Inside a Week of Secret Service Training: Body Cover, Helicopter Ditching, Motorcade Ramming and a Final Protection Exercise
Michelle Khare
YouTuber Michelle Khare spent a week training with the United States Secret Service. The video follows a structure the host has used before at the FBI Academy, the Marine Corps and the San Diego Police: several days of training, then a final graded challenge. This time Khare also had a side quest. They wanted to find the chief of the Secret Service and ask, "What is the secret?" Throughout the training, the instructors' answer is that the secret will be revealed only if Khare passes the final exercise.
Getting In the Door
Khare says they spent seven months cold-calling and emailing the Secret Service and never got a single reply. They then contacted someone at the FBI they had worked with on a 2019 video. Within 24 hours of that contact passing the request along, an encrypted message arrived from the Secret Service. Khare jokes that the agency's condition was that the new video get more views than the FBI one.
The logistics were secretive. The crew was told only which area of the country to fly into, and the meeting address arrived the day before. Khare says one message simply read "the pigeon has left the nest" with a sunglasses emoji. On the day, the crew went through several security checkpoints and was driven in an unmarked van. The driver, Mike, said he had been with the Secret Service for 35 years.
At the James J. Rowley Training Center, a welcoming official said the staff had watched Khare's earlier academy videos. The final challenge was described as the biggest simulation ever done on the channel. It would involve hundreds of live role players, real Secret Service agents and a mock-up of Air Force One. Khare's job would be to get a protectee safely from point A to point B through possible assassination attempts. They had four days to prepare.
A Different Mindset: Being Hit Instead of the Protectee
The first lesson was control tactics. The instructor said Khare's previous law enforcement and military training would not transfer directly, because Secret Service tactics are protection-oriented. The core idea is that the agent would rather be hit than let the protectee be hit.
The instructor explained it in terms of basic human instinct. People naturally push danger away and escape it. If an attacker swings at the person next to you, the instinctive reaction is relief that you weren't the target. But the instructor pointed out that the other person is exactly who the agent has sworn to protect. The instructor also said the service is provided the same way to every protectee, "left or right, Democrat or Republican."
The drill began with a knife attack inside a handshaking crowd. When a weapon appears, the agent attacks the hand and the weapon while placing as much of their own body as possible between the threat and the protectee. Kelly, a special agent assigned to President Biden's presidential detail, said other agencies may not train this way, but stepping in front of the president is the Secret Service's job.
Kelly also explained the reasoning behind accepting a stab wound. The ballistic vest will not stop a knife. One stab is far better than several, so if the blade goes in, the agent should try to keep it there. Agents are also taught to shout the weapon type, "knife, knife, knife," so the rest of the detail knows what is happening.
Working the Rope Line
Next came the rope line, where a protectee shakes hands and hugs people while moving along a crowd. In real deployments it is a draped bike rack made of aircraft aluminum or metal. In training it was PVC pipe. The instructors said crowds might range from 100 to 20,000 people, many of whom have waited hours.
The instructors said the most common problem is not an attack. It is an over-enthusiastic handshake or hug that won't let go. Most of the time, asking politely is enough. If it isn't, the agent lifts the person's thumb and pulls the protectee's hand free while saying, "Sir, I'm going to need you to let it go." Khare wondered whether they should sound more forceful. The instructor said the voice can stay nice because "the grip is what's forceful." The same thumb technique works on hugs. Rotating the thumb down weakens the arm and gives the agent control. The guidance was to stay polite, since most people are there to have a good time, but to be ready to act against anyone.
The video then cuts to news footage from Dayton, Ohio, where Secret Service agents rushed to Donald Trump's side after a protester tried to rush the stage. Khare said that assessing a live crowd for friends and threats during the final challenge already seemed overwhelming.
Cutting Off the Rusher at "the Prize"
For stage-rush scenarios, the instructor set up a simple layout: crowd on one side, protectee on the other. Anyone who crosses into the protectee's side is a threat. Khare's first instinct was to intercept the runner where they were. The instructor explained the problem with that. Because the runner is obviously heading for the protectee, the agent should cut them off at "the prize," hit them, and redirect their energy so the rest of the detail can do its job.
Khare was told not to try to catch the runner, because the runner's momentum will carry through the agent. Khare was knocked backward on one attempt before recovering and driving forward, which the instructor praised. The instructor summed up the difference: other law enforcement is taught to take cover, but "you are the cover," so you run toward the problem.
The White House Fence Jumper
Another drill simulated someone who had already scaled the White House fence and landed on the lawn. Khare first played the jumper, wearing a protective bite suit for the K-9, then switched to the role of protecting the lawn. The officers issued commands ("stop moving," "get on the ground," "cross your ankles") while one officer moved in to cuff and search, another gave lethal cover, and another covered downrange.
The video includes a news clip about a shooting from outside the White House's north fence, in which at least eight bullets struck the complex, one near a second-floor guest bedroom. An officer said that on a Saturday there may be a couple thousand people along the fence line. In a lethal situation, officers are expected to take shots at distance with that crowd behind the target. That is why, the officer said, they spend so many hours refining marksmanship.
