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55 minerals. Still do. But after starting in that field, I decided, well, maybe digging through a rock pile at the bottom of a canyon wasn't what I wanted for the rest of my life. So, I was living in Houston at the time, working in the energy industry, and I was a member of the Young Professional Republican Club, which was a sizeable club in Houston. Most people were there not only because of their shared interests but also to meet people. So, I got to know this gentleman who did volunteer advance work for Vice President Bush. is was when George Herbert Walker Bush was Reagan's vice president in 1985, I believe. In any event, he asked once we got to know each other better and said, "hey, you know, the vice president gets to Houston a lot. Could you help us on one of these trips?" So, I drove a Staff car in the Vice President's motorcade. Anyway, I got to know more people on the Vice President's Staff. ey convinced me to take a leave of absence from my job in 1988 to work on the George H. W. Bush for President campaign for the three months between the convention and election day, which I did. At that point, I was hooked. What was it about the experience that appealed to you? Well, here you are with the center of power and the excitement of the vice president and occasionally the president. You've got the airplane, the security, going to big rallies or factory tours. Just the excitement of it. ey had offered me a position to come up and start in the administration early in 1989, but I had another job and a commitment. So about nine months later, things changed, and I ended up moving up here in early 1990 and went to work in the president's advance office, all the way to the end when Clinton was sworn in. One thing that stands out in your career is your involvement in several significant national disasters, from 9/11 to hurricanes, the Columbia disaster, and even the housing crisis. How did working through those experiences impact you and your views on how the government and the industry can support people affected by those situations? ey all start differently. Hurricanes these days, technology's so good, you've got days, maybe even a week, week and a half to prepare, and the models have gotten pretty good about projecting the path. You have some idea what's coming at you. 9/11 was a sneak attack. You don't know what is coming next, but you've got a job to do, and you've got the President of the United States with you, who's anxious to get back to Washington, D.C., but that's the last place you want him to go just yet. You've got to run the country, you've got to protect Americans, and the world wants to hear from you. We left Florida, and we went to Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport. en we went to STRATCOM at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska. In each place, we wanted the world to see us. President Bush finally wore down the objections from everybody, and we flew back that evening, landed about 6:30 if memory serves correctly. While I was at the White House, we dealt with the aftermath of that.