Last Thursday, Secret Service agents doing advance security preparations for President Trump’s weekend visit to his home at Mar-a-Lago discovered a potential threat near the airport at West Palm Beach.
(This brings back personal memories to me because of a number of jobs we—Bruggeman Construction, general contractors—did there at PBIA. More on that below.)
Here are the facts of the story compiled from various sources online. QUOTE:
A hunting stand was discovered near Palm Beach International Airport with a direct line of sight to the area where Air Force One was expected to land, prompting an investigation by the FBI and U.S. Secret Service. The discovery was made approximately 200 yards from the tarmac and across from the section of the airport used for private aircraft, including the president’s planes. [Note: the distance of ~500 meters in the map below is way off, in my opinion. The 200 yards in this story is a more accurate estimate - JWB]
The structure had reportedly been in place for some time, according to law enforcement sources, and while the area is not designated for hunting and has no trespassing signs, such stands are sometimes left by hunters for repeated use. (Italics mine—JWB) Investigators are examining multiple possibilities, including whether it was used by a wildlife hunter, a photographer, or someone with malicious intent.
Given Trump’s history of facing multiple assassination attempts—including incidents in Pennsylvania in July 2024 and Florida in September 2024—the find raised significant security concerns.
The FBI has taken the lead in the investigation, deploying forensic and digital analysis teams to examine the stand, which was dismantled and transported to a laboratory for further study. FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed the agency is applying biometric and cell phone analytics to determine who placed the stand and why. END QUOTE
I am personally familiar with the general area surrounding Palm Beach International Airport. When we first migrated from Ohio to Palm Beach County, we lived in apartments in three locations within a mile or two of PBIA.
Over the years in the 1980s, we (Bruggeman Construction—General Contractors/Construction Management) had a number of jobs on the premises of PBIA, both public and private airport enterprises (e.g., FBO’s).
The first job, if memory serves, was with the Airport authority itself as they were doing an enormous expansion of the airport. Although we were a relatively small company, we had hired a man who, like me, was a licensed General Contractor.
But, unlike me, Keith was also a licensed Professional Engineer. Plus, Keith was a computer expert (which is primarily why we hired him). You see, Keith had spent a career with NASA.
He had been with Boeing on contract to NASA. Keith was the Team Leader (not sure if that’s the correct term), which programmed the computers which sent our Apollo astronauts to the moon and back.
Keith’s main task with us was to computerize everything about our operations from bid preparation to project management, to payroll and accounting, tax prep—everything.
When finished, that enabled us to win the subcontract to handle the Critical Path Method portion for the management of the entire airport expansion project. Of course, the best man to actually handle that super-important job was Keith himself (while John and I were still learning how to produce major bids with the software and hardware Keith had advised us to procure).
Our success there led to other jobs there, mostly contracts with private or corporate companies who had facilities at PBIA.
By the way, when the Space Shuttle Challenger took off from Cape Canaveral on January 28, 1986, my brother John, Keith and I all went outside our offices to watch the launch.
Although we were about a 2 ½ hour drive south of the launch site, you can imagine how proud Keith was as we stood in our parking lot and began to watch the plume of exhaust as the rocket rose into the blue sky.
But 73 seconds into the flight, his face turned to absolute disbelief and horror as we all witnessed the explosion and aftermath which immediately killed all seven astronauts. Keith turned white as a ghost and was in shock for a while, and that is understandable, knowing how close he had been to the space program for decades.
Back to the immediate subject of the “deer stand.” When I first heard and saw this story on Newsmax TV, and they showed the map graphic above, I would have broken out loud laughing had I not also immediately realized the seriousness of the potential threat.
Laughing, because having a deer hunting stand at that location is about as ludicrous as being told that King Charles was playing “horse hockey” 😎 (polo) at the radar site where I was stationed in central Alaska in the winter of 1971!
However, then-Prince Charles did play polo in Palm Beach County in the 1980’s and Bruggeman Construction had a major part of constructing the Palm Beach Polo and Country Club Administration and Sales building.
~END~
