Renegade

The new First Family’s Secret Service Code names all begin with the letter R.

It used to be spun that such code names, which originated decades ago, were to help hide information on the movements of important officials from those who might be listening in on radio communications. I suspect that was originally true, but I’m also pretty sure that one of the reasons they stopped keeping them secret was, well, that’s not the kind of secret you can keep very well anyway, and there are better tools than that to conceal where a dignitary is going.

I don’t know for sure, but I suspect the reason they still use the code names (which aren’t just for the Presidential entourage, but are assigned to anyone important the Secret Service has to protect, including foreign dignitaries) is to actually REDUCE confusion in radio communications. People’s actual names and titles are easy to confuse, especially in open radio chatter. Especially if they’re easy to mishear, or confuse with each other; think of Ronald Reagan and Donald Regan, for example. And of course you can’t just use titles, since there might be more than one Senator in an entourage, and some titles are too long-winded anyway–do you really want to say “The Secretary of State needs to be moved out of here now!” if you’re in a hurry because of the gunshots you think you just heard?

Short, single-word titles that are hard to confuse with each other would be much more efficient, and especially useful if all Hell broke loose and everyone had to scramble. Even in mundane circumstances, such a single word would just make security chatter more efficient during movement. The main work would be in finding something kinda fun that also couldn’t easily be mistaken for any of the others currently in use, and distinctive enough to remember without being insulting.

Also, they’d be fun and a neat tradition that just about everyone would like, including those getting the assigned moniker.

So why keep it a secret? It kinda humanizes the Secret Service, and what they do.

Or so I’d think. Anyone with real-world experience in such matters care to share their thoughts?

Also, can I get the code name “Bonehead?”