The Forensic Side: Threat Letters and the Ink Library
The video notes that the Secret Service was originally formed in 1865 to fight widespread counterfeiting, and that it still pursues that mission along with forensic investigation. Khare visited a lab housing what is described as one of the largest ink libraries in the world.
An examiner showed a sample threat letter addressed to the president: "I'm coming for you. You won't know I'm there until it is too late." The examiner said TV and movies often show investigators shading a page with a pencil to reveal impressions, but in real life this ruins the document. The lab instead uses an electrostatic detection device. It reveals indented impressions left when someone wrote on a sheet of paper resting on top of the letter. If investigators later find the matching top sheet in a suspect's home or vehicle, the two documents can be linked.
Asked whether they had ever found something remarkable, the examiner said yes but could not discuss it. They did confirm having been "the missing link" in an exam. The letter then moved to the fingerprint branch. There, a chemical called ninhydrin reacts with amino acids in fingerprint residue and turns it purple, revealing a large print on the sample letter. The examiner said the print would be encoded and searched in the federal fingerprint database. Unlike in movies, the computer does not announce a match. A human examiner makes the identification decision. When Khare asked this examiner for the secret, they said they didn't know, that it was a secret to them too.
Protecting Presidents Wherever Their Hobbies Take Them
According to the video, the Secret Service took on full-time presidential protection after President McKinley's assassination in 1901. Today it protects the first family, the vice president, former presidents, visiting heads of state, major presidential candidates and their families.
At the training tank, an instructor said agents need to be ready around water at places like Mar-a-Lago and Martha's Vineyard. Presidents have different hobbies, such as boating, skiing, biking and swimming, and agents have to be right there with them. Training adapts to the current president, and the instructor admitted agents always wonder what the president will try next. Snorkeling trips with the president, though, can be fun.
Khare swam wearing a belt, gun and radio, plus shoes, long pants and a jacket. The instructor said this prepares agents for falling into water unexpectedly in full gear, possibly while still needing to respond to a threat. Khare found it awful and compared themselves to the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory character who swells into a blueberry.
The Dunker Chair
The hardest water exercise was the shallow water egress trainer, or "dunker chair," which simulates a helicopter crash. Agents on protective details fly in helicopters. Because the engines sit on top, a helicopter that hits water flips upside down and starts sinking. The sequence is: window out, find your reference point, unbuckle, and get out.
Khare said it looks simple but is very hard to describe. Once inverted, water flooded their sinuses, their nose burned, exhaled bubbles went the wrong way, and they couldn't release the seat belt. The instructor pointed out that Khare had unbuckled before grabbing the bar and had ignored the door, so Khare had to repeat it. On the next attempt the instructor added blackout goggles, which had not been mentioned before, to simulate losing vision. Khare called it "full-on Daredevil" but said the run was better. They said the worst parts were the water up the nose and having to think through each step while imagining a real crash.
The Motorcade and the Historic Vehicles
The video describes the presidential motorcade as more than 30 armored vehicles. It works as a White House on wheels, with its own counter assault team, hazmat unit, press corps and medical staff, and it is flown overseas when needed. At its center is the presidential limousine known as the Beast.
In a historic vehicle garage, a guide showed Khare a car used by President Obama, a 1993 Cadillac limousine used by President Clinton, and a hand-built car of President Bush's, described as the only example left in the world. Khare was not allowed to drive any of them.
J-Turns, Hard Braking and Ramming
Driving training started with a fast ride-along, followed by the J-turn. In this maneuver a car moving in reverse is spun 180 degrees and continues forward in the same direction of travel. The instructor said it is simpler than it looks: right hand at roughly the four o'clock position on the wheel, left hand on the gear shift, back up, count, and come off the gas. Asked when this is used in a motorcade, the instructor said hopefully never. It is an option if the detail has to leave an area immediately, instead of taking time for a two-point turn. Khare's first attempts were called "pretty good" and later "outstanding."
Then came the armored Suburban, the kind of vehicle actually used in the motorcade. Asked about secrets in the car, the instructor said they couldn't say. They did reveal that it has a supercharger because it is so heavy. Khare compared the experience to "driving a supercharged whale," like what they imagined driving a semi would feel like. The next drill was reaching 50 mph in a straight line and slamming the brakes as hard as possible without swerving.
The last driving exercise simulated an ambush in which another vehicle pulls out to block the motorcade. The goal is to push through and keep going. The instructor told Khare to line up the front driver's-side headlight with a marked X on the blocking car and avoid hitting its rear tire, since the goal is to move the car out of the way. It was Khare's first time ramming a car. Afterward the instructor pointed out how little damage the Suburban took, mostly paint transferred from the other car.
Firearms, Simulators and the Tactical Village
The final training day was a multi-hour firearms program: timed shooting tests, accuracy assessments and a marksmanship obstacle course. Khare also used VirTra, a 300-degree virtual simulator with five large screens that project scenarios responding in real time. In one scenario, a police officer appeared and identified himself. Khare fired and missed. The instructor said it was lucky for him that Khare missed, and that in real life an agent must take a second to identify what they are seeing before acting.
