United States Secret Service
CMR 21-19
The Secret Service sent some of our finest onto the beaches of Normandy, France, on June 6th, 1944. One of them came home and became the Deputy Chief of the Secret Service.
Russell “Buck” Daniel was born November 28, 1906, in Lancaster, Missouri. He began his career in the Secret Service in Kansas City, Missouri, as a stenographer on October 7, 1929. He served continuously, except for 2 ½ years in the United States Army.
In 1932, he became a Special Agent in Kansas City, and was later assigned to field offices in New York, Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland, and Oklahoma City, where he gained wide experience in the suppression of counterfeiting, and in the investigation of forgeries of Treasury checks and bonds.
In 1938, Daniel was a member of a special detail in New York established to investigate large-scale counterfeiting activities. His success in the investigation of major counterfeiting and check forgery cases won him a promotion to Special Agent in Charge of Omaha, Nebraska, in March 1939.
In May 1943, Daniel enlisted in the Army and later participated in the Normandy invasion, the Battle of the Bulge, and three other major European campaigns as a paratrooper with the famed 82nd Airborne Division. He was honorably discharged as a Technical Sergeant, wearing the Bronze Star Medal, the Combat Infantry Badge, Parachutist’s Badge, five Battle Stars, and the Bronze Service Arrowhead.
Returning to the Secret Service in 1945, he became Assistant Special Agent in Charge at St. Paul, Minnesota. On January 3, 1949, he came to Washington to assume charge of the Washington Field District. Shortly after his promotion he supervised the investigation and arrests of four men and a woman for making about $150,000 in counterfeit $20 bills in a plant located only a few blocks from the Treasury Building.
On July 17, 1950, Daniel was promoted to the position of Inspector and engaged in inspecting Secret Service field offices and providing liaison between Washington headquarters and the field. In this position he also personally supervised a number of criminal investigations, including the attempted assassination of President Truman at Blair House in 1950 and the $160,000 theft of currency from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in 1954.
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