Military Moving President Obama's Records to Warehouse Near Chicago

The world will be watching on Friday when President-elect Trump takes the oath of office, but a low-profile process in the transition of power has been quietly underway for months. Since October, the U.S. military has been working to move President Obama’s records to a temporary warehouse outside Chicago.

The facility is located in the town of Hoffman Estates, about 30 miles northwest of downtown Chicago. It will be used to sort and store "hundreds of millions of textual, electronic, and audiovisual records, and tens of thousands of presidential gifts," according to the National Archives and Records Administration. The materials that President Obama has accumulated over his two terms will be held in storage until his presidential library in Chicago is complete.

Air Force Lt. Colonel Vianesa Vargas calls her team the "muscle behind the move." As the Chief of Joint Team Records, she has coordinated with soldiers, sailors, and commercial contractors to transport an immense amount of freight the 700 miles from Washington D.C. to Illinois. Lt. Colonel Vargas said the planning for the operation started in November 2015.

National Archives and Records Administration personnel watch as Army soldiers load boxes containing presidential materials onto a truck at the National Archives building in Washington, D.C., Oct. 27, 2016. (National Archives and Records Administration)

President George W. Bush, his father, and President Clinton each needed a small fleet of Air Force cargo jets to transport all their paper records. Due to advances in technology, the current president has far less to move.

“President Obama is known as the first paperless president,” Lt. Colonel Vargas said. “You’re looking at terabytes of data now.” She said the data was loaded onto hard drives which were then sent to Illinois.

In October 2016, the first shipment from was loaded onto commercial trucks by soldiers from the Army’s 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, a ceremonial guard unit known as the Old Guard. The trucks were unloaded in Hoffman Estates by sailors from Naval Station Great Lakes, a facility north of Chicago where the Navy trains its new recruits.

Oct. 28, 2016 -- Sailors, stationed aboard various tenant commands of Naval Station Great Lakes, assist in unloading artifacts during the Obama presidency at the Obama Presidential Library in Hoffman Estates, Illinois (U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Timmy Wakefield/Released)

Moving the president’s records as he leaves office has a special significance for Lt. Colonel Vargas. She attended his inauguration in 2009 while she was serving as the military aide for Susan Rice, Ambassador to the United Nations.

“It’s really like a full circle.” Lt. Colonel Vargas said “Being a logistics officer for my entire career on the Air Force, it is truly the ‘icing on the cake’”

Her team has planned a combination of truck and air movements through the end of February to complete the move.

“It has been a lot of work, but I tell you, it’s good to see the plan come together,” Lt. Colonel Vargas said.

Photo at top: Left to right: Army Pfc. Caleb Hagelberger, Spc. Joseph Kois and Pfc. Phillip Case push a box containing presidential materials onto a truck at the U.S. National Archives in Washington, D.C., Oct. 27, 2016. (National Archives and Records Administration)