The most realistic training took place in the Tactical Village, a mock town with a simulated hotel, municipal buildings and hospitals. The scenario was a stopped motorcade under ambush. Shift mate Emily demonstrated. The shift leader pops the door of the armored follow-up vehicle, the agent exits with a charged weapon, engages the threat, makes the weapon safe, moves to new cover, and scans for more threats in their sector. The instructors assume that one threat means more threats. They call this "looking for work," and an instructor described it as an "entrepreneurial spirit," adding, "unfortunately this is our business."
Khare's runs included rifle malfunctions that forced a switch to the pistol. The instructors corrected their position. Shooting from a particular door could cause friendly fire if the shift leader exits. Using that door was "good," a better position was "better," and covering the shift leader as he gets out was "best." The instructors praised Khare for changing elevation after the malfunction, so that only "an eyeball and a muzzle" showed above the hood, and suggested using the brakes and wheel as cover.
They also pointed out that Khare had left partly loaded magazines behind after reloading two or three times. Those rounds could be critical, the instructor said, because this might be only the first of two or three waves of attack. As an example he cited an attack in Mexico in 2020 on a security official, which he said lasted a minute and a half and involved many rounds fired. Khare said the instructors made them repeat the drill over and over because protecting the president is a "zero fail mission."
The Final Challenge: Protecting "Justice"
The final exercise had three phases: an airport arrival, a motorcade transfer and a public speech before a live crowd. If the protectee was harmed at any point, the mission would fail. According to the video, it used President Biden's actual motorcade and real Secret Service agents, including the counter sniper unit. The counter snipers explained they would provide overwatch from an elevated post and relay any threats they spotted. One said they knew the secret but couldn't share it because it was classified.
The protectee was "the commissioner," call sign Justice. When Khare asked about other call signs, the answer was that today they were only using Justice. Khare received an earpiece and radio. Asked again about the secret, the team said they would talk only if Khare succeeded.
The exercise began with Justice's aircraft landing and the detail escorting Justice down the stairs and into the motorcade. Through the window Khare saw dozens of Uniformed Division officers along the perimeter and realized how large the operation was. Expecting something to happen, Khare said they stayed on edge the whole time.
At the venue, Khare walked onstage and said they suddenly had to track more than 50 people, each with their own intentions. Commissioner Katrina Smith gave a short speech at what was staged as an SPCA adoption event. On the radio, team members flagged someone in the front row moving awkwardly and "the guy second from the right." Khare said the distance from the crowd had felt like an advantage until the rope line. Then they were face to face with about 50 loud strangers behind a thin barrier. The rope line ended with only handshakes and thanks.
The Ambush and the Finish
Khare expected a dramatic ending on the way back to the airport. When the motorcade turned into the Tactical Village, the radio called out pedestrians on the right and a vehicle blocking the road at 12 o'clock. Just as in training, Khare's rifle jammed and they switched to the sidearm. The radio traffic that followed included the counter assault team establishing a perimeter, a situation report, and an order to resume the motorcade. The detail delivered Justice to the aircraft, up the stairs and on board.
The exercise ended with "We did it" and "she's safe." The staff congratulated Khare and presented a certificate stating that, on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security and the United States Secret Service, Michelle Khare had completed the Secret Service challenge.
So, What Is the Secret?
As promised, Khare sat down with the chief of the Secret Service Uniformed Division and asked the question at last. The chief answered that he had been there a while, so he has "got a few," but, "I'll tell you, that's the secret." The video ends without any further explanation of what the secret is.
Who doesn't love a good secret? A small secret, a big secret, a top secret. But if there's one place known for their secrets, it's the agency tasked with protecting the highest office of the free world: the United States Secret Service.
Hello, I am a YouTuber, and somehow I have managed to convince the United States Secret Service to let me train with them for a week. But little do they know, I have a secret of my own: to find the chief of the Secret Service himself to ask the question we've all been wondering. What is the secret? What is the secret? The secret.
Now I know what you're thinking. How are we doing this video? Over the past seven months, I've been cold calling and emailing the Secret Service to try and convince them to make a video with us, to which I never received a single response, leaving me no other choice. I had to play my trump card, my ace in the hole, my secret weapon: the FBI.
I called up one of my contacts over at the old bureau from when we shot a video with them in 2019. "We could put you in touch." And 24 hours later, we had an encrypted message in our inbox from the United States Secret Service. And lucky for us, the Secret Service agreed to make a video as long as we get more views than the FBI video.
And that brings us to today. We were given an area of the country to fly into, but we were not actually given an address of where to meet until yesterday. The communication to make this episode happen has been fascinating. "The pigeon has left the nest." Sunglasses emoji.
I bought this suit on Amazon two days ago, and I'm about to walk into one of the most prestigious and secretive organizations in the world. I feel like I should probably stop filming. Leave it rolling and just put the camera on your lap, maybe.
Security put us through multiple checkpoints and then loaded us into an unmarked van. How long have you been a part of the Secret Service, Mike? 35 years. 35 years, and now here in an unmarked van with... Not my first time in an unmarked van.
