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Unique G8 Mission Puts
Guardsmen as VIP Drivers

By Master Sgt. Bob Haskell
National Guard Bureau

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- The driving directions were unmistakably clear.

“Don’t stop. Don’t break ranks. Keep up with the vehicle in front of you. Don’t let anyone pass. And don’t worry about getting a speeding ticket. We own the highway.”

That, claims South Carolina Army National Guard Spc. Darin Hawfield, is what a United States Secret Service agent told him before the citizen-Soldier took the ride of his young life on June 6.

Hawfield drove one of the vans in the motorcade that carried President George Bush, the first lady and his staff to Sea Island, Ga, for the Group of Eight Summit that the president is hosting for three days this week.

No, Hawfield did not drive the president the few miles to Sea Island from St. Simons Island after the presidential party arrived by helicopter. But one of his three passengers was the White House chief of staff, Andrew Card Jr., he said.

Hawfield, from South Carolina ’s 218th Infantry Brigade, is one of 82 National Guard members who are official drivers for staff members of the world leaders who are having informal meetings with President Bush at the exclusive island resort on the southern Georgia coast.     

The drivers are Army National Guard Soldiers from Alabama and South Carolina and Air National Guard Airmen from Georgia. They are wearing light blue sports shirts and tan slacks instead of their traditional forest camouflage uniforms.

They are on call day and night to drive the guests wherever they need to go, explained Georgia Army Guard Maj. Larry Deaton who is in charge of the driving detail which has been organized during the past three weeks.

It is certainly a change of pace from his regular job in the education and training office at Robins Air Force Base, said Senior Airman Samuel Kesler from the Georgia Air Guard’s 116th Air Control Wing. 

It was also a thrill to be part of the presidential motorcade on his very first mission, explained Hawfield.

 “First they told me I would be driving one of the support vans,” he recalled. “The next thing I know, I’m being told I’d be driving in the presidential motorcade and that I’d be carrying the chief of staff.

It took only a few minutes to make the fast-paced trip, Hawfield said, but there was some time for small talk.

“I asked him if he would be playing golf, and he said he would,” the South Carolina citizen-Soldier recalled. “He asked me what kind of shape the golf course is in. I told him it’s immaculate.”

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