During my first Embassy assignment in 1982, I was selected for my first Presidential (What we call being assigned to travel with the U.S. President).  My boss at the American Embassy in Mexico City was somewhat befuddled that I had been selected for the assignment since I was a rookie, e.g. my first diplomatic assignment.  So it took some cramming to get up to speed as to what would be expected of me.  President Ronald Reagan was to travel to Tijuana Mexico to meet with the newly elected President of Mexico "De La Madrid".   My assignment was to precede him there by 2 days to set up security for his visit, then meet him there.  This is the normal procedure for a Presidential Visit.  The 2nd in command of my department at the Embassy was to go with me as the figurehead of the visit but people in his position are never professional but more in the political sphere while I would be the professional who was expected to accomplish the operational portion of the mission..

   Upon landing in Tijuana, I was met at the airport by 4 well dressed men in expensive suits.  I noticed right away that in their case..being well dressed included having an UZI sub-machine gun tucked under their suit jackets.  They would be somewhat similar to Secret Service Agents in our country.  They put me in a 2-car motorcade and whisked me to the downtown area where the President's chopper would land, and started going over the game plan with me.  My job was on the intelligence side, e.g. to provide American Intelligence on any activity by known terrorists etc that might be moving into the area.

After setting up the objectives for that first day..they took me to one of their favorite bars, and we started enjoying that part of the assignment..They learned that I was a former Navy Chief (Now retired) and asked if I had ever been to Tijuana before..I said.."Yes, I met my first love here" in 1955. Actually, my encounter had been, like most 19-year-old sailors, with a prostitute who in my naive mind was just a pretty girl.  At that early age, I wouldn't have known anything about professionals in that line of work.

As a note aside:  When I had visited Tijuana in 1955..it had mud streets and now it was a metropolis of several million. 

 But when I told them about my 1955 encounter whereby I met my first love....they asked, "What was her name"?  I said, "Man, that was almost 30 years ago..I don't know...Maria..her name was probably Maria!  Well, a few minutes later..one of the guys with the Uzi under his suit..dragged some young girl into the bar holding her hand out to me and said..Here she is....she was just a few doors down the street"  I said..No, that's not the Maria I knew"  Well he dragged in 2 more young girls, each time telling me that he had found my Maria..and each time I said.."NO, that's not her"..So he said.. You know, Your Maria is probably a grandmother by now..and I agreed..So he again pushed this latest young girl toward me and said, "Well here..Take this one.She's a nice girl".  I replied, "No, I don't think my wife would approve of that"..So he switched to another tactic. And incidentally, all this was in Spanish because these guys didn't speak English.

Do you like Mariachi Music?  I said, yes, I have several mariachi records.  No, no, no, he said..that's not Mariachi..I mean live mariachi!  No..So they again put me in one of those limo's and we drove to the main plaza in Tijuana which was a traffic circle, with a fountain in the center..but on one side of the circle was a church where the Mariachi Musicians hang out to be hired..They stopped the car right in the middle of the street, put a bottle of tequila on the roof along with lemon wedges and salt and he hired one of the Mariachi Groups..

I said, "But man..we've got traffic blocked"!!  He just ignored me and asked what Mariachi songs I liked.  I gave him some names of my favorites.."El barco de oro, Las Sacatecas" etc..and he said "Yea, those are good ones"..and this guy with the big bass guitar starts singing right in my face"..I said, MAN WE'VE GOT TRAFFIC BLOCKED"!  He just continued ignoring me and kept pushing tequila at me and bragging about the music..Then I heard the sirens coming!  I'm saying to myself..Here on my first assignment, we're going to have an international incident..The cops couldn't get close with their car because traffic was backed up for at least a whole block, so they approached us on foot..

But when they got close enough to recognize the guys with the Uzis..they saluted, backed up, and set up a roadblock, re-routing traffic around us, while we continued standing in the middle of the street drinking tequila and listening to Mariachi..My boss asked me.."Do you know who these guys are"..I said, no, but they've got lots of clout..He said, "You read about them every day in your daily communications but I can't tell you here on the street.  Then he said, But I'll tell you something else..(Tijuana is very famous for people just disappearing..never to be seen again or to turn up face-down in a ditch outside the city)..He said, this is one visit to Tijuana whereby you don't have to worry about going to jail..He continued with, "If you walked over to hat jewelry store, broke the window and took yourself a watch..YOU WON'T GO TO JAIL!

The rest of the assignment went off without incident..Reagan landed by chopper..met the new Mexican President, shook hands, laid a reef at a monument in the square, then our entire party got in limos and motorcade'd back across the border to the Hotel Coronado to spend the night before flying back to Washington.  

