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Belvidere fire chief gets rare opportunity; Shawn Schadle meets President Biden
PHOTO COURTESY OF SHAWN SCHADLE Belvidere Republican
The Belvidere Fire Department participated in President Joe Biden’s visit to Belvidere on Nov. 9, at which time Chief Shawn Schadle briefly met the president. He said the local and state agencies involved got to see the president’s motorcade up close, and also participated in a motorcade, from the Chicago/Rockford International Airport to the Community Building Complex of Boone County in Belvidere, then back to the airport.
Belvidere Fire Department Chief Shawn Schadle got a Sunday night phone call that was the beginning of an experience he will likely never forget—that of meeting President Joe Biden.
As the chief tells it, he found out Sunday night before the president’s Nov. 9 visit to Belvidere, to support the United Auto Workers, that there was to be a meeting with the Secret Service on Monday morning that included the fire department and other area agencies.
While Schadle figured the fire department might have some role in the president’s visit, he remembers thinking, “I expected to hear back that there was a change of plans.”
Instead, he and representatives from first-responder agencies such as the Belvidere Police Department, Boone County Sheriff’s Office, Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office, Rockford Police and Fire departments, Illinois State Police and Illinois Tollway met with about 25 members of the president’s Secret Service detail to work out details and logistics of the president’s visit. He was scheduled to arrive at the Chicago/Rockford International Airport, then visit the Community Building Complex of Boone County the following Thursday.
“They work in teams,” Schadle related, “each in charge of a different aspect of the visit.”
He said the Belvidere Fire Department’s role was that of “emergency rescue and response,” adding, “Our ambulance was in the motorcade and was the ambulance for the president.”
The rest of the motorcade was made up of vehicles from the represented agencies, the chief described, adding that Rockford’s ambulance served as the emergency vehicle for the rest of the motorcade.
Schadle added that the president’s personal motorcade of seven vehicles had been flown in the night before on a transport plane.
On the day of the president’s arrival, the agencies met at the airport and traveled with the president’s motorcade to the Belvidere facility.
In the building a communications room, or command center, was set up, Schadle narrated, so he and the other agencies could communicate with the drivers of their respective motorcade vehicles.
He mentioned that law enforcement had one of the toughest roles, because “Routes had to be shut down,” such as parts of I-90, and they “had to coordinate with other agencies.”
When the president’s visit was over—which Schadle estimated to be about two-and-a-half hours—the whole scene played out in reverse, going from the center back to the airport.
“The Secret Service was great to work with,” the chief praised, noting that first responders got a chance to see the president’s motorcade vehicles the night before the president’s arrival, and also as a thank you, a representative from each agency “got to have a picture taken with the president.”
When asked what that was like, Schadle quipped, “It was a brief conversation, a handshake and photo.”
Looking back on his department’s involvement in a visit from the president to his community, the chief commented, “It was just a neat experience all the way around.”
The bottom line for Schadle, though, is, “It was an honor to work with the Secret Service and see how they operate.”
“They had a serious job to do,” he added.
