Secret Service Commemorates 150th Anniversary

William Craig’s name sits in the shadow of Littleleaf Linden trees on the eastern wall of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. Visitors might pass it, on the sixth row of Panel 16, without knowing that Craig was the first Secret Service officer to die in the line of duty in 1902.
Craig, who was killed while protecting President Theodore Roosevelt, and 35 other employees who have died while working for the United States Secret Service, were commemorated on Thursday, July 9, at the Memorial in a ceremony marking the 150th anniversary of the creation of the agency.
Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy spoke of the hard work agents put into their day, and the importance of the people they’re assigned to protect. An agency that was first created to stop the spread of counterfeit currency now protects the President of the United States, as well as fights against financial crimes throughout the country.
It is an agency older than both the FBI and CIA, and continues to be one of the most visible as they flank official representatives of the United States throughout the world.