Ted
Hresko: Alum Works
Toward Safety in the Sky
The nation’s security risk had
just been elevated to “orange” status when Ted Hresko ’73
took time for a phone call a couple of weeks ago. As special agent
in charge
of the federal air marshal service in the Pittsburgh, Penn., area,
Hresko oversees air safety in one of the nation’s busiest airports.
More than most, Hresko is acutely aware
of the heightened risk of terrorist threat.
Part of his role, he says, is calming the fears of air travelers.
“I’ve never talked to anybody
who wouldn’t feel more comfortable
knowing there was a federal air marshal on their flight,” he says. “Federal
air marshals are more than armed special agents on flights. They are in a
surveillance mode from the time they leave home until the time they get back
home, and have
special responsibilities in terms of briefing the crew, cabin checks before
people get on, and participation in other task forces.”
So Hresko was
coordinating the rescheduling of days off and increasing the number of
flights with air marshals onboard.
His new job is a second career
for the Moundbuilder, one that uses many of the skills he learned
as a 28-year member of the Secret Service. In
nearly
three
decades he played a variety of roles: as an officer in the uniformed
division of the Secret Service assigned to the White House detail,
as a physical
training and arrest instructor in the Office of Training, as a special
agent in the
Washington field office (where he was involved with counterfeit investigations
and personal
protection), then as a member of the presidential protective division
for three years. Hresko spent more than a decade in Hawaii investigating
criminal
case,
supervising protective assignments and coordinating intelligence activities
throughout Asia. Upon returning to Washington, D.C., he was responsible
for the physical
security of the U.S. Treasury Building and for the personal security
of three secretaries of the Treasury. He finished his Secret Service
career
with nearly
a year as the assistant special agent in charge of the Honolulu field
office.
Now Hresko is using his skills and special
expertise learned in this wide experience as he works through the
process of making
air travel
as safe
as possible. As
the special agent in charge of the federal air marshal service, he
sees air safety out of Pittsburgh as his personal responsibility.
“We have almost 78,000 applications pending for qualified people who would
like to become air marshals,” he adds. “9/11 affected us all profoundly—if
it were up to the general public, I believe we’d have an air marshal on
every flight.”
Exchange Semester Broadens Student Experience
When Andrea Annika Billings came to Southwestern as
a freshman, she knew she would be a minority as an African American
student. But her
SC experience has broadened to include time at a college where she
was part of a definite majority.
After two years at SC, Billings participated
in an exchange program that allowed her to be part of a different
student body, one that was 98 percent African
American. During the spring of 2002, Billings studied music at Philander-Smith
College in Little Rock, Ark.
In addition to taking voice and piano lessons,
Billings was involved in the college’s new musical theatre
program, and was the lead mezzo-soprano in “The Stoned Guest
Opera,” a classical spoof of Mozart’s
works by P.D.Q. Bach.
“I learned a lot about myself when I was taken
out of my comfort zone, and for that long,” Billings says. “I
think students would benefit from seeing a more diverse faculty and
student body.”
Her exchange was facilitated by SC academic dean
David Nichols, who handled the academic component of the transfer,
and dean of students Dawn Pleas-Bailey,
who encouraged Billings to experience a semester at a predominantly
black school.
30-Plus Years in Women's Athletics
Linda (Adams) Hargrove ’75 was recognized for her 30 plus years
of work in women’s athletics on Jan. 22, 2003, at the Builder
basketball games. Inducted into the athletic hall of fame in 1992,
Hargrove has coached at all levels, including working with USA Basketball
as an assistant coach in the World Championships, Goodwill Games and
the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain where her team received
a bronze medal. For the past three seasons she served as head coach
and general manager of the Portland Fire in the Women’s National
Basketball Association.