Miss Khare, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the James J. Rowley Training Center, where we proudly train the brave men and women of the United States Secret Service. Listen, you're going to be exposed to some of the most intense law enforcement training in the world. I have to say that we actually watched your other videos, whether it was the FBI Academy, the Marine Corps, as well as San Diego Police. So we're so excited that you accepted this challenge, and we're so excited to have you.
Well, I do have a question as I come here. I'm on a quest to find out: what is the secret? If you successfully complete the final challenge, we'll tell you the secret.
For this video's final challenge, I will be put through the biggest training simulation we have ever done on this channel. Hundreds of live role players, real Secret Service agents, and even a mockup of Air Force One. My mission: to keep a protectee safe from point A to point B through potential assassination attempts. To ensure my success, I have four days to learn everything I can about the Secret Service and how they train themselves to put the president's life before their own, which brings me to my first lesson.
My understanding is you have done law enforcement and military-type control tactics or defensive measures before. Yes. This is going to be different. This is protection-oriented. Instead of me hitting the protectee, you would rather be hit yourself. Wow. That's the mindset. Completely different mindset. Yes.
Our natural instinct is to push away danger and get away from it. Can't do that. I'm not coming at you. I'm coming at the protectee. You're going to see this is not a high level of threat because you're safe. When you say that, you mean just from a baseline human... A base primal instinct is if I was to throw a punch at you and I turn and throw a punch at somebody else, you're going, "Oh, it's not me." But that "not me" is who you've sworn to protect.
We have a mission of providing a service. That service is protection. Any one of us will put ourselves in harm's way for our protectees at any given time. It doesn't matter if you're left or right, Democrat or Republican. We provide our service for everyone the same.
This time we're just going to start with the knife. All right, everybody's shaking hands. Everybody's truly excited. And when somebody presents a weapon, our mindset is to attack the hand and the weapon. Notice how much of her body is between the threat and the protectee.
If I do this and he stabs me, is that better? I hope. I guess I hope. Your idea is you're going to grab it and throw your whole body in between.
I'm Kelly, and I'm a special agent with the United States Secret Service, and I'm currently assigned to President Biden on the presidential detail. Other law enforcement agencies might not get that training, but that is our job: to step in front of the president and to put ourselves in between the protected person and the threat.
If momentum takes it into you, that's the role, right? Our ballistic vest will not stop a knife. One stab is way better than multiple stabs. So if it goes in us, we want to keep it there.
If you can get out "knife," "gun," "weapon," say something. Knife, knife, knife, knife, knife. Perfect. All right, you ready to do this on the rope line? What do you mean by the rope line?
Typically we use bike rack where it's draped, and that's where a protectee will shake hands, hugs, all that kind of stuff as he works through a crowd. So for our rope lines, typically they're the aircraft aluminum or metal that you have seen out there. For our training purposes, we use PVC pipe.
Now this is my chance to sign autographs, get pictures. We're going to be right up here, and there could be 100 people, 1,000 people, 20,000 people, all stacked up.
All right, now let's deal with what we're most common: exuberant handshakes and hugs. Exuberant handshakes and hugs. People are there. They've been waiting hours to meet this person. I'm sure you deal with it all the time, so it's the exact same thing. But most of the time, this is the only technique you need.
Go ahead. Sorry, let go. Oh my God, I'm so sorry. That's what happens most of the time. If he doesn't, you lift the thumb up and just pull the hand out. Now talk to him. Sir, I'm going to need you to let it go. Yep, that's all you got to say. Sir, I'm going to need you to let it go. I should probably sound more forceful when I say it, though. You can sound nice. The grip is what's forceful. So control. Need you to let go. And there you go.
And so the next one is a hug. No matter how he's gripping, the same thing applies. If you rotate the thumbs open... So we need to move on. Does it go? So you watch what Leslie does here. See how it creates space? So grab the thumb and rotate it down to make his arm weak, and now you have control of him. Remember to be polite, because most people were there just to have a good time. Okay. But be prepared to crush anybody.
In Dayton, Ohio, today, this moment of panic at a Donald Trump rally. Secret Service agents racing to his side after a protester tried to rush the stage.
For my final challenge, I'm going to have to deal with a live crowd, and thinking about assessing whether or not they're friendly or threats, that seems like it's going to be really, really overwhelming.
Crowd's out on this side, protectee on this side. Anybody comes from this side into this side, it is a threat. He jumps that. Where do I know he's going? There. So if I try to cut him off there, see where my problem's going to be? Yeah. So you have to... I know he's going there. That's the prize. So I'm going to cut him off at the prize, and this is where that crash, and I take him around. I redirect his energy so that everybody else can do the thing.
Okay, so you can be right here. Dan's going to try to touch Thomas's head. Don't let him. Drive him, drive him, drive. There you go. Perfect. One more time. Make sure you don't try to catch, because his momentum will always go through you. Redirect. Redirect his energy.
Nice. Well done. And you actually did a good job. You went there and first caught him. See how he knocked you backwards? And then you started driving. Every other law enforcement: take cover, take cover. You are the cover, so take control. Okay. Run towards the problem.
