Former President George H.W. Bush's Secret Service Detail Signs off With Heartfelt Message

Former President George H.W. Bush's U.S. Secret Service detail signed off early Friday morning, [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

Former President George H.W. Bush's U.S. Secret Service detail signed off early Friday morning, following his burial on Thursday at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas.

The Secret Service, which begins protecting the president and vice president from the moment they are elected until their death, posted a simple and heartfelt message, referring to Bush one last time by his codename, Timberwolf.

"Timberwolf's Detail concluded at 0600 hours on December 7, 2018 with no incidents to report at the George Bush Presidential Library - College Station, Texas," the statement read. "God speed Former President George H.W. Bush - you will be missed by all of us."

Bush had a Secret Service detail for more than 40 years, dating to his time as vice president for President Ronald Reagan. He showed support for the agents in 2013, when he shaved his head after learning one agent had a 2-year-old son who was diagnosed with leukemia.

"A lot of the agents shaved their head," Bush told his granddaughter, Jenna Bush Hager, in a TODAY Show interview at the time. "I said, 'Well why not me?' It was the right thing to do."

The photo of Bush smiling with the boy, named Patrick, on his lap went viral at the time.

"They're a wonderful group of people," Bush said of the Secret Service. "They're like family with us."

"We are humbled and honored by the support and generosity that President and Mrs. Bush and our Secret Service family have shown towards our son... and are so very grateful for the outpouring of love and support from all over the country," Patrick's family said.

Former First Lady Barbara Bush told Bush Hager she was "shocked, surprised and thrilled" by her husband's shaved look, adding, "But I think he looks beautiful and looks younger."

Patrick's struggle resonated with the Bush family because Bush's daughter, Robin Bush, died at age 3 from leukemia in 1953.

Bush died on Nov. 30 at age 94, and was buried alongside Barbara Bush, who died at age 92 in April, and Robin. In an Instagram post after her grandfather's death, Bush Hager wrote that her grandfather hoped to see Robin in heaven.

"...I asked who he hoped to see. He replied, 'I hope I see Robin, and I hope I see my mom. I haven't yet figured it out if it will be Robin as the three year old that she was, this kind of chubby, vivacious child or if she'll come as a middle-aged woman, an older woman,'" Bush Hager wrote. "And then he said, 'I hope she's the three-year-old.' Robin was the daughter this giant of a man lost years before to leukemia. The little girl he held tightly: who spoke the phrase I have heard Gampy repeat for my entire life, forever knitting Robin's voice into the tightly woven fabric of our family: 'I love you more than tongue can tell.'"

Photo credit: PORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL/AFP/Getty Images

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