We may not be thinking so favorably about our government leaders at this moment, in more productive times we are fascinated about how things happen behindthescenes. Is called american diplomacy and secret weapons, david which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. That played a vital role in American History over thepast three, inviting president s and leaders alike to converge , converse and most importantly, relax. Located deep in the woods of marylands picked off the mountains is the ultimate behindthescenes venue of our imagination. We are thrilled this evening to be joined by rear admiral Michael Michael giorgione who served in the United States navy, preparing 2010. He served as the commander of four president s bill clinton and george w. Bush. Working under the White House Military Office, the organization responsible for air force one, marine one and military aides. His new book inside camp david is the first insider account of camp david and is available for purchase and signing following his presentation. Join me in welcoming welcoming rear admirable michael giorgione. Thank you, wonderful to be here. First thing rosen laurinburg for putting this together. Nothing will slow her down, she did great job. Thank laura rosenberg. [applause] ive got some family gets here tonight i want tointroduce so you understand whos come here to be with me. First my parents, mom and dad, mary lou and tony. My wonderful sister luanne giorgio and her friend ellen, raise your hands. Thank you. My cousins cousin, my cousins son, john and his friend suzanne zachary. Raise your hand. Eventually my nephew matt and amanda are coming in from baltimore, they will be here eventually. Heather wishart smith, raise your hand. If you read the book you know about heather because shes written twice about the broken water line in the Swimming Pool incident. She was a junior officer and weve been friends ever since so thank you for being here with my daughter. Bill closely, my Naval Academy classmate and dave, we are here in the crowd tonight. Four of my business colleagues, robert bonelli, president of Jordan National gas products in the back, thank you for being here. And from the cv Memorial Scholarship association, an organization i am involved with, we have our president steve murder, retired. And we have barb whidden and lisa mahar, and we have Catherine Tracy austin husband lloyd, thank you for being here. Before we get into it, let me give you some insight about writing a book. When you are a consultant living on your own everyone already is appointing on you for a living and one day when you tell them you are writing a book, you get a very discerning and look. Mike, what are you up to . Im writing a book. Oh, whos michelle . Michelle is my wife. Michelle would normally be with me on this trip yet she is back in coronado where we live dealing with chronic back pain so im sorry she couldnt be here but i will talk about her abit in my presentation but if you get comfortable telling people you are writing a book , they look at you very seriously. They expect you to wear to jackets. Theysend you pipes for christmas gifts. But once you get confident in writing a book , they kind of look at at everything as a book so in taking that hammer and nail approach, 20 stories. My wife says do you want to see the movie ladybird a few weeks ago mark i said absolutely, lets go. Weresitting watching ladybird. About 30 seconds in, he says what are you doing . Are we in the right theater . Why . Why is this story opening in sacramento. The johnsons were never in sacramento. She said this isnt about lady bird johnson. I saidthats why i came, i thought this was about president s and politics and an interesting behindthescenes story. Different movie. I started treating everything like a male hammer you get used to it. Its out there in the Public Domain and its been a great honor not only to serve arnie navy and nation but talk about the story that began 19 years ago. In the navy, david is a navy command, ill explain a little bit of the history. In the command on becoming the Commanding Officer, you have a change of command ceremony. That morning my wife michelle and our two daughters ages seven and four unitas journal with this and written note. Here daddy, we want you to write stories about camp david and the president in this journal. Someday our children will read them. 19 years ago i thought okay, maybe ill write something and i did. I had it from president clinton to president bush, what happened that weekend. Never thought id do anything with it. This is the day they had me that journal, by the historic holly. First rule about speaking in public is know your audience. Whos been to camp david . Its fascinating. Fascinating that youve been there and some of you i know in the navy, maybe on the stories, thermal theres almost invariably somebody who knows someone who served there so fact check me as we go. They give me this book and the journal and i keep notes. And when i seriously got interested in writing a book a few years ago, the thing that isolated with this event. This is allliving Commanding Officers that made the trip in november 2016. This is a reunion group. Posted by the current camp david commander under the obama administration. The camp was a little more open. The commander could use it for guests. He got permission to have a reunion of master chief, former master chief and Commanding Officers and here we are altogether. A gentleman to my left and the picture to your right right here, blue shirt is 91 years old. He lives in coronado california. I found it in 1998 when i was called to go to my interview, he told me about camp david. And he became my mentor about what its all about and ill talk about chuck. In his interested experiences with the johnsons in the kennedys. When i go to all the ladies and gentlemen talking about the camp