So today we're going to show you how to deal with a White House fence jumper. Oh my gosh. So this is like what we see on the news when someone actually decides to scale and jump the White House fence. Absolutely. So this area of grass is meant to represent the White House lawn? Yes, it is. So it's as if they've already scaled it and come over? Yep. All right, let's do it.
So today I'm going to try to jump the White House fence and see if I can get into the White House. So I'm wearing a protective bite suit just to make sure that if the dog does get a hold of me, he doesn't leave any marks of something that I don't want to take home. Time to protect the White House.
All problem. Jump, jump, jump, jump. Stop moving. Stop moving. Face away from other. Get on the ground. Stay right there. Get down on the ground. Take your time. Do that to be fast. Cross your ankles. Now we're going to make her moving in. Right as you move in, Turner is going to come in and give you lethal coverage. Bend your knees. And Chris is going to cover downrange. Good job. Search are accessible. Break, actual stop.
At 3:00 p.m. today, a white male, age 26, opened fire at the White House from outside the north fence. At least eight bullets struck the White House complex, one near a guest bedroom on the second floor.
It's crazy just to imagine being on the inside of that fence. The White House on a Saturday, there might be a couple thousand people on the fence line. So we're expected to be able, if it's a lethal situation, to be able to take shots at distances with a backdrop of thousands of people. So we spend a lot of hours refining our marksmanship skills. Thank you. Thank you so much, and thank you for your service. Thank you.
While today we know the Secret Service for protecting the president, that wasn't their original purpose. The Secret Service was initially formed in 1865 to address the nation's rampant counterfeiting problem. And to this day, the Secret Service still pursues this mission along with other forms of forensic investigation. This all happens here at one of the largest ink libraries in the world.
So this is the evidence envelope. So we have our threat letters inside here. So when someone sends a threatening letter to the president, the Secret Service then wants the forensic lab to do some examinations to see if they can find who it came from or where it came from.
You have to show the threat letter. "I'm coming for you. You won't know I'm there until it is too late. XXX." So this was sent to the president? Yes. Okay. Yes.
What a lot of people see in TV and movies is the police officers will take a piece of paper and a pencil and start shading it, and then magically they get impressions. In real life, that actually ruins the document. So this is called an electrostatic detection device. I'm going to have you push the buttons. Oh, so power on. That was a really good button. Also, right?
What I'm looking for is if someone had the threat letter and then another paper on top of it, and they're writing on that top paper, they're making impressions on the document below. Oh my gosh, there's something there.
What investigators can do then is do a search of their house or their vehicle, and if they can find a piece of paper that has this writing on it, we've now linked those two documents together.
Have you found something really crazy? Of course, but we can't talk about it. You can't talk about it, but was it like Nicolas Cage in National Treasure? Yeah, like I was the link, the missing link in this exam. Did you have the moment where you ran down the hallway with the paper and you're like, "I've got it"? Yeah, you just want to go brag to all your colleagues. Oh my gosh.
So what happens next with this document? So then after I complete my examination, I'd pass the evidence over to the fingerprints branch. Fingerprints! I am in a movie right now. This is so exciting.
So in this instance, we're going to use a chemical called ninhydrin, and it reacts with amino acids in your fingerprint residue, and it turns a purple color. So if you want to go ahead and put this into the tray, and then you'll let it completely be submerged. Sometimes when I don't take care of my eyebrows for a while, I need these.
This is what the letter looks like after it's been processed, and you can see down here we have a nice, big, beautiful impression. That is so cool. What I will do is I will encode it, and I'll search it in the federal fingerprint database to see if I can make any identification.
You see oftentimes where the computer is like, "Hey, this is this person." It's not reality. We actually have to make that identification decision. The computer doesn't do it for us. I think this is so cool because it's like y'all are finding the hidden story. Exactly. Yeah.
I do have a question to ask you. Okay. What's the secret? I don't know. It's a secret for me as well. Said like a true person who has a secret.
After the assassination of President McKinley in 1901, the Secret Service was finally tasked with the full-time protection of the president. Today the Secret Service protects the first family, the vice president and their immediate family, former presidents and their immediate families, visiting heads of state, and major presidential candidates. As you can imagine, that's a lot of people to protect in many different environments. So how does the Secret Service plan for so much uncertainty?
Come to the Secret Service training tank. You ready? The training tank. So you have Mar-a-Lago, Martha's Vineyard, and our agents need to be prepared to be in and around water. So all presidents have different hobbies: boating, skiing, bike riding, swimming. So as special agents, we do have to be right there with them.
So y'all's training is completely based on the given president's hobbies? Correct. So you're all just sitting there saying, "Please, please don't get adventurous, President." Right. We always wonder what's the next thing they're going to do, so we have to be prepared for that. That's kind of fun, though. Yeah. Go snorkeling. Yeah. With the president. It's fun. Some good trips.
I'm actually going to have you put on a belt, a gun, and a radio to add some weight to yourself. Oh, wow. It does impact. No one likes swimming with shoes on or long pants or especially a jacket, because all that water gets caught in your sleeves. Swimming in BDUs is a good exercise because it gets you used to perhaps falling in the water unintentionally, wearing gear or regular clothing.
