If there is one asset that will benefit an executive protection agent, it is being a well prepared “efficient” world traveler. In my many years of traveling and protection work, I have witnessed a lot of situations that I do not care to repeat or see repeated by others. I could write a book on this subject but I’ll hit just a couple of main points here.

As I write this, I am sitting in a sketchy luggage pick up area in West Africa. My plane landed 3 hours ago, and prior to this delay, all was going smoothly as planned. Then, the inevitable happened.

I walked up to the immigration window with all my documents properly prepared and in “good order”. With the inherent language barrier, a game of charades served as our means of communication but I produced what was needed, and processed through within 10 minutes. I uttered under my breath a premature “YES!” Awesome! All done, and ready to get to the hotel for a real dinner and review the next...