Aboard the eyes in the sky charged with keeping Paris Olympics secure

They have the best seats in the house for this summer’s Paris Olympics, but they won’t be enjoying the sports.

PARIS — They have the best seats in the house for this summer’s Paris Olympics, but they won’t be enjoying the sports.

Maj. John and Col. Dry will be the eyes in the sky for one of the most challenging and stringent security operations ever deployed at the Games.

NBC News got an exclusive invite last week to board their military police helicopter as they swooped over the sprawling Chateau de Versailles, the former royal residence now hosting equestrian events, to La Defense business district where seating for swimming competitions is under construction. Then along the river Seine, the scene of the opening ceremony, to the Olympic stadium, the Stade de France, and the multicolored townhouses of the suburban Olympic Village.

It’s no sightseeing tour: The Gendarmerie, as these military cops are known, will use pioneering surveillance tech to spot threats from the air and, if necessary, deploy SWAT teams should the City of Lights suffer a terrorist attack during the Olympics that kick off July 26.

French helicopter pilots Maj. John, center, and Col. Dry, right, at an army base on the outskirts of Paris last week.Dean Taylor / NBC News“We will be watching, but you won’t see us and you won’t hear us,” said Dry, 49, who, like his gendarme colleague, was not permitted to give his first name. “Our special cameras and electronics mean we can observe from up to 4 or 5 kilometers (around 2.5 to 3 miles) away.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/paris-olympics-security-rcna145234

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