Oh, that was awful. I feel like I'm like Veruca Salt in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and she blows up into a blueberry. When you feel weighed down in the water, you might need to get yourself out of that situation or even react to a threat from that situation. Secret Service, drop the weapon! Secret Service, drop the weapon!
Next up, we're going to move on to our shallow water egress trainer, AKA dunker chair. So what we're about to do simulates a helicopter crash? That's correct. We go through it because we do fly on helicopters. We fly on helicopters when you're on the protective details, president's detail, that kind of thing.
Helicopter, top-heavy, right? All the engines on top of the helicopter. So when it hits the water, it's going to immediately rotate upside down, and then it will start sinking. We need to start egressing out of that helicopter as fast as we can. Window out, find your reference point, undo your seat belt, and out you go. That's a win.
The things you sign up for. The things y'all do every day, that's more impressive. Good. Pull back a little bit. Okay. Ditching, ditching.
While this activity might look simple in execution, it is actually really difficult to explain how hard it is to do. The second I went upside down, my sinuses were flooded with water. My nose was burning. Anytime I exhaled, bubbles were going in the wrong direction, and I could not get out of my seat belt.
Oh my God, what do we do? I started unbuckling before I grabbed the bar. You kind of didn't worry about the door. Yeah. We got to get rid of that door. Okay. Do it again. Yeah.
These are our blackout goggles, basically to simulate you being in a helicopter where you lost your vision. What? That is a new device you did not mention before this moment. We're going to cut off your vision so that you rely on other senses. Oh my God, this is scary. This is full-on Daredevil. All right, ditching, ditching.
Very good. That was.
Better. What's the worst part? The water for nose, yeah, and just imagining, oh my God, we're crashing in a helicopter, and then thinking to yourself, I'm going upside down. Now I have to relax. Now I have to kick the door open. Thinking the steps is crazy.
While the president flies on Marine One and Air Force One for long, long-distance travel, they rely on the presidential motorcade for ground transport. With over 30 vehicles, the presidential motorcade is a fleet of armored vehicles designed to get the president safely from point A to point B. The presidential motorcade is essentially an armored White House on wheels, complete with its own counter-assault team, hazmat unit, press corps, and even medical staff. The presidential motorcade is so vital, they even fly it across the globe to use overseas.
And at the heart of the motorcade is the vehicle that carries the president themselves, known as the Beast. And I was told I may have the opportunity to ride in the Beast later today.
All right, Michelle, I'd like to take you into the Robert Diehl Historic Vehicle Garage, show you some of the historic vehicles that we're fortunate to maintain on here. Is this Obama's car? It sure is. It sure is.
CA action, get ready for the main ATT.
This is one of our older ones. This is a 1993 Cadillac limousine. This was President Clinton's. Wow. So this is President Bush's car. Oh my gosh. Custom. It's handbuilt. This is literally the only example left in the world.
So am I driving this? No. Okay. You get to drive the armored Suburban. Armored Suburban. Armored Suburban. I'm really, really excited about this segment because this is where I'm going to learn how to drive in the motorcade. Yes, ma'am.
Ready to go for a ride? Sure. All right, I'm going to take you for a ride first, and then we're going to teach you to let you run the whole thing. So we're about to launch? This is all systems go.
Ped. Oh no, oh no, oh no. Oh. All right, hold on tight. What? This is still happening. Oh my God.
Ready to learn a J-turn? Are you kidding me? No, ma'am. A J-turn is a protective driving maneuver in which a vehicle going in reverse is spun 180 degrees and continues forward without changing direction of travel.
So a couple principles of this. It's really simple. It's not nearly as complicated as it seems. Put your hand about the four o'clock position, kind of where that little seam is right there. You'll put your left hand here. You're going to put your other hand on the gear shift. All right, so you're going to put it in reverse. You're just going to start going backwards like this. One, two, three, four, off the gas. Just like that. Okay. All right, you got it.
One, get on, two, three, four. That was pretty good. That was pretty good. Go flip back around. I'll let you do another one.
When do you do this in the motorcade again? Hopefully never. If anything were to happen and they have to get out of the area immediately, this is something they could do instead of taking your time to back up, do a two-point turn. Yeah, just flip that. It looks cool too. It definitely looks cool. Yes, ma'am.
You do it. Stop it. Down. Outstanding. Very nicely done. Yeah. Where do we go? Take it right back up top, and we'll swap out.
Did I graduate? Absolutely. Now we're going to step it up to the armored Suburban. The armored Suburban. These doors are heavy.
So this is a vehicle that would actually be used in the real motorcade? Yes, ma'am. Are there secrets in this car? I couldn't tell you that. So that's a yes.
Are we sirening? Was this sirens? No, no, there's a supercharger. There's a supercharger in here? Yes, ma'am. It's that heavy, it needs one. That's one of the secrets. That's one of the secrets. It was a secret until now.
So whenever you're ready, just do a slow one, get used to it. We'll talk you through it. All right, here we go. Ready? Nice and smooth.
