59 Years Ago - JFK

[Basil]

It was 59 years and those of use who were old enough remember the day that announcement came over the TV. As the World Turns was on the TV, then an announcer cuts in with a Bulletin Graphic replacing the show, "Here is a bulletin from CBS News. In Dallas Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's Motorcade in downtown Dallas. The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting."
A short time later, Walter Cronkite was on reporting the news Kennedy had been shot. About an hour later, Walter came on to say "from Dallas Texas, the flash apparently official, President Kennedy died at 1PM central standard time, two o'clock eastern standard time, some thirty eight minutes ago."

I'm sure most who are old enough remember the cuban missile crisis. I found this clip of a phone call Kennedy had with Gen Eisenhower about the Cuban situation.

 

[equiprx]

I was thinking about that yesterday, that it was coming up.

 

[NutmegCT]

In one of the Eisenhower biographies, Ike recalls talking with JFK during the crisis. JFK says he's got all the experts giving him opinions and telling him what to do. Ike says something like "Always listen to the experts first. But after that, do what's right for the country."

 

[Gliderman8]

Unfortunately, I remember both events all too well.

 

[mikephillips]

I remember Kennedy being shot too, although a age 6 I didn't really understand what it meant, just that it was a day off school. I do remember seeing the body being moved from the White House to the Capitol on tv a few days later as well. Saw that video as it would have been seen on an early 60s tv as part of an historical program, in comparison to what we're used to these days you couldn't tell any details like facial features of the escort.

 

[John Turney]

I remember both as well.

 

[Gliderman8]

I also remember watching LIVE TV when Jack Ruby shot Lee Oswald.

 

[NutmegCT]

Our "Young Republicans" club in high school went down to the Hotel Texas (Fort Worth) the morning of 11/22, to see Kennedy and Jackie - he gave some "remarks" outside the hotel, including praise for our Texas oranges. We didn't all agree with his policies, but did agree that he was a spirit of youth and energy. After the speech, we went back to school.

On our classroom radio, a few hours later, we followed a horror which stays with me even now. Just 30 miles east in Dallas.

JFK's last 48 hours:

 

[ckeithjordan]

I was ten years old when Kennedy was shot and remember the announcement in class over the loudspeaker. The next day, Saturday, Mom drove my sister and I from Tulsa to Houston to be at my grandparent's for Thanksgiving the next week. Going through Dallas one day after he was shot was an eerie feeling. I remember seeing lots of police vehicles. In recent years, I've attended two author's talks with ex-Secret Service agent Clint Hill as the speaker, famous for running up and jumping on the back of the presidential limousine to protect the President and Mrs. Kennedy. He told us that the famous photo showing Mrs. Kennedy climbing over the back of the limo as it sped out of Dealey Plaza was her trying to retrieve a piece of the President's skull as it skittered over the back of the Lincoln... Very chilling testimony. He has two or three books out and they fill in a lot of details about that fateful time. He's had to cope with his "failure" (as he puts it) of his mission (protecting the President) over the past half-century and it hasn't been easy.

If you ever get to the Air Force Museum in Dayton, you can go inside VC-137C SAM 26000 ("Air Force One") and stand in the forward compartment where Johnson was sworn in that day. You realize just how small that compartment was with all those people in there and how it must have felt. Also the rear compartment where the casket rode. They had to tear off the side handles to get it through the rear door in Dallas.

 

[mikephillips]

That's a tough time about being protection for anyone, they have to be perfect 100% of the time while anyone out to do harm only has to succeed once. Heavy load to bear.

 

[NutmegCT]

My mom was visiting a friend in hospital (Harris Hospital, Fort Worth) when she heard an idiot run by the hospital room, yelling "Three cheers for Dallas - they got rid of Kennedy".

Mom was so angry at hearing that, she jumped up, ran into the hallway, and yelled back "Don't you realize that man had children and a wife, and now the kids have no father, and the woman is a widow?!"

As my brother says frequently these days - "Ah, humans ..."