Greystone resident has served six presidents in U.S. Secret Service

When some people don’t do their jobs, they may upset customers or let their boss down, but Greystone resident Michael Williams knows much more is at stake with his job performance.

“If I fail to do my job, that failure could change the course of history,” said Williams, who has worked for the U.S. Secret Service for nearly 32 years and helped protect six U.S. presidents.

Williams, who is the Secret Service’s special agent in charge for Alabama and Mississippi, shared his story with the Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce at the chamber’s September luncheon today.

He grew up in Birmingham and graduated from Ensley High School and then from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1985 before joining the Secret Service shortly thereafter.

At the age of 23, he found himself as a uniformed officer assigned to the White House, helping protect President Ronald Reagan.

In 1988, while in the Miami field office, he received numerous awards for investigative excellence, including Outstanding Law Enforcement Officer of the Year.

In 1996, he was assigned to the Presidential Protective Division, where he protected Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. In January 2013, he was promoted into the Senior Executive Service in Washington, D.C., where he served as special agent in charge of the Protective Intelligence and Assessment Division, and in 2015, he was promoted to deputy assistant director in the Office of Protective Operations.

He has been all over the world and takes his job of protecting the “leader of the free world,” his family, other key officials and heads of state very seriously, he said.

Williams shared the story of how President Reagan, after he was shot in 1981 and was about to have an operation, joked with the medical team how he hoped they were all Republicans. One of the doctors who was a Democrat replied that “we are all Republicans today,” he said.

Williams said that, to the Secret Service, it doesn’t matter who is in the White House. “My loyalty is not to a political party. My loyalty is to the Constitution of the United States and the office of the presidency.”

He shared more stories about his work over the years and the courage that it takes to work for the Secret Service but said there are plenty of ordinary people who do extraordinary things to display courage under fire.

Police officers, sheriff’s deputies, state troopers and private citizens risk their lives every day to protect strangers, he said. “When we are faced with such challenges, I truly believe that God had equipped us to handle these life-changing situations.”