Secret Service Agent has link to Desert Hot Springs

March 22, 2006

Buzz Gambill

    An interesting meeting of the Desert Hot Springs Republican Women was held at the Miracle Springs Resort and Spa in Desert Hot Springs, last Wednesday, March 22, 2006.
The information imparted at this gathering was informative and useful, in that the g speaker Lani Bretta, was a former Secret Service Agent who has came to the desert to serve with others, on President Ford’s protection detail.
The crowd of 300 was enthralled, as Lani told of her early fascination with law enforcement.
She was a Police Explorer in early years and was awarded the Gold Medal in Police Science in California State VICA Oympics, the first female to do so.
    After working summers for the Orange, CA Police, she attended Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, earning a 4-year scholarship, majoring in history and graduating Magna Cum Laud.
She told of the beginning of the Secret Service, founded in 1865 by President Lincoln, to fight counterfeiters. The best known counterfeiter was a convict named William Wood. The President hired him as the first head of the agency. She also told the sad part about President Lincoln signing the document creating the Secret Service, on April 14, 1865, then being killed that evening at Ford’s Theatre.

    Mary and Frances Johnson Today was an exceptional meeting of the Desert Hot Springs Republican Women Federated, as they came together from all over the Coachella Valley, to the beautiful Miracle Springs Resort, on Wednesday, March 22, 2006.

   The meeting was made special by the fact that President Barbara Johnson invited a speaker of extraordinary talents and skills. She is United States Secret Service agent, Lani Bretta, a 21 year veteran of the government service. During her career in this very elite group, she has protected presidents, vice-presidents, kings, queens and foreign heads of state. She has helped capture counterfeiters, check and credit forgers and thieves, and fraudulent computer operators. She has worked in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside Counties and came to the desert to work on President and Mrs. Ford's protective detail for a 4-year stint.
She presently serves as the Assistant to the Special Agent in charge of the Las Vegas office.
   The speaker, Mrs. Bretta, was endearing to the audience as she was concise, clear in her descriptions and put forth and attitude of casual humor, yet letting the audience know that she was extremely well-qualified on the subject of her enlightening presentation.
     As she began her career, people would say, “you don’t look like secret service agent,” whereby she demonstrates her humor, by pulling out a pair of sunglasses and placing them on her face, to the delight of the crowd. One other reason this speaker was so special is because she just happens to be the daughter of President Barbara Johnson.
Lani reminded us of the strictness of character which has to be maintained by the members of the United States Secret Service, when she calls those members the “Silent Observers of History.”

~ George “Buzz” Gambill

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President, Barbara Johnson 2006

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