Of late, television, the news
media, and all else seem to be saturated with stories about the assassination
of President John F. Kennedy, fifty years ago.
Unlike many younger people today, I can well remember our youthful
President Kennedy, and the dreams of “Camelot”. John Kennedy was far from being the most popular President during
his time in office, but his popularity seems to have grown through the
years. A “progressive” Democrat rather
than what we today would consider the liberal version, he wanted to move us
ahead, not the least including the areas of Civil Rights and space exploration,
without stirring up a lot of hate and dissent.
Unfortunately we don’t seem to have anyone of his caliber in national
politics today.
I was raised in a family that
considered military service a duty that came with citizenship, and, believing
our young presidents comment of “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask
what you can do for your country”, joined the US Air Force not long after his
election, with the idea that I might defend my homeland from the evils of
communism. Little did I know that so
much of my early Air Force career would be entangled with the presidency of
John F. Kennedy.
Following basic training, I was sent to Keesler AFB
Mississippi for technical training.
About the only “big deal” that happened in the year I was there was… the
Cuban missile crisis. Considering that
Keesler (Biloxi MS) isn’t all that far from Havana, we young airmen promptly
figured that if anybody started shooting, we’d probably be one of the first
places to get blown away, which made that “defend our country” part downright
serious! When the President came on TV
and announced the American response to those Soviet missiles, I think life came
to a halt for all of us while we watched and tried to digest what was
happening. Seeing assorted military trains
passing the base on the way to Florida got our attention well enough, along
with watching a number of Navy and Air Force combat aircraft landing on our
short runway for fuel on their way east, convinced us even more strongly that
we were in the military service and not just part of Uncle Sam’s airline! Also that we were a definitely a
target! Fortunately for us, the
Russians didn’t like the odds, or the presidents’ determination, and backed
down.
Finishing Tech School, I was
reassigned to the 496th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Hahn Air Base
in West Germany, where I was when he made the well-known trip to Europe in which he delivered his famous “Ish bin ein
Berliner” speech. The 496th
had the honor of providing the fighter escort for Air Force One during his
travels about Europe, and, due to a scheduling glitch, I got to repair a radio
malfunction aboard his aircraft.
Somewhere in the squadron archives is a large, framed color picture,
autographed by John F. Kennedy, of Air Force One and four F-102’s with a yellow
and black fan painted on the tails, all flying in formation. (Yellow/Black were our squadron
colors.) In my archives is a pack of
cigarettes and a book of matches embossed with the presidential seal, that I
received aboard Air Force One.
It’s said that everyone who was
around at the time remembers where they were and what they were doing when
President Kennedy was assassinated.
This is certainly true in my case.
Still at Hahn AB, I was in the barracks at about 8 PM, studying, when
one of the guys stuck his head in the door and told us that the president had
been shot. Immediately, we turned the
radio to AFN (Armed Forces Radio Network) to find out what was happening. When it was announced that the president was
dead, and somewhat in shock, we all got into uniform and reported to our duty
stations. No alert was called until
nearly midnight, but we were all convinced that this was the beginning of WW
III, the Russians were coming, and we were making sure we’d be ready to
properly welcome them. Fortunately for
the world they decided to stay home that night.
We observed the president’s
memorial service as well, holding a military parade in the squadron area, and
all standing at “present arms” while an Army artillery battery fired a 21gun
salute. That salute took 21 minutes, and
was fired in the midst of a blizzard, which pretty well matched our mood. It was a cold and miserable day for all concerned…
