KNOXVILLE, Tenn — Former President Jimmy Carter is celebrating his 100th birthday today, a feat no other U.S. president has ever reached.
Among the many people around the world offering Carter best wishes is a Knoxville man, Perry Boyd, who has the distinction of helping protect Carter while assigned to the security detail of Air Force One while Carter was president from 1977 to 1981.
"You've lived a great life, sir, and I appreciate having worked with you and known you and helped to protect you," Boyd said, directing his message to Carter during an interview with WBIR.
Boyd, a retired master sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, traveled with Carter on official trips that included Poland, Iran, India and South America. He also accompanied Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, on many stateside trips across the United States.
Boyd, who also traveled on the airplane protecting President Reagan after Carter's one term ended, described Jimmy Carter as a "man of integrity" who loved peace and sought to secure it while in office.
He also honored America's armed forces, Boyd said.
"In my view he did everything within his power to keep from having any of us military people die within his watch, and being a military person I really admired that," said Boyd, the uncle of entrepreneur and University of Tennessee President Randy Boyd.
He could make Boyd nervous, however, such as the times he headed off from the airplane after landing to shake hands and greet people waiting along the rope or fence line.
One time the first lady grabbed his hand, Boyd said, asking if he couldn't stop Carter from going out to a greeting line.
Carter visited East Tennessee several times while in office and after he left office.
His trips here included a visit to Knoxville and Oak Ridge science facilities in 1978 and a return trip to Knoxville in 1982 for the World's Fair. He'd left the White House by January 1981 but was invited back in 1982 to help Knoxville celebrate the World's Fair, which had been in the planning stages while he was president.
The Georgia-born peanut farmer and former Georgia governor was expected Monday to celebrate his centennial quietly with his family in his hometown of Plains, Ga.
