On Wednesday, January 21, 2009, President Barack Obama woke up for the first time as the leader of the free world. America’s 44th president had been sworn into office the day before, and had barely a minute of solitude bouncing between the inaugural parade and 10 official inaugural balls throughout Washington. The next morning, after just a few hours of sleep – and in perhaps his first moment of tranquility since his swearing in – the President left his bedroom and opened the inner door to his residence. The first person he encountered that day was the man posted on the other side of the door, a junior agent with the secret service.
“Hi, I’m Barack Obama,” the president said extending his hand. “Hi, I’m Patrick Freaney,” said the Siena graduate, Class of ’98. Of course, Freaney (and the whole world) knew who Obama was. That’s the person Freaney had vowed he would take a bullet to protect.
Freaney is now the Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service New York field office. He spent four years on the presidential detail protecting the president and his family. He now manages a team of 300 personnel responsible for approximately 1,500 protective visits annually. During the UN General Assembly, Freaney and his agents must ensure the simultaneous protection of more than 140 world leaders in a city of eight million people.
“You can never get risk to zero,” said Freaney. “There’s always risk to anything you do. Our job is to mitigate risk to the best of our ability. In a global threat environment, we need to be aware of the issues and take everything into consideration. When heads of state are on U.S. soil in our district, it’s our job to protect them. We’re also responsible for the protection of American dignitaries and their families when in our district.”
Protection is personal to Freaney. Not just because of an oath, but because of what happened to his mom more than 30 years ago. During Freaney’s junior year of high school, his mom was the victim of a violent robbery. The attacker, who was never caught, punched her in the face and shattered her foot.
“The assault impacted how she moves, not to mention the emotional trauma. My family lived through the devastation of a violent crime, and that shaped who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do. I needed to find a career where I could protect people from harm.”
But first, Freaney needed to find a college. Because of the attack, his mom couldn’t tour colleges with him, so Freaney visited schools by himself. The Long Island native and lacrosse recruit was invited to check out Siena, and he stayed the night with a member of the team. The next day, as soon as he got home, his parents asked him what he thought.
“I remember walking into my parents’ bedroom and telling them, ‘I’m going there.’ When they asked me why, I told them the people at Siena were just different than at any other school. ‘They’re just nicer.’ And they really were. I absolutely loved Siena. It was just a great experience academically and socially.”
Freaney, who majored in history, never wavered in his career aspirations, and during his senior year, he applied to the Secret Service. He was promptly rejected. “I was told they had better applicants,” Freaney said with a smile.
Undeterred, he entered the New York State Police Academy after graduation. Two years later, he applied to the Secret Service for a second time, and this time with better luck. After months of training, Freaney was assigned to the New York field office as an entry-level GS-7 in February of 2001. The offices were located at 7 World Trade Center. Seven months later, Freaney was on the 9th floor when terrorists flew Flight 11 into the North Tower.
“It’s a sensitive topic because I can sit here and talk about it, but so many people who were there that day can’t. I got on the elevator after the first plane hit, but only made it down two floors before it shut down. I was able to take the stairs down to the lobby, and I’ll never forget walking outside and seeing papers, everywhere, fluttering in the air. My dad was a New York City fireman. He responded to my building and made it out just before it collapsed.”
Freaney and his fellow agents were among the first to respond with aid and offer assistance in the immediate aftermath, and they were part of the recovery efforts at both Ground Zero and Fresh Kills in Staten Island, which was the primary location for sorting and investigating debris from the World Trade Center. A few years later, Freaney served on the elite, highly-trained Counter Assault Team before being assigned to Protective Operations on the president’s detail.
When Freaney was in the 7th grade, he went on a trip to Disney World. It was his only time on an airplane before he was in college. Part of the appeal to Secret Service life was the chance to see the world. He just never imagined what a whirlwind world traveling with the president would be.
“We’d circle the globe in 24 hours. For example, when President Obama wanted to visit troops at the Bagram Airfield, the largest U.S. air base in Afghanistan and at the time, at the middle of the U.S. war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, we’d suit up and go. I couldn’t tell anyone where I was headed because we’re taking the president to a war zone – that’s the secret in Secret Service. We flew from Andrews Air Force Base to Bagram, and we were on the ground in Afghanistan for two to three hours. We got back on the plane and refueled in Germany and then flew back to Washington.”
During experiences like that, Freaney said it’s natural to bond with your protectee and their family, and for four years, Freaney was at President Obama’s side – in a motorcade, on Air Force One, or outside the door of his residence. After four years, Freaney returned to the New York field office, and in 2021, he was promoted to Special Agent in Charge.
After the collapse of 7 World Trade Center, the New York field office moved into a space in Brooklyn that had originally been leased by an insurance company, which meant it was hardly an optimal footprint for their needs. Over the past year, Freaney has overseen a complete renovation of the offices, which now include a 4,000 sq. ft. digital forensics lab and a virtual training simulator for the agents.
It’s a full circle moment for Freaney, who was a rookie when the field office collapsed. Nearly 25 years later, he stewarded its transformation into a state-of-the-art facility, which Freaney says, “puts the service in a great position for years to come.”
That sort of reflection rings of an agent who’s closer to the end of his career than the beginning. He’ll be eligible to retire soon, which means his wife, Vanessa, will be eligible as well.
“This is a job that we’ve done together. When I’ve had to take off, with little to no notice, she’s managed the family plus her own career, taking great care of our sons, Landon and Darren. She’s always said, ‘When you retire, I get to retire with you.’ I’m grateful to have a partner like her.”
Freaney visited Siena’s campus in February, and serendipitously bumped into the lacrosse team in the middle of a workout. They put the weights down and gathered to hear from an alumnus. Freaney told the student athletes that being a Secret Service agent is a lot like being a member of a team. Most people join a team because they want to be a part of something bigger than themselves.
“It’s not about you anymore; it’s about something greater than you, something much deeper. It’s about the people around you – those that you will do anything to protect.”
That could mean a family member, a teammate… or the President of the United States.