Tienanmen Sq. (We were there)

Yes,we were there in 1989 during the Tienanmen Square Massacre. We were at the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai..But the event was a nationwide civil disorder. President Bush (First one) ordered all Americans out of China. This was a political move not a necessity. By that, I mean that the Chinese People, at the time had no negative view toward Americans. Janey walked about 4 blocks to the Consulate each morning. That's because we had only one single car and I needed that to get to the Consulate very early...around 6 AM. In fact when we were there (88-90) there were no private cars on the road..every vehicle on the road was either government or business owned. Private citizens were not even allowed to have a car. I was permitted one only as a diplomat. Anyway, each morning Janey walked the 4 blocks to work and all the shop keepers along the way..even the traffic cop standing on the pedestal directing traffic would wave to her as she passed each day. Several times, during her walk, some china-man who had been rejected a visa to the U.S. would recognize her and somehow think she was to blame for his rejection would spot her and accost her on the street but she never feared because shopkeepers would rush from their shops with brooms, sticks etc and chase him away. I'm sure that the policeman also would have stopped traffic (Only bicycles mostly) and come to her aid if needed. My point is that the Tienanmen Sq massacre had nothing to do with Americans..It was against the Chinese Government. So the evacuation of all Americans from China was a political move only..not to protect Americans because Americans were never in danger. On the day of the massacre, Shanghai, China's main Metropolitan city for commerce, was also in turmoil..Bus's were overturned and burning in the streets, etc. That evening, Janey and I had been invited, by Northwest Airlines, to a celebration at the main ballroom of the Hilton Hotel, celebrating Northwest Airline's 15th year in China. They had the main Ballroom divided into quadrants with foods flown in from all over the world, complete with whole roast pig etc, a string orchestra and each guest, just on entering the ballroom was presented with a wristwatch commemorating the celebration. But while about 300 guests had been invited to this (by invitation only) event, only about 30 showed up because of the Tienanmen Sq massacre and nationwide civil unrest So they went down to the hotel lobby and invited all who wished to come to dine and dance with the rest of us. The families of all the consulate staff evacuated the country. I was, of course, considered necessary personnel and remained at my post. Janey and the Consul General's wife were the only wives to remain by choice. Janey was spending 10-12 hour days in the consular department helping to evacuate Americans. Of corse the phones were ringing endlessly, plus a line-up at the consulate itself. I believe it was about 4 days she did this, until a flash message came in from the White House, saying, "Get those 2 women out"..(More political pressure). So Janey boarded a plane bound for the U.S. At one point during her trip, she was in Chicago, awaiting a flight to Cincinnati Ohio, and at an elevator there was also a man waiting (In uniform). Janey commented that she hoped that the plane would be on time. The man replied.."It will be on time..I'M THE PILOT". They chatted and he learned that Janey had just come from China. He said, that his daughter was in China traveling and that he was worried sick because they had not been able to contact her. Janey asked for her name, and he gave it to her. Janey replied, "I SAW YOUR DAUGHTER YESTERDAY AT THE CONSULATE...I PUT HER ON A PLAN WITH HER FRIEND TO HONG KONG AND SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO CALL YOU"! Needless to say, Janey had a very smooth flight to Cincinnati. Never at any time were Americans at risk. The peoples anger was at the Chinese government. The students had constructed a small replica of our Statue of Liberty which they were carrying at the protests. One thing that was very noticeable during our 2 years in China is that the Chinese are very adept and selecting names for their country which suggest something good. For example when we went to Xiang (where the terra cotta warriors are), the street outside our hotel was called "Highway Everlasting", and it was so full of potholes that it was barely navigable. At the Tienanmen square massacre site..the tanks came through the archway called "Gate of Heavenly Peace". Imagine that. The only misgivings the Chinese had against Americans at the time, is that they, for some warped reasoning, had thought that when they challenged the Chinese Government, that the U.S. would step in and fight with them. If you're wondering why would we think that the civil unrest was noticeable in Shanghai, a long ways from Bejing...There was a troop train carrying troops bound for Bejing passing through Shanghai..A band of people, probably thinking of the Way things go in America..decided to lay down on the tracks and stop the train. Guess what? The train didn't stop but in fact accelerated (Probably so his wheels wouldn't get gummed up with human bodies). The mobs pulled the engineer off the train and beat him to death right there beside the tracks. Today, Aug 3 2014, I added 2 pictures..The Chinese "Ybon" (Foreign Office) 4 times per year invited diplomats on various tours of up to 10 days..all expense paid..air fares, hotels, meals..everything..In these 2 pics you'll see my wife on a Chinese Gunboat.  The one of her standing on the fantail shows the spray kicking up..because were moving at high speed..and you can see the covered gun mounts..I can tell by the shape under the canvas that it covers twin 40 MM mounts and although I was not invited below deck..as a former 25 year veteran sailor, I can tell from the speed and the sound that it was powered by twin, very tight, very sweet diesels.  They took us on a 2 hour run to offshore islands where we had lunch.