We were election monitors (a title more technical than real in my case, as my wife, Jennifer, and I were primarily spending our time making pictures for the group that sent us, the Jamestown Foundation), along with a number of others, including journalists Roland Evans and Michael Barone, and former DCI R. James Woolsey. It was quite an experience to be "inside the bubble" with a crowd like that. I still have the white, red and blue pass that marked me as an official observer -- it was like having an All Access Pass to an entire country.
Haig took to calling me "Mr. Snappy Snap" as Jennifer and I kept popping up with our cameras. All I could think of was how Navy pilots don't really have cool call signs like "Maverick" or "Ice Man" (as in "Top Gun"), but rather often silly and embarrassing ones, usually drawn from some event, like "Goofy Foot." (It's true; check out the technical advisors and pilots on that movie's credits some time.) I knew that I was lucky to be among this crowd and in this situation, for fear of having "Mr. Snappy Snap" forever printed on my nametag and locker somewhere.
But the greatest moment came at the end, at baggage claim at New York's JFK Airport. Haig's aide, "Woody" Goldberg, had gathered his luggage on a cart as the rest of us had collected ours, and Jennifer and I were turning (talking with Goldberg, as I recall) when we heard a voice call out, "Mr. Secretary!" A Customs officer had recognized Haig, and was beckoning him to the rope to let him bypass the regular check. As he turned to the opening, the officer noticed us clustered behind, and asked, "Are they with you?" With a quick glance in our direction, Haig answered yes, and we all sped through. I have never, before or since, felt so important.
Thanks for the reminiscences.
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