything we need, pots and pans, everything. There's a senior staff compartment. So whoever's the top senior staff on that particular trip, you might have a head of state, secretary of the Air Force, secretary of defense, four seats reserved for them.

There's a conference room on board. If the president's a big, long, oval table where they can sit around and have a conference, hosts about 10, 12 people in there, and the soundproof as well. His staff, of course, has their own compartment, about 14 staff. That's his press secretaries, whoever's getting speeches ready, whoever's on that particular trip. They will sit in the staff compartment. They have computers, secretarial units, all kinds of stuff. Now, that's where we kind of say that's the first half of the airplane. Now, the second half of the airplane is where the guest compartment starts.

The president can take up to about 10 guests who's invited on Air Force One. And behind the guest compartment, it's Secret Service, maybe 10 more Secret Service agents. The president has two up front by his suite. They kind of monitor who goes in and out of his cabin up front. But there's a bunch of them in the back as well. And then there's the press compartment. Air Force One has a seating area for about 12 press. They can fly on board.

I guess they take a poll who gets to travel. And they have a press plane that follows Air Force One as well. And then on the opposite side in the rear, you have the crew compartment. So Air Force One, we have more cops, we have more mechanics, a couple of seats for the flight attendants. And then we take a couple of guys from the Army who take care of all the passengers' luggage. And then in the rear, the last compartment, the back half of the airplane is another gallon. So that's pretty much walk you through the whole plane. Of course, downstairs, you have a conveyor belt.

We have the luggage front and back and compartment. And up top is the crew deck, the pilots and four bunks for them to rest. And we have some communicators up there. You have a navigator up there. So it's a pretty big jet. Yes. When you say compartments,

are they actually divided like a curtain in between first class and coach? Or is it actual walls with doors? Walls and doors. Walls and doors. Privacy, yes. Each compartment that I mentioned can close. Okay.

And they can have their privacy. Yes, ma'am. I can see how that could be a national security issue. Do you find that they interact with the press? Do they interact with flight attendants? How much interaction is happening between the president's senior staff and then the other people aboard the plane? You know, they do, actually.

The president's allowed to walk in and out each compartment wherever he would like to go. Now, protocol, no one can go forward of their compartment unless they're invited up. So the flight attendants, we have seating cards. So prior to our passengers arriving, we put out like the menu cards we spoke about earlier. They could see their meals for the day. They could see their assigned seat as well. Sure. And that also makes it easier for the communicator radio operators upstairs. If an incoming call, they have a diagram and they know exactly where to patch the phone call through because there's a phone by every seat, the telephone, and there's a television in every compartment. So there's plenty of communication going on. Yeah. But he's free to walk around

each cabin and some people can be escorted to visit the president in his suite. Each president that I've flown with has come back and spoke to the senior staff or he's made all the rounds and the press they're in their assigned seat, but they're not up walking around talking and getting the story every five minutes. They know the deal. They don't have a glass pressed against the president's office door. Right, right, right. No, they're behind the Secret Service. Remember I told you?

Yes. You guys stay back there. I saw on the news today that one of the White House press planes, of course, that's traveling with President Biden overseas, their departure was delayed because of the cicadas. Too many cicadas. Had to clean up the cicadas before they could depart. Wow. Well, I didn't hear that. Wow. Interesting. Yeah, you can get delayed. Does Air Force One only land at military bases? I assume overseas it's going to land at commercial airports, right? Yeah. A lot of times bases in the United States would open up the bases,

but if we're not in air base, I've flown into commercial airports. I've had people that live in those cities and they say, we know when you're coming in town, everything is closed, delayed. And a few people have been on the tarmac and said their flight was like number two. And then all of a sudden they were number 20. Waiting for Air Force One to take off, right? Yes. Yeah. There's delays. When you board the plane, how long does it take to get the plane ready to leave for a flight? Well, we're there at least two and a half, sometimes three hours prior. And if we're going out to country, I would say at least three, three and a half hours prior. So you won't be rushed and you have to upload a lot of things. I mean, every position has a duty.

And the day before, we'll make sure everything's really stocked and ready to go. So it'd make it easier for your day of. But a lot of times it's been stayed inside maybe two hours prior because you have everything loaded, ready to go. And then you have to set the cabin up, of course, and make the tables look nice. And throughout the cabin is sometimes flowers, sometimes the local papers, daily papers, updated magazines. You put out fresh fruit, candy bowls. So you got duties, but you got to be prepared to, you know, get it done. And you give yourself time. You never know. So you always give yourself time. Yeah. Yes. One of the things that my community has been fascinated by is the nuclear football.

Okay. You know what I'm talking about? Like the military aid that carries the whatever. Where does that person ride? That's part of the staff. So that's where he'll be seated unless he has this change. But normally he's manifested right there with part of the staff. That is a very interesting job too. Follow the president around with this bag. Yes.