Like driving a freaking supercharged whale. This is really hard to describe unless you've experienced it. Honestly, I've never driven a semi, but this is what I would imagine it feels like to drive a machine that big.
All right, now you're going to get up to 50 miles per hour. Straight in, don't change lanes. Slam on the brakes as hard as you can. Keep going straight, keep going straight. Brake. Very nicely done.
What on earth is happening now? Well, that's another secret you'll find out shortly. More secrets. You passed driving, so what we're going to end up doing now is ramming. Say what? Yeah, we're going to ram a vehicle now, is what we're going to have you guys do.
So am I ramming or being rammed? You're going to be in the ramming vehicle. So this is to simulate an ambush. A vehicle pulls out in front of you, tries to block you, and we've got to get through it. Nothing stops through the—we're pushing it out of the way. We're moving through and continuing on. We're continuing on our merry way.
We want to try and get our front driver's-side headlight lined up with that X. We don't want to hit the rear tire. Ideally, you just want to move the car out of the way. Let's do it. Let's get it done.
Ever ram a car before? No. First time for everything. Cool. Ready, set, bang. Go, go, go. Keep going. Hard, hard. There it is. Nice. There you go, and slow down. Just bring it around.
Oh my God. That was so exciting. Wow. And to emphasize the strength of this vehicle even more, look at how little damage happened. This is the paint from the other car.
And as I continue my quest to find the ultimate secret of the Secret Service, it is no secret how grateful I am for all of you guys watching. I just want to say thank you all so much for helping us hit our next milestone on this channel of three million subscribers. And if you're new here and if you haven't subscribed, what are you doing? Be sure to subscribe right now because we do epic videos like this all the time.
For my final day of the academy, I was put through a multi-hour firearms training program consisting of timed shooting tests, accuracy assessments, and a marksmanship obstacle course. They even have us run drills in a 300-degree virtual training simulator called VirTra. It's five massive screens projecting real-life scenarios that react in real time to my actions. And it's this type of training that measures an agent's ability to make split-second decisions under stress.
Hey, up, up. Everyone in there is out the back exit. They're safe. This police officer came out and he identified himself. Thankfully for him, you were a bad shot on that one and you missed. But in real life, you have to take that second to really identify what it is you see before you take action.
While training virtually has its benefits, nothing beats the real thing. And so, to train in the most realistic environment possible, they brought me out to their Tactical Village to learn how to respond in the event that the presidential motorcade is caught in an ambush.
We're here now in the Tactical Village. We have a simulated hotel, municipal buildings, hospitals, basically to simulate a town in which we can do a number of different training scenarios. This is amazing.
Emily is going to be one of our shift mates. Adam's going to be one of our shift mates as well. Awesome. And y'all will be with me on the final challenge as well, is that correct? That's correct. Oh, good. I'm really excited to work with y'all.
So you're going to be inside of a follow-up, and the motorcade is going to be stopped, and you're going to have to get out and defend it. We're going to have Emily do a demonstration. The shift leader who is riding here will already have popped this door because we're stopped. This is armor. Emily will come out, have her weapon charged. She's going to engage that threat. Threat down, threat down. She'll put it on safe, and she'll relocate to another point of cover.
She catches other threats in her sector, she puts that threat down, and she scans. We anticipate if there's one threat, there's multiple threats. We call it looking for work. If there's problems, we go find that problem, solve that problem, look for more work. It's an entrepreneurial spirit. Unfortunately, this is our business.
Threat, threat. Now you want to ideally go up to his door. Threat down. Move. Moving.
So if that fails, you have an operational pistol. Go to your pistol. There you go, there you go. Threat down. All right, actual stop, guys.
The reason why we wanted to have you not shoot from this door is because if, in fact, that shift leader came out, you could potentially have friendly fire. Okay. We call it good, better, best. That was good. This up here is better. And then if he's able to leave out and you're providing cover for him, that's the best.
That's op thr it. Threat. Target. What do you tell your partners? Up.
They're having me repeat the same drill over and over and over again because when you are protecting the president, it is a zero-fail mission.
Okay, do you have an operational gun on you? She's still shooting at you. Get back in the fight. And if things malfunction, it doesn't matter. I need to learn how to get over that under pressure. There you go. Threats down, threats down.
Now the one thing I like: you came up standing, and then when it failed, you changed elevation. So now she's not looking at that same target up there. Now you're just an eyeball and a muzzle above this hood. Even better. Also, come around here. Oh, right. Now you can use the brakes, and you can use this wheel.
Your marksmanship is good. Use of safety is good. You reloaded two or three times. You left these magazines. Did they have rounds? Yes. They may be critical to your safety and to your shift mate's safety. This was the first wave of two or three attacks, like what happened in Mexico in 2020, when their attack on their security general, it lasted a minute and a half, and there were a lot of rounds expended. This could be the difference of going home and not going home.
Okay, so we're going to run it again and again until you get exactly the way we want you to run. Okay, good. Thank you, sir. You're doing a great job. Keep your head up.
