Former Secret Service agent reflects on time serving President Carter

Former Secret Service agent Paul Nenninger reflected on what protecting Jimmy Carter meant after his presidency, following Carter's death Sunday, Dec. 29, at the age of 100.

Nenninger was assigned to Carter from 1981 to 1986, when the former president returned to Plains, Georgia. He said once the president retired, Carter started writing a book.

Nenninger recalled Carter running almost every day. He said Carter got his exercise as "it was about 4 miles he liked to run". Carter received a briefing book that gave him biographical information about the agents protecting him.

He said Carter had a "phenomenal memory" and Carter's birthday was a "couple days" before Nenninger's. Nenninger said he remembered the first time Carter wished him a happy birthday.

"The other thing (Carter) he did in between writing his book was he built furniture, and he had his woodworking shop," Nenninger said.

Nenninger said as Carter was working on his book, Nenninger said he thought he might have long and boring detail. He was proven wrong. After Carter finished his book, Nenninger said he hit the road and the 39th president became "the most traveled protectee of the Secret Service for most of his lifetime".

"He didn't hesitate to go anywhere," Nenninger said. "He wanted to go see Machu Picchu, a couple other places in South America, we did Rio in Brasilia, he's in Japan, he did a trip to China, see we did New Zealand, Australia, went all through the Baltic countries, we were in Germany several times, England, France."

He described Carter's schedule of traveling as "extensive". Nenninger said the trips were usually about three to four weeks long.

Nenninger said they would come back and Carter would come "bouncing out the door" wanting to go run while the rest of the agents were about "dead" from hopping time zones. Nenninger said the agents were kind of "amazed" how he could do all that as he was much older than most of them.

Nenninger also described Carter as a very "intense listener".

"You can tell very much that he was totally dedicated to what that person was saying," Nenninger said.

He said Carter had a fairly "deep faith" while not necessarily proselytizing his Baptist beliefs.

Nenninger said that some of Carter's work in other countries "went against the grain". He said if you were to look toward Carter's work for peace in Africa, people didn't see any other president doing that.

"It is very much an uphill battle. They've had centuries of living the way they live, and any kind of change and improvement was very incremental and the people were very thankful," Nenninger said.

Funeral services for Carter will be held in Georgia and Washington, beginning Saturday, Jan. 4, and concluding Thursday, Jan. 9. President Joe Biden has declared Thursday a National Day of Mourning for Carter.