I am freshly back from a business trip to London and eager to start writing in this blog again. My apologies for being away from it for so long. My journey to London provided me with a poignant trip down memory lane. Please forgive my self-indulgence.

My recent trip to London started some 25 years ago. Bear with me…there is a point to this missive! In the fall of 1983 I was a young intern working at The White House. How on earth did I get there? The short version is while attending Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA, my political science professor, Dr. Jerry Combee, selected me to fill a request that had come from The White House. They requested an intern specifically from Liberty–and I got chosen. That semester I traveled back and forth from Lynchburg to Washington, DC each week. I left Wednesday afternoon after classes, traveled to Washington any way I could get there (bus, car rides, one time I flew with Ron Godwin, President of the Moral Majority, in a private plane!), worked at The White House on Thursday and Friday and then got myself back to Lynchburg Friday evening. It was the chance of a lifetime and I took it. I thank God for smiling on me and providing me with such an opportunity.

The internship was in a department called Presidential Personnel, which was the equivalent of the President’s own personal employment agency. At that time, the Executive Branch (i.e. President Reagan) used Presidential Personnel to fill some 5,500 positions throughout the federal government from personal assitants (then called secretaries) all the way to cabinet secretaries. Our department processed boatloads of resumes, using (at that time) state of the art computers like the Digital VAX and IBM System/36. I used to write letters using an IBM Displaywriter with floppy disks as big as file folders!

Presidential Personnel consisted of some 40 people and was located in the Old Executive Office Building (OEOB) which sits immediately next to The White House and is part of The White House “complex.” I worked for the number two person in the department, Becky Norton Dunlop, who was the Deputy Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel. She was, and is, a true conservative and one of the greatest people you will ever meet in Washington, or anyplace else. Becky is now a Vice President at the Heritage Foundation and I stay in touch with her via email all these years later. Side note: She has a great husband too! George Dunlop was at that time (in 1983) the Chief of Staff for the Senate Agriculture Committee, a committee chaired by the great Senator Jesse Helms from North Carolina.

My job was to assist Becky. I answered phones, read and clipped newspapers, wrote letters, searched resumes to fill positions and ran errands to other departments (sometimes even into the West Wing). Not long after I started my internship, in October of 1983, this country faced serious threats abroad and close to home. Our Marine base in Lebanon was bombed by terrorists and hundreds died. There was also trouble in a small island nation called Grenada, located just off the coast of Venezuela in South America. In 1979 the government of Grenada was overthrown by leftists with ties to the Soviet Union and Cuba. In 1983 the situation was rapidly deteriorating and about 100 American students attending a medical school in Grenada were in jeopardy of being taken hostage like our diplomats in Iran were a few years ealier. President Reagan did not shy from the situation nor did he attempt to “talk” his way out of it (as liberals always have and still do advocate). Reagan took action. He invaded that country with 7,000 troops where we found a strong (and growing) military base backed by Cuba and the Soviets. It was a good thing we entered that country when we did and returned it to a constitutional democracy, which still stands today.

So what does that have to do with my trip to London? Stay with me! Two days after the invasion of Grenada, on October 27, 1983, President Reagan went on national television to discuss the recent tragedy in Lebanon, and the invasion of Grenada. It was an exceptional speech–a Reagan speech. I watched it on television with my boss Becky as we sat in her office in the OEOB. (It was cool thinking that just across the street the President was actually giving that speech live!) When the speech was done, we walked to her car, parked in the lot between the OEOB and the West Wing, to head home. Off-the-cuff Becky said, “Come with me.” And I followed. We entered the West Wing (showing our badges), walked up the back steps, passing James Baker, the Chief of Staff, and entered one of the corner offices in the West Wing. This particular corner office belonged to none other than Edwin Meese, III, Counsellor to the President. He was at that time President Reagan’s chief policy advisor.

Becky introduced me to Mr. Meese and I shook his hand. He offered me a glass of sherry–which I politely refused. Hey, I was a student at Liberty! And Baptists don’t drink alcohol you see. He proceeded to tell Becky and me what the President had just said moments ago when the cameras went dark following his speech. Ed Meese was actually in the Oval Office as the President gave the speech, and he discussed it with the President. Mr. Meese related to us how the President felt about the speech just delivered and about the current situation in Grenada.

One of my most vivid memories of that time, when I served first as an intern (and later when I was hired on staff at The White House), was that night in October. One thought ran through my head: “Welcome to Wonderland, Alice!” I marvelled at how a hick boy from Upstate New York could possibly be roaming the halls of power at the center of the political universe and the free world. I still marvel at the thought! And I thank Becky for giving me a precious memory that I will always cherish.

After serving the President as Counsellor, Ed Meese later became Attorney General. Although I visited Becky at the Justice Department (she later moved from The White House to Justice to serve Mr. Meese there), I never again had the pleasure of meeting Ed Meese after that night in October of 1983. Until last week.

Fast forward nearly 25 years. I flew from Binghamton to Dulles (Washington, DC) last Saturday and was waiting for my flight from Dulles to London to start boarding. First class had just started to board and I was standing near the entrance waiting for Economy to board when an elderly gentleman said, “Excuse me,” to the guy standing next to me. “Has the plane started to board yet?” he asked. The guy next to me told him First Class was already boarding. I happened to glance at this elderly gentleman and before I knew it, the words escaped my mouth: “Mr. Meese!” I said. He turned and said, “Yes?” I had to think quick! “My name is Jim Willis and I used to work for Becky Dunlop,” was my response. Ed Meese stuck his hand out to shake my hand and said, “Oh yes. Nice to meet you.” I think I said the same thing in return…can’t quite remember. And then he was gone to board the plane.

I looked around in wonderment, with a smile on my face. The vast majority of the hundreds of people standing there did not realize the former Attorney General of the United States and confidant of the greatest President of our lifetime was passing through. I noticed a couple who cornered him just before he entered the walkway to the plane. At least two other people noticed!

That chance meeting gave me a smile, brought back a flood of memories, and provided a good sendoff on what would be a very good business trip to London. Thank you Mr. Meese, for taking time to shake my hand and say a word or two. More importantly, thank you for your service to our country and to President Reagan. Like President Reagan, you are a true American hero.

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