Larry Buendorf, a secret service agent who, by averting a pistol from Lynette (Squeaky) fromme, was credited to save the life of President Gerald R. Ford in an attempt to assassinate in California on Sunday at his house in Colorado Springs. He was 87.
His death was announced by his wife Linda.
After leaving the government in 1993, Mr. Buendorf (declared Boon-Dorf) was the main security officer for the United States Olympic Committee until he retired in 2018.
September 5, 1975, President Ford rejected his limousine, which was idle outside the Hotel of the Senator in Sacramento, and lined the secret agents of the service, walked across the street to greet the crowd of prosperity on his way to the state capitol to meet Gov. Edmundem G. Brown Jr.
“My position was right on his shoulder,” Mr. Buendorf recalled in 2010 Interview For the President Gerald R. Ford project Oral History.
“Squeaky was back in the crowd, maybe one person back, and she had an ankle case with 0.45,” he said, referring to the semi -automatic revolver of 0.45. “This is the big weapon you have on the ankle.” So, when it appeared, it came low and I accidentally looked in this direction, I see it to come, and I entered him, I’m not sure what it was except that it was coming quite quickly, and shouted “Weapon!” When I screamed “Weapon!” I jumped it .45 from her hand. ”
He added, “I caught her fingers and she screams – the crowd screams – and I think,” I don’t have a vest, I don’t know where the other shot comes from, “and I don’t think she’s alone. All this happens while I try to control it. ”
“He turns around and I pulled her back and threw her to the ground and the agents and the police were coming from the back of the crowd” when Mrs.Mme was too much in disbelief, he said.
“She shouted,” It didn’t come! “” He continued. “” I had it in my hand. “I knew what he was doing, retreated back to the slide and came across a slide before the chamber could do. If she had a round chamber, I couldn’t be there in time.
Mrs.me, who was nicknamed Squeaky because of her high -ranking voice, was a 26 -year -old student of cult leader Charles Manson, whose brutal killing of the gang in 1969 claimed the lives of actress Sharon Tate and eight others.
Mrs.me, cloudy in a red robe and the corresponding turban, tilted the hammer, but none of the four bullets with which the weapon was armed with has so far entered the chamber.
Mr. Buendorf, who testified of the prosecution in Mrs. Fromme, said he jerked when he grabbed her “as if trying to pull her away or fire.” Other agents plunged Mr. Ford into safety.
“I was in the right place at the right time,” said Mr. Bueldorf, who was 37 years old at the time and was an agent for five years. “If I looked somewhere else who knows what history would change.”
Mrs.me was convicted of an attempt at the assassination and sentenced to life in prison. In 2009 she was paroleciated.
Harvey Schiller, a former CEO of the Olympic Committee, hired by Mr. Buel, described him in an interview as “a real hero who was generally loved and trustworthy”.
Lawrence Merle Buendorf was born on November 18, 1937 in Wells, a city of about 2,000 in South Minnesota. His father, Merle, managed the furniture store. His mother was Ruby (Meyer) Buendorf.
Larry himself was president in high school – his junior class. In 1959 he won a bachelor’s degree in the field of Business at the Jífnato State College (now Minnesota State University, Chapter), then joined the American Navy and became a pilot during the Vietnam War.
“I think he wanted to serve the country in the army – that was his first choice – and wanted to be a defender of freedom,” said Mr. Schiller, official of the Olympic Committee.
After being released in 1970, Mr. Buendorf entered Secret Service and FBI and both were accepted by both. When choosing a secret service, he was assigned to his Chicago Field Office before he was deployed in 1972 by the presidential protective division in Washington, where he helped protect Presidents Richard M. Nixon, Ford and Jimmy Carter.
From 1977 to 1982 he worked in the office of Denver Field and from 1982 to 1983 operated the Omaha office before returning to the protective division, where he became a special agent responsible for the California team, which was assigned to Mr. Ford. Mr. Buendorf left the secret service in 1993. Mr. Ford died In 2006, in his house in Rancho Mirage in California.
When Mr. Ford was skiing, Mr. Bueldorf was “to ensure that he did not go on his own skis or let the chair hit,” he said, referring to the elevators of mountain skiers-although the president was actually a good athlete. When Mr. Ford went to swim in the ocean, Mr. Buendorf said, “I was one of the assigned swimmers who would go out as a bait of sharks – go further than the president – and swim together.”
He was awarded the US Meritorious Service Award (service by the Ministry of Finance to 2003, when it was transferred to the Ministry of Internal Security) and the United States Award Secret Service Valor Award.
In addition to his wife Linda (Allen) Buendorf, who was married in 2013, Mr. Buendorf survived the daughter of Kimberly from a previous marriage; step daughter, Stephanie; And three grandchildren.
Even after Mr. Buendorf left government service, he and Mr. Ford retained his relationship; They touched the bases by phone almost every 5 September, the anniversary of the attempt to assassinate.
In the Olympic Committee, he supervised security at his headquarters in Colorado Springs and at the place of training in Lake Placid, NY and Chula Vista in California.
During the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996, he supervised the safety of athletes after calling for 911 warned against the terrorist tube bomb in the Centennial Olympic Park. The explosion killed one person and injured more than a hundred.
“Reye gives you great confidence,” said Rullon Gardner, who won a gold medal in Greco-Roman at the Sydney Olympic Games, Australia, said, said, she said, she said, she said, she said, In the browsing Colorado Springs. “You feel you had a cocoon whenever you traveled with him.” You put it in the oven 450 degrees and he is as cold as ice. The man will not sweat. ”
After the 1975 attack, Mr. Ford continued his preliminary schedule, met Governor Brown and then returned to Air Force One, where he met his wife Betty Ford, who, Mr. Buel, said “He was out of her thing.”
Mr. Buendorf was at the time Debriefed, but he He remembered live President’s description of her greeting.
“He said he approached the plane and Mrs. Ford goes:” How was your day? “” Mr. Buendorf recalled in an oral history interview with Biography Richard Norton Smith.
“How was your day?” “Mr. Smith was repeated quiz.” I suppose he wanted to tell her very gently. “How do you answer it?”
