HOWLAND — In a room filled with fireworks executives, law enforcement officers and first responders, two men who once stood at the center of American history leaned into the microphone and began telling stories most people only hear in documentaries.

The setting, the 2025 Phantom Fireworks National Managers Meeting at the Avalon Grand Resort, was unexpected for such weighty discussions. But for a company whose products depend on safety protocols and coordination with police and fire departments, the presence of Secret Service veterans made sense.

Before the speeches began, an opening speaker paid tribute to the law enforcement officers in the room, calling them the “people who keep us safe day in and day out, no matter the weather, no matter the danger.”

He then introduced the speakers, two people etched in presidential history.

Lew Merletti, a former Green Beret who rose to lead the Secret Service under President Bill Clinton, didn’t mince words.

He called the July 2024 assassination attempt on then-former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pa., a “catastrophic failure” worse than the Kennedy assassination.

“They had no counter-sniper team until the last minute. No canines sweeping the area. The shooter was on that roof for how long before anyone saw him?” Merletti said, his voice sharp with frustration. “And then, weeks later, it almost happened again in West Palm Beach. That’s not bad luck, that’s systemic failure.”

He blamed budget cuts, bureaucratic bloat under the Department of Homeland Security and what he called “political appointments” of unqualified directors. “When I was in charge, we trained six weeks, worked two weeks, trained again. Now? Some of these teams hadn’t drilled in over a year.”

One value that Merletti made clear was that ultimate authority rested when it came to the security of the president.

“When I became the agent in charge of the presidential protective division, I never let a president tell me how security would work,” he said. “I was always respectful, but I’d say, ‘Mr. President, if you want this event, you’ll have to do it our way.’ And afterwards, they always admitted we were right.”

This approach has some linkage to the lessons learned by JFK Secret Service member Clint Hill. Turning to Dallas 1963, Merletti dissected the Kennedy assassination, showing the infamous Zapruder film in slow motion. He paused on the frame where agent Hill vaults onto the limousine, pushing Jacqueline Kennedy back into her seat.

“Clint (Hill) lived with guilt his whole life because he couldn’t save the president,” Merletti said. “But Kennedy’s own staff had ordered agents off the back of the car days earlier. They didn’t like how it looked. And that decision cost a president his life.”

Then we heard from a man who you may not think you know but whose face is cemented in history books when discussing 9/11.

Andrew Card can say he knows what it’s like to deliver news that alters history. Eleven words tied Card, then Chief of Staff on Sept. 11, 2001, to one of the most infamous moments in presidential history, what many call “the whisper that changed the world.”

The scene etched in America’s memory took place in a Florida classroom of second graders reading with then-President George W. Bush.

At 9:05 a.m., Card quietly enters and leans over the president’s shoulder to say, “A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack.”

Recalling the moment he said, “I knew two things. One, I had to tell him immediately. Two, I couldn’t let those kids see fear.”

What lingers in collective memory is that split-second shift of a president’s cheerful expression fading to a terrible stillness.

Card reconstructed Bush’s immediate response with vivid detail: “He never really turned around to me. He kind of went in that direction, but he never turned around… I saw him nodding.” This subtle reaction, Card explained, was critical — the president maintained composure for the children while absorbing the catastrophic news.

The former chief of staff described the tense scramble that followed, Card said.

He said, “I didn’t want him to do anything to scare the kids or demonstrate fear to the media that would have translated to the satisfaction of the terrorists.”

Card revealed the heated internal debate about returning to Washington, “The President was adamant that we were going right back to Washington. I could say, ‘You don’t think you ought to make that decision right now.’ I am making a decision. Yes, I don’t think you really want to.” He stood his ground against both the president and Secret Service until security could be assured.

Drawing parallels to another crisis, Card recounted the 1992 Japan incident with Bush Sr., where the president threw up into the lap of Japanese prime minister Kiichi Miyazawa.

“Everybody in the room gasped when this happened, and everybody rushed toward him. I’m the only person going in the other direction… I said, ‘Everybody’s going to think that he’s dying something terrible. I know he’s not, but I’m going to do everything as if he were dying.'”

This same disciplined approach guided his 9/11 response.

“On 9/11 (I thought) do what you did for (George Sr.), be cool, calm and collected. Today, there’ll be a lot of emotions. Don’t let the emotional roller coaster capture you,” he said.

The veteran administrator said that philosophy extended beyond moments of crisis, as Card said, “I really respect our Constitution and our democracy. The most important word in the Constitution happens to be the very first word, we. It’s our government.”

This belief in collective responsibility, Card suggested, was what sustained him through some of his most trying moments, which also happened to be snapshots in history.