“Why was there another team?” Ethan Hunt asked.

“What?” replied Kittridge.

“Of IMF agents, at the Embassy, why was there another team?” queried Hunt.

“I don’t follow,” Kittridge answered.

You won’t remember this. You may never have heard about it. But on March 20, 1981, as I took a seat on my yellow school bus for my ride home from Highland Park Elementary, I learned that about an hour and a half earlier, President Reagan had been shot while leaving a speaking engagement. That part I clearly remember and of that event you may be aware. But it’s what unfolded behind the scenes that I’ve since found fascinating.

It was not until years later that I learned the chaos of that day led to a most memorable event in the life of American politics. Soon after the assassination attempt, members of the President’s cabinet assembled in the Situation Room to discuss how to proceed. The President was on his way to the hospital and his condition was unknown. The Vice President was in a plane over Texas with such a poor radio connection, there was only time to tell him “Get back here!” (to Washington).