Vice mayor, vice president have a lot in common

Some 15 million people visit Washington, D.C., each year. But leave it to Danville Vice Mayor Mike Doyle to spend some time hobnobbing with Vice President Joe Biden in a White House hallway. Cameras weren’t allowed but a cell phone was used to memorialize the historic meeting for the Doyle family.

“We had a grand time and my grandchildren will remember that for the rest of their life,” said Doyle.

Doyle and his U.S. Air Force Group, who served in Germany during the Berlin Airlift, were invited by President Obama and Biden to be their guests at the Arlington National Cemetery for the Veterans Day ceremony.

“We saw the President as he gave his speech at the cemetery,” said Doyle. “We were about 50 feet from him. His wife Michelle, the VP and his wife, and all the chiefs of Staff of the different services were sitting right above us.”

Afterward Doyle, his son Mickey and two grandsons Sean and Eric went to a reception at the White House, where they ended up with the vice president all by themselves in a hallway in the White House.

“He was very gracious with his time and spent some time talking to my two grandchildren,” recalled Doyle. “They were just thrilled.”

The vice mayor and the vice president actually have a lot in common.

“We talked about growing up in the coal region of eastern Pennsylvania, and about his wife and my wife being teachers,” reported Doyle, adding, “He was in no hurry.”

Doyle seems to have a penchant for meeting famous people. When he was a chaplain’s assistant in Germany, he was invited to join Bishop Fulton Sheen’s entourage to meet Pope Pius XII. He also had a bit part in “Mrs. Doubtfire” when it was filmed in Danville in 1993.

“If someone told me that they spent some time alone with the VP of the United States, I would tell them I did not believe them,” said Doyle. “I have the pictures to prove it.”