Obama 'likes to smoke a couple cigarettes' before flying

The reason there is no such thing as an "ex-Marine" is because they are the best of the best, toughest of the tough, etc. of the etc.

Despite that, I became concerned about the United States Marine Corps officer who was quoted as saying that President Barack Obama "likes to smoke a couple cigarettes before he gets on the copter."

That account, from Marine Sgt. Bradley Kelle, was buried in a nice feature article about the 2004 Wauconda High School graduate a few weeks ago.

Sgt. Kelle is the helicopter crew chief for "Marine One," the name given to whatever chopper transports the president from the White House to Andrews Air Force Base; or as we saw last week, between O'Hare and Soldier Field for the Obama's' Memorial Day weekend trip.

I know just from his training that Sgt. Kelle could take out a squad of al-Qaida militia with one wave of his M-16A2 rifle. It would be reflexive for him to stop a solo aggressor by driving the heel of his hand straight into a nostril.

But Washington's offensive measures may be less defensible.

Aggrieved political figures have been known to douse careers for seemingly minor comments or infractions.

Offering a public play by play of the commander-in-chief's preflight cigarette routine might result in a reprimand, if not more.

Or so I thought.

After all, Mr. Obama's smoking has been something of an "issue" from the day he declared for president.

One of his wife's prerequisites for supporting his candidacy was that he quit smoking.

Although there were suggestions early in his administration that he'd actually kicked the habit, White House reporters knew better and that facade was quickly dismantled.

Obama has publicly claimed that he doesn't smoke every day. "I get this question about once every month or so," he said. "And, you know, I don't know what to tell you, other than the fact that, like folks who go to (Alcoholics Anonymous), once you've gone down this path, then ... it's something you continually struggle with."

Maybe he just smokes before flying, which would be somewhere between zero times a day to numerous times a day.

"He likes to smoke a couple cigarettes before he gets on the copter," Kelle said in that feature that was published in a couple of Illinois newspapers early this month.

"He's a little nervous about flight," Kelle added.

Figuring it might be difficult to contact Sgt. Kelle through official Marine Corp methods, I decided to work the backchannels.

Knowing that a young, single, strong man with a great job would be socially astute, I searched, found him on Facebook and sent him a message.

I asked Kelle whether he had been reprimanded for the chopperside smoking quote.

"No, I haven't received any type of flack from anyone about that; although it is always possible I will in the future, but I doubt it," he replied.

Obviously Kelle is wise to the ways of Washington and knows that politicians sometimes wait for the right moment to strike.

"Honestly, I don't think anyone at my command even knows about the article, and if those at the White House do, it obviously didn't bother them too much!" Sgt. Kelle wrote.

I'm sure there is a bothered woman at the White House whose initials are M.O. but that is for the Obamas to handle.

The tabloids and paparazzi still have quite a bounty on any photo of Obama actually smoking. The one showing him smoking as a college student is the last known picture although there are many fakes on the Internet.

It is a good thing that Sgt. Kelle only provided the feature writer with a picture of him and his father in front of the president's chopper and not a cell phone photo of Mr. Obama with a KOOL dangling from his lips.

That picture would have resulted in a much wider-read story and Sgt. Kelle would even have received a note from his commandant.

But it wouldn't have offered congratulations.

It would have been headlined: TRANSFER ORDER.

And Okinawa can be very hot this time of year.

• Chuck Goudie, whose column appears each Monday, is the chief investigative reporter at ABC 7 News in Chicago. The views in this column are his own and not those of WLS-TV. He can be reached by e-mail at chuckgoudie@gmail.com and followed at twitter.com/ChuckGoudie.