and the fact that they too had written stories over their time there, this was meant to be. Id already gone down the road with the publisher and knowing that i was going to interview every single one of them and include their stories well and thats what the book concludes, not just my stories but the stories and revelations and insights of all these fine naval officers that serve. So my thoughts, im going to take three approaches, talk about the history of camp david, what it is, why its navy etc. Talk about chapter 6 and the century and talk a bit about the command or being in charge of something and making a parallel from being a Commanding Officer to what it must somewhat be like being the president. Some of the similarities there and then share photos and stories about my time during the years 1999 to 2001 with then president clinton and president bush. The history. This is an aerial photo of camp david off a public website, all public photos, nothing secret here. Youre looking down on them, the president s lodge. President roosevelt, 1942. While i was going out on the floating white house and the president ial yacht man by needy sailors. The photo on the right is the president s today, its a Public Museum in the port of Oakland California but you love going out and getting away from the white house and during the war years, wasnt a good idea to go out on the water to combat threats like sea. He asked the staff can you find me a place where i can go to get away, especially in the summers from the heat and humidity to deal with my asthma and a place where i can go, aquiet rest thats nearby the white house that i can use as my retreat. You recall in the late 30s after the hoover administration, roosevelts new deal bringing the country back to work , he created part of the new deal was the wta. Work in progress administration. And part of that was the civilian conservation board. Much of their work was putting 18 to 35yearold man back to work building parks, demonstrations, the recreational demonstrations around the country. Also putting money and reserves into the federal banking. One of the conservation camps they built was the recreational demonstration area located in claremont maryland. Is north of frederick up to 70. And the staff found relocations in nearby and this was one of them. Camp number three. Roosevelt visited in july 1942. Was enamored with it, it wasnt winterized at this point. And with some of the original cabins in place today, remodeled over the years, he coined the term my shangrila. Where did the term shangrila come from . Supporting the lost horizon, the shangrila there is a utopian society, a mystery place of intrigue and get away and most people didnt get around easily in the 40s. They had all these great access tools that we have today and he said this is my shangrila, my getaway. When he first visited in july 1942. And he continued to go through the summer months ostensibly, mostly by himself but principally with Winston Churchill on two occasions. The retreat today though is known as camp david. Its a Navy Facility why . Its a needy facility because when roosevelt took the sailorsoften got and they went with him , to be the stewards and caretakers and he got some readings in washington dc to guard, thats where the Us Navy Department and heritage. The command reports the White House Military Office in the east wing of the white house they support the president moving him around the world that includes air force one, marine one , camp david, white house communication agency, white house transportation agency, white house mess and medical unit, special programs, etc. These are the uniformed personnel, civilian men and women, over 2000 of whom support the president. Behind the scenes, moving him around wherever he goes, whoever he engages with. The navy has camp david but its appropriate budget line in us Navy Appropriations is to maintain david but we know it as camp lejeune why . Meeting president roosevelt with president truman, not greatly and ever with david in florida, this is successor president eisenhower came in, but it was a bit pretentious. Bought a closing like some other president s after him as well. Ida became enamored with again which was an early trend of many president s. And decided you know, maybe there is a need here even though i have my farm. Pieces but i dont like the name. There might be funny names for the cabin. So he renamed camp david after his grandson, David Eisenhower,12 years old in this photo. David eisenhower today is about 70 years old and he recently retired from the university of pennsylvania. I was introduced to rotary san diego a few weeks ago and the gentleman that introduced me was a long lawyer , had David Eisenhower as ca in graduate school you never know whos sitting in the aisles. You never know. So call david, the other thing eisenhower did is he renamed and he took in the eisenhowers home state of colorado and he named their cabinet president of the lot which it is today. You are the only family with two daughters, seven and four, inside the camp. Maybe you have guests on the weekend. Play dates are interesting that they can be difficult with security protocols, gated access road and Everything Else you can and cant do. One of those early challenges. The loneliest century, chapter 61 of my favorite in the book, talk about the willingness of command, selfinterest backing, a committee, club, a team, your business. Sometimes the hard decisions you have to make and deliver what the president has dealt with and how they use camp david and what we felt responsible for the upkeep. Upper left is icl going to an inspection inside the hangar in the shouting missed about 1800 feet above elevation. Look at the president. I principally see two purposes, a place to get away to rest, relax and recharge. And a place to take administration or International Leaders