AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING LXIII

1. The Presidential Motorcade is both the safest and riskiest convoy on the planet. This fleet of vehicles is basically a rolling, armored White House, containing its own contingency response force, communications office, and medical facilities.  It is built from a fleet of custom and sometimes rented vehicles - usually Cadillacs and Chevy Suburbans. Generally, there are about 50 vehicles in the motorcade, with 100 staff. Sometimes extra vehicles are added in new positions, and the President isn't always in a limo. By constantly mixing up the routine, the Secret Service hopes to thwart attackers.

   In a Presidential Motorcade, the car in which the president rides is called the Beast or Stagecoach. In addition to the Beast, at least one identical car accompanies it and sometimes many more. These cars, known as Spares, are used as backups and blocking vehicles should the president's car have a mechanical issue or get attacked. They also serve as decoys.

   While the motorcade is in motion, highly trained Secret Service drivers execute a classic roving "shell game," weaving the Beast and Spare(s) in and out among each other so that a would-be attacker would have a hard time picking the car actually containing the president. The presidential limousines have identical license plates.

   It takes careful planning and logistics to pre-position all the vehicles needed in a motorcade - especially if the president is traveling and visiting more that one location. For example, if the president is visiting three separate cities during a single day, as during campaign season, three separate motorcade detachments must be forward-deployed to those cities. This is done via U.S. Air Force heavy transports, such as the C-17.

   In addition to the Presidential Motorcade being forward-deployed to where the president is heading, it is now customary to deploy a pair of Presidential Airlift Helicopters to the destination - regardless of whether they are used or not. Like the motorcade, these helicopters usually arrive via USAF heavy transport planes. Their main purpose is to offer the White House and Secret Service a contingency presidential transport solution in any number of types of emergency or special circumstances. 

   Multiple USAF heavy transports are required for a single presidential visit, and these flight come at a steep cost.

 

2. President Lyndon Baines Johnson loved Fresca. He loved it so much so that he had a button installed on his desk in the  Oval Office that signaled a staffer to bring him one. 

3. Arctic terns have one of the longest migratory routes in the animal kingdom. They travel form their breeding grounds near the Arctic Circle to enjoy the summer at the Antarctic Circle - a journey of 25,000 miles - one way. Arctic terns travel an estimated 1.5 million miles during their lifetimes.

4. Jet Ski is a trademark of Kawasaki Heavy Industries. Not every personal watercraft is a Jet Ski, though it has become generic for the product - similar to scotch tape and kleenex.

5. Gary Comer started Lands' End in 1963, selling equipment for racing sailboats.When the very first catalog cover misplaced the apostrophe in "Land's End," there wasn't enough money to reprint the entire press run, so Lands' End became the name of Gary's company from then on, punctuation mistake and all.