Fletcher Prouty's Interview with the ARRB, Part Five

Gunn: For the office at Fort Myer: was that some -- is that headquarters for Army or some other form of intelligence, or is that something like liaison with the Secret Service? I'm not understanding what the office oversees.

Prouty; My feeling is, and it never occurred to me to ask them in detail -- because I didn't have any reason to -- is that it was an Army function, and that it was done in conjunction with [the] Secret Service. I assume [the] Secret Service would have been considered the senior party when the two work together; but that's purely by function. Quite frankly, other than knowing that Presidential protection existed, that's about all I was required to know. Because if they called for something, they'd want me to know who the hell they were. And that was very, very rare. The only time I was ever personally involved -- and I think that was just for familiarization early in my assignment in this work -- was when I went to Mexico City [in 1955]. And that was pretty complete. I was quite amazed, personally, because I didn't realize they'd go down weeks ahead of time, set up things ahead of time, worked the route with the Mexicans ... [it was a] very involved, a very detailed thing. That was my first and last course with them -- Mexico City.

Wray: You said that -- in your book at one point -- that you had worked with these units in the past. I'm just tying that to what you said now. [Do] you mean -- when you'd worked with them in the past -- this is like, your contact with the people at Fort Myer, as opposed to actually working with them in an operational sense.?

Prouty: No, what I meant was the trip to Mexico City.

Wray: Oh, the trip to Mexico City.

Prouty: That was the only one I ever went on. And I wanted to go -- and they wanted me to go -- to see what the system was. So I actually got the airplane and I flew the airplane to Mexico City for them.

Wray: On the trip to Mexico City, you made it clear that you worked with Secret Service people on the advance there. Were military protection people -- like, from these military protection units -- were they along on that trip as well?

Prouty: You know, that -- again, is a good point. The only person I knew on it was a Secret Service man. No, I didn't know this ... he never talked about the military at all, that I can recall. Of course, that was ... my God, that was ... a good long time ago ... the object he .... what they had when they said take [me] down was, he said, they wanted me to know what they do. Period. And I went down there.