I'm sure they have to be selective of who they pick to carry. Yes. Carry the bag. Yeah. What are some of the president's favorite foods and drinks from your experience? Could you anticipate like, okay, we know that George W. loves Coke. He always wants to have a roast beef sandwich. Like what are some of the presidential favorites? And you know what, that's one of the things we do when they transition before coming in. We would sit down as the head flight attendant. We will go down and discuss the likes and dislikes of the new president coming in. So we will have a list. We know what goes in his coffee. We know the dietary restrictions and all that in advance. And so that makes it a lot easier. And of course,

we have a little cheat sheet posted in the galley. Certain presents, like when we're going to their hometowns, like barbecues or the bushes from Texas, we had to get the special ice cream that they didn't carry in Washington. So some of the little things that they were used to, we'll order in advance and have it shipped in or put it on dry ice and bring it back for the next trip. But I haven't had anything really extravagant. I mean, simple things. They had their likes, some like a coconut pie, some like the key lime pies. And like you said, I knew what to put in their coffee. I knew who liked Diet Coke.

I knew who didn't want ice. I had four different ministrations, so I got to think of who I served what. Yes. I know one thing I can say daddy bush didn't want no broccoli on board I didn't know that yes absolutely zero percent broccoli because he's an adult and he doesn't want to eat it right that's right no it is stinky fish is also really stinky when it's prepared in an enclosed environment in the hangar at our air force one hangar back at Andrews you can prep some things

and pan it up and then it'd be easier to serve. So that will help. But big lobster and frying fish and all that, no. I know you have also had a job in relationship to the First Ladies. Could you tell a little bit more about that? I did. Prior to retiring, my commander selected me to be the superintendent of the First Lady Operation. They did their own personal trips. So I would take a few flight attendants with me, smaller crew, because we'd take the smaller aircraft, like the Gulfstream. They call it the C-20s, maybe a 12, 14-passenger plane, or 757. Then we would take them wherever they needed to go. So I did Mrs. Obama, Mrs. Clinton, Mrs. Bush,

and I flew with Mrs. Reagan, but I wasn't the head flight attendant. They have less travel than their husbands, generally speaking. How is the service different on a small airplane with the First Lady? It's definitely smaller. The reason they wanted one of the Air Force One flight attendants, because when they're flying with their husbands on Air Force One, the president, we knew their likes and dislikes, and they were comfortable with us. So they would flying with their husbands on Air Force One, the president, we knew their likes and dislikes and they were comfortable with us. So they would fly with one of the squadron planes. That's the ones that take care of the congressman and the vice president. And then I'll fly with some of those flight attendants as well as myself

and bring maybe one other along because we know their likes and dislikes. Their service is still first class. And of course, if they want to invite a guest or two, a lot of times they travel with the family, their children. I've had their children. I've had their dogs. I've had them all. If a first family is going to travel, does everybody fly together on Air Force One or do they go separately? The whole family will go. We'll have the kids, the dogs, the nannies. Everyone will go on vacation. Yes. I spent a lot of my vacations in Waco, Texas. Can you tell us maybe one thing that maybe the general public wouldn't know about Air Force One

or about what you did on Air Force One? Well, to make history, I'm the first African-American woman on Air Force One. That's amazing. That ever got hired. That's an honor. Yes. To be selected. I love to just do a children's book and inspire a little girl that has dreams to do something and maybe get discouraged. But I held on to that passion that I wanted to be a flight attendant. And look what happened. A lot of airlines went out of business, a lot of doors closed, but look, who would have thought I'd end up on Air Force One? So that's one thing that I would love to share my story down the line in a children's book. That's a great idea. I love that. And you do a lot of speaking now, right? I do a lot of schools. I volunteer my time. This school year has been a little different. I did a business in West Virginia not too long ago,

Lunch and Learn Women's Luncheon. So just to encourage the women and just to, you know, be all you can be and follow your dreams pretty much. But I had some memorable trips that I could probably share. Maybe someone would know. President Clinton went on an Easter trip. Well, it fell over the Easter vacation. We were in San Francisco and he invited the whole crew to come to church with him. And I thought that was nice. I mean, they had the transportation come pick us up. So, I mean, who does that? I thought that was generous. Another historic trip, I was with President Bush 43 during 9-11. I was on the History Channel. They flew me out to New

York to talk about that. My hometown, Bermuda, President Bush 41 went. And my supervisor at the time, he said, I had more signs up, welcome me home than welcoming the president. Oh, that's so nice. They invited the whole family on board to do a tour. So that was nice. That's nice. I got some good memories and I got quite a few. I just keep it short. But yes, ma'am, there's quite a few good memories on Air Force One. I could probably go on and on and on, but 24 years is a long time. It is. You've seen a lot of things. Yes. Yeah. You've seen a lot of things and I bet you've met a lot of really interesting people. Yes. And even the guests, we got to meet movie stars, athletes, whoever was invited from the White House to go to their hometowns. I got some nice photos. I got quite a few photos in my house. It looks like a little art gallery.

This has been so interesting. I have absolutely loved chatting with you. Thank you so much for doing this. This is just absolutely fascinating. Wow. Well, thank you for having me. It's my pleasure. Thank you so much for listening to the Sharon Says So podcast. I am truly grateful for you. And I'm wondering if you could do me a quick favor. Would you be willing to follow or subscribe to this podcast or maybe leave me a rating or review? Or if you're feeling extra generous, would you share this episode on your Instagram stories or with a friend? All of those things help podcasters out so much. I cannot wait to have another mind-blown moment with you next episode. Thanks again for listening

to the Sharon Says So podcast.