A couple of weeks ago, a reader asked whether a military aide still acompanies the President carrying the “nuclear football”—otherwise known as the presiden’t emergency satchel.
I said that I assumed so, but that I hadn’t seen anything in a while and would keep an eye out.
The last article I saw was from early 2005.
Well, we have confirmation, according to a White House staff schedule for the President’s trip to Florida, which a sanitation worker found in the trash.
The schedule includes a list of “every passenger on board each aircraft, from the President to military attaché with nuclear football.”
Wikipedia has a nice entry on the nuclear football, if you are interested.
MKH | May 10, 2006
From the USAToday article…Reagan aides joking around with football handler? Terrific!
“Former military aide Peter Metzger recalls that once Reagan aide Mike Deaver steered him into a different elevator from the president and fooled him into thinking he had missed the motorcade. Metzger said his heart was racing “like a gerbil in a cage” until he realized it was a ruse.”