ASU Graduation---Part 1

I finally got through to the security company I work (not much) for and got a gig working the ASU graduation in which President Obama would speak on Wednesday of last week... I reported for work at noon and was assigned as a "roamer" security guard (which means I go to wherever I'm needed). They had me doing crowd control (outside, of course) in front of the Wells Fargo Arena directing people to the main entrance of Sun Devil Stadium... pretty easy work, stopping foot traffic so the bicycle rickshaws and handicap carts and police vehicles could get through... (massive amounts of people coming in, most using the new lightrail). Over 71,000 were expected and they started coming at 2:00pm and didn't stop until 7:00pm. The best news was that I was stationed along the motorcade route, so I had front row access to watch Mr. Obama come by with his entourage... The police presence was overwhelming and that didn't include FBI and Secret Service...we were told which areas we were NOT to go near (called the dead zone for a very good reason!)... So I spent the afternoon doing my crossing guard shtick and baking in the 100+ heat until around 6:00pm.

Normal airport traffic was going overhead all day, but I noticed a plane flying lower than the others around 5pm. It passed overhead and we could tell it was Air Force One! The President was landing... From then on the police force around the motorcade route seemed to double... There was an officer every five feet and then there was me at my station...They asked just to help keep the people from crossing...they shut all crossing for about 15 minutes until the motorcade passed on its way to the stadium...(one graduate tried to jump the barricade and run in, was tackled in cap and gown and detained by about eight cops! Four years of college, you think he would have been smarter than that!)... The motorcade then swept by and I lost count at about 40 vehicles...very impressive sight I must say...most observers cheered and clapped (there were some protestors, but the mass amount of police kept them in check, unlike our graduate)... a few minutes later they reopened the crossway and people kept flowing in. We were told to redeploy (fancy, eh?) to the stadium...

They closed the entrance at 7pm whether you had tickets or not (quite alot of "fashionalby late" attendees turned away by local and state troopers). We were sent onto the field with the graduates...(very cool). I went around with the lead dude and made sure our people were stationed so that they were not blocking anyone's view or just hanging out on the field doing nothing... I was there for about an hour, and just before the President's speech, I was cut because we had too many people there...(curses!!). So I missed the President's speech, but I beat it out of there before the mass exodus of people and made it to Majerle's in time for some chicken wings and the end of the Nuggets game...

So six hours in the sun (mmmm...toasty!) and some pretty cool adventures at the graduation ceremonies... They continue through Saturday with each college and school getting their own ceremony... I was scheduled to work Friday, split between security and ushering... More about that in Part II... stay tuned... Oh yeah, almost forgot... the graduate who jumped the barricade was seen entering the field by one of the guys on my team outside, so he made it after all.