Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories.
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It seems like every time I turn on the news nowadays, it is filled with reports about two of our U.S. Presidents who have mishandled classified documents; you know, things that could affect our national security.
I think it all started when the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago, the Florida resort home owned by former president Donald Trump. According to the news reports, they found materials in all three classified categories, “Confidential,” “Secret” and “Top Secret.” I saw one report that some were in a dresser drawer with his socks.
The next thing I knew, the FBI found the same kind of documents in President Joe Biden’s garage in Delaware. I heard that some of them were in a cardboard box on the garage floor, between his sports car and a snow blower.
I think a lot of people were surprised by all of this. They thought that over the years, all those thousands of government bureaucrats had developed procedures to prevent that sort of thing.
It didn’t surprise me at all. I mean, when you are President of the United States, you can’t just work at the White House. So you take your work home, or wherever you will be. And you may be there for some time. No matter what kind of rules that are made, that is likely to happen.
During World War II, when F.D.R. was planning the ‘D-Day’ invasion of Normandy, I bet his Warm Springs cottage was full of classified documents that he handled the same way. I wouldn’t be surprised if the cleaning lady threw some of them into the trash.
To tell the truth, 70 years ago when I was in the Air Force, I may have once handled some classified documents the same way. I was a relatively new Air Force instructor, teaching the fire control system that was used on jet fighter planes to attack enemy aircraft. It combined a radar system with a computer, to guide the pilot and fire the rockets.
I normally taught the radar part of the course, but on a Friday afternoon I learned that the following week I would teach the computer section. It would be the first time I had ever done that. So the officer in charge of the school, Major Getto, let me take s set of the schematic diagrams home to study over the weekend. They were classified as “Confidential.”
I spent all day Saturday studying those documents and practicing my presentation. My wife, Janet, was my audience. I went through the whole thing twice, until I was comfortable with it.
That night, Janet and I decided to go to a movie. But what should I do with the Confidential documents? I suppose I could have taken them with me. But instead, I decided to hide them some place where no one would expect to find them. So I slid them under the mattress in our bedroom.
I guess that’s why I’m not surprised that they found documents with Donald Trump’s socks and in a box beside Joe Biden’s car and snowblower. I can empathize with both of those guys. Unfortunately, it will probably always be that way.
Those wishing to contact Bill Boyd can e-mail him at williamboyd514@gmail.com