After wrapping up the last day of training, it was now time for the final challenge. Today's final challenge will involve me having to provide protection to a protectee through a series of events: an airport arrival, a motorcade transport, and a public speech in front of a live crowd. And if at any point the protectee is harmed, it's a mission failed, and the challenge is over. This final challenge will also include President Biden's actual motorcade and feature real Secret Service agents, including the counter-sniper unit.
So we're going to be posted here for your final exercise, and this post gives us the best vantage point to help you and the rest of the detail in order to accomplish their mission. So while I'm on the shift and in closer proximity to the protectee, you'll be up here with other counter-snipers as overwatch for us? Correct, yeah. And then if we locate or identify some threat, we are able to relay that to you in order to help you. On comms. Yeah.
Do you know the secret? You know the secret? Yeah, of course. Can you tell me what the secret is? No, I'm sorry, I can't. It's classified. Classified.
Michelle, this is the team you're going to be working with. So who am I protecting today? We're protecting the commissioner today, call sign Justice. Call sign Justice. Are there other call signs? We have a lot of call signs. What, are they secrets? Today we're just using Justice. Okay, okay. Just one, got it.
We have the earpiece and the radio that you need for the final challenge. The earpiece. Now it's real.
Before you start, to make it official. My God. All right, is this the secret? Not yet. Is this? Not yet, not yet, not yet. I still get to know the secret? We'll tell you after. If I succeed, I get to know the secret? If you succeed, we'll talk. Good luck. Thank you.
Command post, Justice aircraft wheels down. Command post, copy Justice aircraft wheels down. Shift leader. Wall copy, coming out.
Justice to the stairs. More copies. All copies, thank you.
Justice bottom of the stairs. Got him. Justice inside.
Li departure. We turn them out, turn them out. Command post, Justice follow-up departed site one, en route site two.
Looking out the window, I saw dozens of Uniformed Division officers lining the entire perimeter. And this is when I realized the true scale of this operation. A threat could come from anywhere at any moment. And since it's the final challenge, I knew something was going to go down eventually, and I was just so on edge waiting for when or where.
Justice arrived, arrived. Get out. Come me those copies. Justice arrived. S m set. Thank you. Justice outside. Justice moving to hold.
That's Justice inside. Michelle, you want to pre-post with them?
Walking out onto the stage, I was suddenly met with a massive crowd of people. I realized it was now my job to track over 50 living human beings, each with their own intentions.
Ladies and gentlemen, the commissioner of RTC, Katrina Smith.
Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Welcome, everyone. What a beautiful day in Laurel, Maryland, huh? This is great, and the turnout.
The front row, holding his hand in an awkward motion. Keep an eye on that. Yeah, copy. Michelle, the guy second from the right.
You also know my love and passion for animals throughout my campaign. While.
Down. Follow, shift leader, one plus with Uniformed Division.
Looks like I need to work on his vote now, huh? Thank you, everybody. Have fun today at this SPCA event. I hope you end up finding your forever friend. Thank you again, everyone.
Justice M line.
Up until this point, I felt like I had an advantage against any threat because of the distance between us and the crowd. But as we approached the rope line, I got incredibly nervous, face to face with 50 loud, screaming strangers and only a thin barrier between us.
Justice halfway through rope line. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you so much. Thank you, thank you. Absolutely. Thank you, thank you, thank you for being here. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you, thank you so much. Thank you. Of course. Thank you, thank you so much. Thank you, thank you for being here. Bye, everybody. Thank you.
Justice concluding rope line. Follow, Justice moving to hold. Justice departed site two, en route site one.
With the speech complete, all we had to do now was get Justice back to the airport. Guys, I knew there would be some big, flashy ending, and the second we turned the corner into the Tactical Village, I knew something big was about to happen.
Pedestrians right. Keep your eye on the pedestrians. Pedestrians right. Follow lead, there's a vehicle blocking the road, twelve o'clock.
Just like in training, my rifle jammed again, forcing me to switch to my sidearm. But as an agent, I had to make my situation worse no matter what.
Follow from situation report. Stand by. CAT, establish perimeter.
ATT can't go down. Ten o'clock. C per set, stand by for deployment. DRT from CAT, respond to site one. Secure the perimeter.
Lead, prepare for departure. Troy, you're going to move the motorcade. Copy that. Motorcade is resuming.
Justice follow S one. Ma'am, all set. Thank you both. Justice outside, bottom of the stairs. Justice top of stairs. Justice onboard aircraft.
Actual stop. We did it. Yeah, good job. She's safe. Oh my gosh. Holy cow. Congratulations. Nice work. Thank you. Challenge accepted, and you crushed it. Well done. Awesome. Well done.
On behalf of the Department of Homeland Security, the United States Secret Service, this certifies that Michelle Khare has successfully completed the United States Secret Service Challenge Accepted Secret Service Academy. Congratulations. Well done. Thank you, sir.
Oh my gosh. The Department of Homeland Security authorized this. This is insane.
And as promised, for completing the final challenge, I got to sit down with the chief of the Secret Service Uniformed Division to ask the man himself: what is the secret?
What is the secret? The secret. Oh, wow. So I've been here for a while, so I've got a few, but I'll tell you.
That's the secret.
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