When they realized their mistake, Kennedy signaled the engine room for full power and spun the ships wheel to turn the 109 toward the Amagiri and fire. They write: "The PT boat was creeping along to keep the wake and noise to a minimum in order to avoid detection. He was making no voluntary movements. Theyve shot Jack! And I can remember her going back. He knew me by name.But I suddenly realized I didnt know what to call him. He later served as a lieutenant in the Navy, where he earned a Purple Heart, among other honors, during World War II. (Signaling his unaltered conviction that the bomb throwersas Vice President Lyndon Johnson called uncompromising liberalswould do more to retard than advance a civil rights bill, Kennedy jokingly advised against including Reuther in the delegation that would see Ike.) Its distinctive features were not violence or narrow partisanship on behalf of one groups special interest, but rather a dignified display of faith on the part of blacks and whites that America remained the worlds last best hope of freedom and equality for all; that the fundamental promise of American lifethe triumph of individualism over collectivism or racial or group identitymight yet be fulfilled. Also while at Fort Polk the division's missile unit became the first Army National Guard unit to fire the Honest John nuclear-tipped surface-to-surface missile. And thats what I really thought because nothing in mind would have occurred to me that it was a rifle shot, see.I thought the first shot was a motorcycle backfire, and in conjunction with that thought, I thought he was just pretending. I didnt realize I wasnt supposed to be here. And I got out of there. I noticed that Lee Oswald was not among these boys. Jean Lollis Hill: We were standing on the curb, and I jumped to the edge of the street and yelled, Hey, we want to take your picture! to him. Bob Jackson: I positioned myself there, I pre-focused.So, they said, Hes coming down. And we were all ready, and I could see when he came out the door. Assigned in March to a cushy post in Miami, he joked, Once you get your feet upon the desk in the morning, the heavy work of the day is done.. Say something, dont freeze, andthe only thing that was apparent to me was that Oswald had been shot. Patrol Torpedo boat 109 was idling in Blackett Strait in the Solomon Islands. I dont ever want to see you again. You know, the first rule of reporting is its better to apologize than to explain, so I said: Well, I apologize. He said, Well, we better do it anyway. I picked the phone up then and called Mr. Aiken, at the warehouse, and got the boys name and general description and telephone number and address at Irving. They came around and then the first I heard was, I thought, was a firecrackerbecause the FBI, Secret Service people that was on the back of that car, they looked down at the ground.I think they thought it was a firecrackerI thought in my mind, well, what a heck of a joke, you know, to be playing like that. NPS/Matt Teuten. The city editor had sent all the reporters to Dallas and there wasnt anybody to answer the phones, and thats when this unbelievable thing happened to me. I entered an automobile immediately behind the ambulance. I think all these things came together.. This was the break young Jack needed to get his foot in the door and he was soon assigned as an ensign in the Naval Reserves serving in intelligence. The 101 was a 78-foot Higgins boat which was one of two variants the Navy was fielding along with the slightly larger Elco PTs. ARRIVAL AT LOVE FIELD 11:40-11:45 A.M. In the report, White and his coauthor described the collision matter-of-factly and devoted almost all the narrative to Kennedys efforts to find help. RIFLE SHOWN TO MARINA OSWALD In three weeks of brutal combat, however, Gerhardts men only managed to advance nine miles and were halted on the west bank of the Roer just short of Jlich. What are you doing to him? I thought somebody behind me was doing the firing, and because I thought that, well, I fell down, I hit the ground. Though PTs patrolled only at night, Japanese floatplane crews could spot their phosphorescent wakes. So, I walked out into the basement with OswaldI was told that the car that we were going to transfer him in would be crossways with the doorway, which it was not. The planes often appeared without warning, dropped a flare, and then followed with bombs. 27: cia: jfk: 05/07/2021: jfk26 : f3 : 1993.07.20.15:29:11:870410 : 4 original pages herewith, 23 pages previously rif'd. 27: 104-10087-10130: 12/15/2021: redact: 01/01/1976: paper - textual . And I got up there, he turned off the camera, and were talking about, well, where could he standbecause by that time, theres quite a few people gathering. And dont get away from her. I noticed that she wiped her hands off on her clothes when shecame away from his head. But more than moral considerations were at work in Kennedys decision. The journey proved harrowing. He sort of put his hands up and sort of was looking around the crowd, and you know, thoughts just sort of flash through your mind. Special Agent in Charge Kellerman came outside and said, Get the White House. I asked Special Agent Lawson for the local number in Dallas of the White House switchboard, which he gave to me. It wasnt the best place to find a fingerprint to start with. New Jersey units that had been part of the 29th Division in World War I were assigned to the new 44th Division, that encompassed troops from New Jersey and New York. The 15 boats that had left Lumbari that evening fired at least 30 torpedoes, yet hit nothing. He was almost across Patton Street.walking up 10th, away from me. At Northwestern, Bulkeleys tales of adventure inspired Kennedy and nearly all his 1,023 classmates to volunteer for PT duty. When a civil rights crisis erupted in Birmingham, Alabama, in the spring of 1963, Kennedy considered shifting ground and pressing for congressional action. Kennedy made a pivotal decision by ordering the U.S. Navy to create a blockade around the Caribbean Island of Cuba. Cluster offered to send the young lieutenant home, but he refused. Eight days later, the massive German Ardennes offensive erupted forty miles to the south, catching the U.S. First Army by surprise. I used the powder on them and didnt find any prints there, which is not unusual on a cartridge case or bullet.While we were working with that, Captain Fritz