CLAYTON, N.C. (WNCN) — A former Secret Service agent who now lives in Clayton is sharing his story in a new book.

Denny Schlindwein worked with several presidents including Jimmy Carter, George Bush and George W. Bush.

During his 25 years in the Secret Service, Schlindwein became friends with some of the most powerful politicians in the world.

“One of the good things about being a Secret Service guy, is if you do protection duty you really get to know the people,” Schlindwein noted.

He talks about his life and his work protecting several of our former presidents and their families in a recently published book called Remarkably Unremarkable.

“The job oftentimes is dangerous,” he said. “You have to be the investigator, and in the case if somebody starts breaking bad on you, you have to take cover and hide and do what you have to do. The next week you might be called to protect the president or somebody. In that case, you’ve got to jump in front of the bullet.”

So, how can someone prepare to jump in front of a bullet?

“It’s just you have to understand going into it what could happen, and you just hope for the best,” Schlindwein explained.

Joining the Secret Service was certainly a career change for an English major who spent the rest of his career as a teacher.

“He didn’t tell me that he had applied for the Secret Service,” said Schlindwein’s wife, Sally. “When they came to talk to me is when he told me, and I said, ‘As long as we don’t have to move, we’ll be alright.’ That was the first thing we did. We moved.”

Sally had nothing but praise for her husband’s work.

“I am  very proud of everything he’s done for his family,” she said. 

Over the years, their family became friends with some of the presidents Schlindwein protected. President Carter helped make a butcher block for Sally and the families exchanged letters over the decades.

While Schlindwein originally wrote his book for his family, he decided to publish it and recently spoke at book signing in Clayton, where he shared memories of his time in the Secret Service.

“It was an adventure,” he said.