President Barack Obama will touch down in Anchorage on Monday for the start of a whirlwind tour of the 49th state, unprecedented in modern presidential travel.
But there's a clear protocol for what comes before him, and signs of the complicated security controls for the leader of the world's superpower have been popping up around the state for weeks.
Men in dark suits with high-and tight-haircuts are spotted downtown. Official folks from Washington, D.C., have landed in rural villages, checking out gymnasiums and local roads. State Department event planners dropped by a reception at former Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell's place in Anchorage last week.
And it's just beginning. Alaska is about to get the full Secret Service treatment -- motorcades and all.
"If it were up to the Secret Service, they would never leave the White House with the president," said Dan Emmett, a former Secret Service agent of 21 years who provided close protection for Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. He detailed his experience in his memoir, "Within Arm's Length."
"But these guys want to get out… They don't like being cooped up -- especially the younger ones," Emmett added.
Advance work
"The advance work is the most important part of any Secret Service work," Emmett said.
Several months ago, a few members of the White House staff, the military and other organizations probably did the first of several advance trips to Alaska, said Jeffrey Robinson, co-author of "Standing Next to History: An Agent's Life Inside the Secret Service."
The earliest visit is focused on where the president is going to stay, where they're going to land the planes and what the food situation is on the ground. "And 'hello' to state police and 'hello' to local police," Robinson added. "So they meet the players involved in Alaska and they start pulling together the trip."
"This happens on every single presidential trip," be it Alaska, Rome or Miami, Robinson said. "They go through a checklist. They know what to do."
At a closer date to the trip, "the party gets bigger" and direct coordination with locals begins, Robinson said.
With about two weeks to go before the trip, they "can now move assets into Alaska."
The Secret Service and local police organize motorcade routes and emergency stops along the way. They may secure manhole covers for several blocks and remove trash cans and mailboxes from street corners.
Not long before the president arrives, agents will bring in dogs to sniff for bombs and other devices.
"You'll see him working a rope line and think that's no big deal… until you realize the things that have gone into it," Robinson said.
"You look at the White House," the "safest place, really, in the world," he said. The president is taking that security with him "no matter where he goes," Emmett said.
Threats
During those early trips when Secret Service agents begin their work with local police, they're likely to ask about any potential threats -- "people who have previously issued threats that are considered serious" -- according to Ron Kessler, an investigative journalist who has written several books on the Secret Service, including his latest, "The First Family."
Then the agents "show up at their homes and tell them to stay away from the president when he's there" and inform them that they'll be watched, Kessler said.
Or, as Robinson put it: "They round up all the crazies."
"There are threats made to the president all the time" and the Secret Service takes each one seriously, whether it comes in a letter to the White House or in post on Twitter, Robinson said. "You're going to get a visit," he said. Agents can't afford to get it wrong. "If the Secret Service makes a mistake, you're looking at Dallas, 1963. There is not room for error," he said.
Threats were notoriously high for Obama around his 2008 election, but the Secret Service has said they have since declined to average levels.
People who make threats on the president's life fit into one of three "classes," as designated by the Secret Service, according to Kessler's book.
"Class III" is the most serious level -- those who are considered serious in intent and ability. It's a relatively small crowd of about 100 people who likely receive visits from the Secret Service a few times a year. If anyone on that list is in an area where the president is visiting, they'll be under surveillance for the duration of the trip.
The "Class II" crowd is considered serious in their intent, but unlikely to be able to carry out the threat. Often they are in prison or mental institutions.
The "Class I" threats is the bar boast crowd -- those who make a threat to the president, often online, but aren't likely to carry it out. Many of these folks back off once they get an official visit reminding them that threatening the life of the president has been a federal crime since 1917 and could be punished by up to five years in prison.
While the Internet makes it easier to fire off an ill-conceived threat on the president's life, the Secret Service doesn't take it any less seriously. In 2010, a Kentucky man received a 33-month sentence for a poem he posted online about assassinating Obama, and a Texas man was sentenced to 27 months in prison for posting a threat to Obama on Craigslist over the Affordable Care Act.
In the air
When the president lands at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, most people think of him coming on the iconic "Air Force One" 747.
But "any Air Force airplane that the president is on is called 'Air Force One,' " Emmett said. "If he is in a Cessna 150, if it's operated by the Air Force, it's Air Force One."
And there will be more than one plane heading in with the president.
The president, his staff and some of the White House press corps -- based on a travel rotation -- will be on Air Force One. A second, similar plane joins them, as do transport planes carrying a fleet of vehicles and likely the president's helicopter. (The press, however, joins the motorcade in a locally rented van or two.)
For Obama's trip to Dillingham and Kotzebue, he'll probably take the Grumman Gulfstream jet, Emmett said. For anywhere too far for a helicopter but with too short a landing area for the 747, a corporate-size jet will be used, he said.
The day trips will also include a cargo plane for the president's armored limo -- known as "Cadillac One" or "The Beast," its Secret Service name that has taken over in general parlance. (More on The Beast later.)
The cargo planes aren't designated for the president's use full-time -- they come from various Air Force bases as needed.
That second, similar plane is a "command post," Robinson said -- ready for the president in the event of an emergency.
That backup plane is sometimes called the "doomsday plane" and can remain in the air for long periods of time if need be, Kessler said.
The Secret Service may even use Air Force planes that were already in Alaska, Robinson said. But "only certain pilots are available to fly the president." Those pilots have likely done a few practice runs in and out of Dillingham and Kotzebue.