sent word for me to come to thenorthwest corner of the building.They had found the gun. The Soviets were establishing missile bases in Cuba 90 miles from the tip of Florida. KENNEDYS SON IS HERO IN PACIFIC AS DESTROYER SPLITS HIS PT BOAT, declared a New York Times headline. But he didn't. One of them told me I could help them. To ensure that as little as possible went wrong, Bobby directed his Civil Rights Division assistant attorney general to work full time for five weeks guarding against potential mishaps such as insufficient food and toilet facilities, or the presence of police dogs, which would draw comparisons to the Birmingham demonstrations. PRESIDENT KENNEDY IN PARKLAND What are you doing to him? Tom Dillard: The third shot, I said, My God, theyve killed him! Bob Jackson said, Theres a guy with a rifle up in that window. I said, Where? I had both cameras around my neck, loaded, focused, cockedBob says, In that window up on that building right there, its that top window. I shot a picture with the wide-angle camera. He might have shrugged off the putdowns of other PT skippers, but it must have been harder to ignore the biting words of his older brother. Riding with Kennedy was Ensign Barney Ross, whose boat had recently been wrecked. Mrs. Kennedy had on a really cute pink outfit, and Gov. . Just moments later I saw a young motorcycle policeman run up to the building, up the steps to the entrance of our building. By chance, Kennedy met up for drinks one night at a New York nightclub with writer John Hersey, an acquaintance who had married one of Jacks former girlfriends. Jacqueline Kennedy in the presidents car and Vice President Lyndon Johnson two cars behind react. And it just seemed an eternity. I was just numb. She was an Elco type. Roy Truly: Some of my boys were over in the west corner of the shipping department, and there were several officers over there taking their names and addresses and so forth. If the 109 assumed that order banned radio traffic, why bother monitoring the radio? Their rescue took time to engineer, but at dawn on August 8, six days after the 109 was hit, a PT boat pulled into the American base carrying the 11 survivors. Hes got a microphoneand he slapped it right up in my face and began to try and talk to me. Shes in shock, he says. Eddie Barker: It was going to be quite an affair. The Tokyo Express was not expected for another hour; the lieutenant concluded the radar blips were barges. My God, this guys going to get us all killed! one man told Cluster. The world held its breath and waited to see who would back down first. Malcolm Kilduff: They wanted to keep the body here for an autopsy. Returning to duty in command of a new breed of PT boat, he lobbied for dangerous assignments and displayed a recklessness that worried fellow officers. He was the youngest man and first Catholic to hold that office. White House press leaks were already discouraging the idea when the National Urban Leagues Whitney Young asked Kennedy at a meeting whether newspaper reports about the presidents opposition were accurate. They were about to send her to the hospital or something and we needed that identification real quickly, and she got to feeling all right after using this ammonia. Item #29divfrosted. About the same time, the navy finally recognized the weaknesses of its PT fleet. They have shot my husband! And I love you, Jack! I remember I was shouting. 29th Div Association Frosted Beer Glass with Handle. And police were saying, Freeze! I went down on one kneeto continue broadcasting. He also put a stop to his fathers efforts to bring him home. The journey took five exhausting hours, as they fought a strong current. In the seconds after the motorcade turns left onto Elm St. and before the triple underpass, the assassin strikes. Because of the crowds in the street, the presidents driver, Special Agent Greer, was running the car more to the left-hand side of the streetto keep the president as far away from the crowd as possible, and because of this the motorcycles on the left-hand side could not get past the crowd and alongside the car, and they were forced to drop back. . That is a picture that someone else has made. I had only taken a few steps in when I saw Officer McDonald come up in the row in front of the suspect. After the rescue boats picked up the 109 crew, Kennedy kept to his bunk on the return to Lumbari while the other men happily filled the notebooks of the reporters on board. There was also the matter of the radio warnings. The officer turned this way and said, This man work here? And I said, Yes. Then we left Lee Harvey Oswald immediately and continued to run up the stairways. Lyndon Johnson: We were ushered into the private quarters of the presidents plane. Division alive. I grabbed it right over the cylinder. Weve got, you knowget some of your friends and come by and you know, we have anything you need there, you know. Here is this guy trying to hustle me into his nightclub. Kennedy couldnt risk attempting to canoe with the natives for fear of being seen by a Japanese patrol boat or plane. I said so, but I agreed that we would board the airplane and wait until Mrs. Kennedy and the presidents body were brought aboard the plane. Jerry Haynes [WFAA reporter] and another gentlemancame running over to us, and we had stood up by this time. With that, the two American boats made a hasty retreat. Bobby and the president understood that unless they now acted boldly, African Americans would lose hope that the government would ever fully support their claims to equality and would increasingly engage in violent protest. From boyhood, he had suffered from chronic colitis, scarlet fever, and hepatitis. Free at last! The following day, the problem would be Lyndon Johnsons. Airbrushed from this PR confection was Lieutenant Kennedys reaction to the accident. Fifteen days later, he took command of PT-109. He was driving real slow, almost up to this man. There was television cameras and I dont know how many people were there.And here I am with a piece of evidence, standing there holding it over my head, and all these people around. Patrol Torpedo boat 109 was idling in Blackett Strait in the Solomon Islands. It participated in the U.S. Armys supreme operation of both World Wars: The Omaha Beach invasion of D-Day in 1944 and the great Meuse-Argonne offensive in 1918. 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