Secret Service Agent Jerry Parr (right) thrusts President Ronald Reagan into a limousine to protect him from an assassination attempt.

On March 31, 1981 Secret Service Agent Jerry Parr helped change the course of history as he acted to save President Ronald Reagan from an assassination attempt. In doing so, he proved himself equal to the motto of the Secret Service: “Worthy of Trust and Confidence.”

That moment of heroism was the most dramatic moment in a career he had aspired to since he was a boy. According to Parr, he became interested in joining the Secret Service after watching the 1939 movie Code of the Secret Service.

The star of Code of the Secret Service was Ronald Reagan.