Yankee White (NCIS)

Infobox Television episode
Title = Yankee White
Colour =
Series = NCIS
Season = 1
Episode = 1


Airdate = 23 September 2003
Production = 1x01
Writer = Donald P. Bellisario
Director = Dennis Smith
Guests = Joe Spano as T. C. Fornell Pancho Demmings as Gerald Jackson Alan Dale as Thomas Morrow
Season list =
Episode list = List of "NCIS" episodes
Prev = Meltdown (JAG episode)
Next = Hung Out to Dry

"Yankee White" is the 1^st episode of the drama television series "NCIS".

Plot

While on Air Force One, a U.S. Navy Commander dies of an apparent stroke after having lunch with the President. Agents from the NCIS decide to take the investigation into their own hands and also force Secret Service Agent Caitlin Todd to help. Now the NCIS team has to figure out if the officer's death was of natural causes or not. Tensions run high not only because the commander had only recently been granted "Yankee White" clearance - the US's most rigorous security background check which candidates must pass to work with the President - but also because the FBI's Special Agent T.C. Fornell tries to commandeer the investigation.

Later, another senior officer, a Marine Major is found dead with similar symptoms to the commander. The change forces the president to fly on the backup Air Force One plane, which has lower security systems (locks on the armory instead of digital keypads). The team realize just in time that this was a ploy by a terrorist to gain access to the armory easily and assassinate the president, and Gibbs shoots the suspect just in time. At the end of this episode, Agent Todd is recruited as a member of NCIS by Gibbs after her resignation from the Secret Service.

The plot - Air Force One being attacked by terrorists - echoes that of the movie "Air Force One". At one point in the episode, Gibbs scours the plane commenting on its similarity to the aircraft in the movie. He, in particular, notes the storage locker where weapons and protective vests are kept. The movie's plot also helps Gibbs fathom the plot in this episode because when he came to the conclusion that the terrorist was a part of the press, he immediately related it to the movie where the terrorists are also members of the press. In the film, this locker is opened by the traitorous Secret Service Agent. The sets used to film the show were the same sets used in the movie.

It should be noted that, contrary to what is shown in the episode, Wichita, Kansas is not in Wichita County. The City of Wichita is the seat of Sedgwick County, which is about 250 road miles (400 km) from Wichita County.