to work diplomacy. Party much most president figure out a nice balance of the two. President obama in the living room of aspen with a picture window behind him. President carter on the iconic log next to the fishpond. President nixon look at the same picture would that president obama was in front of. It said nixon never anything but a coat and tie at camp david. You were supposed relax, where polo shirts, shorts. Not his style. Interesting to read about his relationship with his staff and read about it in the book about how he fired the man in the living room with one handshake noontime is ever shaken their hands and sent them off the way. Very interesting use of the camp and a very low like century if you will. President bush talking on the phone in the president office. On the right pulitzer prizewinning photo from april april 1961. Who remembers was going on and maybe with this photo was all about . Bay of pigs, very good. Today like the introduction, i find this incredibly humble, may be a desperate move but certainly hat in hand move that the upstart Young Democratic president , president kennedy, called the old establishment military retiree general dwight David Eisenhower to camp david, a place he knew better than kennedy did at this point, and pretty much as what did i do wrong . And eisenhower says i told you so. I told you we planned this and i told you how to execute it. You messed it up here this is what happened. Think about this. What politician today anywhere would call in someone, one, predecessor, two, opposite party and say how will you help me . So very humbling time i think a very classy move on both of their part but eisenhower goes there for the day and pulitzer prizewinning photo is taken. President roosevelt in aspen, that stone hearth is still there. Its a lot cleaner today. That is the stone hearth fireplace inside aspen. President truman driving himself in one of the few of ten times he goes there. I mentioned the president churchill earlier with excuse me, president roosevelt with Winston Churchill twice he visited. Also find this intriguing, they are out fishing outside of camp david in the park smoking cigars, probably having some whiskey and a shot of cigar desk keeping the mosquitoes were talking about the war years and what u. S. And Great Britain need to do. Important work getting done. Present eisenhower with his Vice President richard nixon. More lonely times president johnson with the ambassador of South Vietnam undoubtedly talk about the vietnam war how to either continue or end it. Another president , excuse me to the right president nixon, same log, same fishpond, talking with brezhnev pick in the book theres a story about the blue lincoln continental, the car that nixon gives to brezhnev and he takes, brezhnev gets in the driver seat, motions nixon to get in the passenger seat and all the gulf downhill almost to racket in the fence line. [laughing] a very hairy moment with no security around the and great peril, two superpowers of the time almost wiped out into a chainlink fence at the time. Little human moments. A lot of highs and lows, even though we have a saying you in the world of the of the preside are not of the world. We are in their world briefly. We see them like people, we see what they eat. You say hello, you talk about things the church come whatever but you are not of their world. You have to do with that. You have to remember it. These human things happen all the time. President carter thought about closing camp david. Thought it was not necessary. Thought it was a waste. Invariably made famous for the 1970 camp david peace accords with anwar sadat and Menachem Begin. President reagan one of the few times he brought a world leader here, principally and the first lady nancy with their almost exclusively by themselves on the weekends. He has visited over 500 500 tin his features in office, the most by any president and it truly was for the reagans a place to get away. From the white house, from the scrutiny from the press, a place to go and watch and to recharge themselves, do the nations business. President clinton using this for our radio address. Those memoirs in the background of president bush and the wall are handwritten notes photocopied that president carter sent to anwar sadat and Menachem Begin to negotiate the camp david peace accords. President reagan since he was often a start his saturday radio address is at over 150 radio addresses from camp david, this is on the back patio, the main entertainment cabin. President obama in his office also in the cabin laurel. Then we see a continued for the use of diplomacy. The g8 summit in 2012 was supposed be held in chicago. If you recall we had a lot of riots and demonstrations, the top 1 , Federal Reserve bank, et cetera, et cetera. He said lets move it to camp david. Wendy hall data had some Great Stories about welcoming these World Leaders for the weekend. In dealing with an accounting the personalities in the idiosyncrasies and learned quickly what do they want in the cabin and what you dont want and all those behindthescenes stories that are wonderful to share. Bottom left is president bush with whats called a council of war after the 9 11 attacks. Hes assembling a staff in the laurel Conference Room to talk about americas response to the attacks. And far right is president trumps last visit. You can see the camp david plaque pickup always on the been there five times, he has taken his staff and his cabinet there three or four of those five times. I dont know that it will be his preferred place to rest and relax but i do see maybe a more convenient use is using for staff. Hasnt yet brought a National Leader there but i think theres great value and great opportunity for that. The lighter moments, the fords walking with their dog liberty. The reagans almost always went horseback riding, the weather permitting wh