"The president never lands anywhere without the pilot having landed there first," Robinson said. "Those pilots have already been to Alaska and landed the planes at every airport he's going to land. They know every approach."
In general, airspace around Air Force One is clear whenever the president is in the air. And heading to Alaska, that means "he's going to go over Canada… Now you're disrupting Canadian air traffic."
Upon takeoff and landing, planes near Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson will have to clear out and wait. Anyone who ignores radio warnings is likely to get a "missile in his ear," Robinson said.
No doubt, Robinson said -- "these presidential visits are a pain in the ass for everybody, including the White House."
The Beast
The most significant land vehicle that the White House will fly into Alaska -- and transport around the state, as it has even in other countries -- is known as "the Beast," the Secret Service's name for Obama's armored limo.
An essential part of presidential protection since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the presidential limo grows closer to a tank with every iteration.
In fact, the car Obama is flying to Alaska to talk about climate change is said to be so heavy that it tops out at 60 miles per hour and gets eight miles to the gallon.
The car is armored to protect the president and also acts as a controlled communications center with special secure phones, Robinson said..
That's in addition to reported James Bond-style defense mechanisms: massively thick doors and windows; a closed air ventilation system with spare oxygen; night vision; mounted weapons; shred-proof tires; and a supply of blood in the president's type, in case he needs an emergency transfusion.
Motorcades, for what it's worth, move pretty quickly. Any Washingtonian can tell you that standing at a curb waiting for the president (or some other major dignitary) to pass by doesn't take too much longer than a heavy sigh and a moment to fiddle with one's phone. Cars move through a town pretty quickly when they don't have to stop for lights or traffic.
The president's motorcade includes more than a dozen vehicles. Two will look like the commander-in-chief's car, but the order is routinely switched, so it's impossible to know which car contains the president. Several police cars will be in the lead and other vehicles will include the president's doctor, protective agents, military detail, staff, press vans and an ambulance.
Anchorage officials have released plans for street closures -- both for cars and pedestrians -- surrounding the Dena'ina Center, where the conference will be held, and the Hotel Captain Cook, where Obama is expected to stay. (The White House has not confirmed his location, given general security protocol, and officials at the Captain Cook say they cannot betray the privacy of any guests.)
"One of the things that it's going to mean is total disruption of traffic," Emmett said of presidential trips. "That's one of the biggest frustrations of the citizens... They go about their normal activities and then they find themselves sitting in traffic for two hours."
"Stay home that day if you don't have to go to work… just wait until the trip's over," Emmett said.
Aside from closed streets, most people will be able to move about normally -- not accounting for the nearly 1,000 people drawn to town for the State Department's conference.
Local gun laws prevail, but that doesn't include any venue where the president is scheduled to attend. You'll have to leave your weapon in the car, Emmett said.
"As far as open carry in the streets, that poses a very (unusual) situation for the Secret Service" if the president decides to make any impromptu visits, such as to a local eatery or store. "But by law there's really nothing they can do about it," Emmett said.
He recounted a tale of George H.W. Bush visiting Los Angeles in 1992 during the Rodney King riots. "He actually got out of the car and was walking in South Central L.A. when some of the buildings were smoking" and store owners were perched on roofs toting rifles, he said.
"That's where as an agent you earn your money," Emmett said. You "never know what's going to happen."
Sleeping over
Often the president's trips are designed to be quick stops -- in and out, taking advantage of the direct flights and amenities of Air Force One. The plane has a fully working office and even a gym.
But in cases like Obama's trip to Alaska, where he must stay in a hotel, there's a whole new set of considerations.
In addition to blocking off streets, experts say there will likely be high security for those entering and exiting the hotel.
By now, many employees working at the hotel where the president is staying -- presumably the Captain Cook -- will have undergone background checks, Kessler said. The Secret Service is looking for previous arrests for violent crimes -- "not marijuana or something like that," Kessler said. Anyone who raises concerns will be asked to take a few days off.
What floor the president stays on is subject to a variety of security concerns, but generally, his traveling detail will take up three floors, with the president sandwiched in the middle one.
"Nobody else will be able to enter" the floors, Kessler said. Agents will "debug" the suite, checking for explosives, listening devices and other concerns, right down to the picture frames. They'll add bulletproof film over the windows and swap all the electronics. The president doesn't use any of the hotel's televisions, phones or alarm clocks. Several days before arrival, the Secret Service will basically move into the hotel.
During his stay, the president is always protected by "three rings of security," Robinson said. There are the agents closest to him, more scattered in a range of outer posts, and then the local and state police. "Anybody that would want to get to the president is going to have to go through some serious guys with guns," Robinson said.
And no matter where he goes, the president is accompanied by the infamous nuclear "football." A military aide -- it rotates among the five branches of the armed forces -- carries a titanium case allowing the president direct access to a Pentagon command center that could unleash nuclear missiles.
Keeping close
Despite many recollections of more casual presidential visits in days past, little is left to chance and there's always more behind the scenes than people realize, according to security experts.
"These stories do become a bit embellished over the years," Emmett said. "I can tell you that the president" doesn't "just wander off," he said.
But visits to Dillingham and Kotzebue are more likely to have unscheduled stops along the way, Kessler said.
"Presidents tend to feel very confined a great deal of time, and when they get to these small towns" they want to move about more freely, he said.
"You watch Obama in Alaska -- whatever looks like it's spontaneous is not spontaneous," Robinson said. "When it comes to the Secret Service guarding the president and a president on a visit, there is no ad-libbing."