Former Vice President Dick Cheney, 84, died Monday in Wyoming.
His legacy as a statesman is steeped in war — as Defense Secretary during Operation Desert Storm then as Vice President during the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Today, Melanie Burkholder is a mental health counselor and Carlsbad City Council Member. But 20 years ago, she was a Secret Service agent tasked with protecting senior George W. Bush Administration officials.
Although based in Los Angeles, she says she worked a lot with Cheney, often during his visits to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
She remembers him as an avid outdoorsman.
"He really loved being outdoors and in nature," Burkholder said Wednesday. "Just a complete family man at the end of the day."
Because she was based on the West Coast, Burkholder mostly spent time with Cheney when he was on vacation, rather than during the day-to-day grind of Washington, D.C.
She was on duty with Cheney during a 2006 Texas quail hunt when the vice president shot one of his hunting companions.
"He accidentally shot one of his dear friends," Burkholder said. "That was shocking information to get over the radio ... it was a little bit chaotic. He deeply regretted that, obviously."
Burkholder, a Republican, said she saw Cheney as a pillar of strength.
He endured five heart attacks and went against his own party on the issue of gay marriage.
He faced public criticism as public opinion on the war in Iraq turned negative.
"Of all the issues that he went through," Burkholder said, "he endured ... with strength and with grace."
Polls ahead of the invasion of Iraq in 2003 showed widespread support for the war among Republicans and Democrats — most of whom falsely believed Iraq was behind the 9/11 attacks.
Twenty years later, only 36% of Americans said the war was justified.
Burkholder gives Cheney the benefit of the doubt.
"It's fair to consider him a war hawk," she said. "I think its also very true that he did what he thought was best at all times. And I don't think it was of personal interest — I think it was out of the interests of this country.
Burkholder left the Secret Service before the end of the second Bush Administration to start a family, she said.
She named one of her children "Cheney."
