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. Ninth Army divisions on either side of the 29th were pulled out of theline and rushed to the Ardennes as Gerhardt extended his front along the Roer River to cover the vacated space. His first thought was another friendly PT boat slowly approaching. TV reporter Eddie Barker covers the event live. How do we get the story out? We will go tell Captain Fritz.. Photographer Jackson and newsman Pappas are there among the crowd. I heard Connally say, Theyre going to kill us all! or shoot us all. And then, I heard Jackie Kennedy scream out, Oh, God! Police Dispatcher: Attention all squads. After we got the pictures taken, I reached down and picked the rifle up. Later, according to Alvin Cluster, Kennedy wept. They turned the corner and they started coming downand the first thing I remember hearing was what I thought was firecrackers because Kennedy threw his hands up, and I heard bang, bang. There could have been a third bang, I cant swear to that one. He recounts his amazing afternoon. Motorcade recollections from the governors wife, Nellie Connally, in the presidential limousine; Agent Hill, directly behind the presidential limousine; and TV cameraman Couch and newspaper photographer Bob Jackson in a press pool convertible eight cars behind. Kennedy would later embrace the myths of PT-109 and ride them into the White House. Navy doctors werent so sure that Kennedy needed surgery. I couldnt hardly remember what my name was. Oswalds been shot! I could see his feet being dragged back into the double doors and then theres a huge fight in front of us. Agent Kellerman: I walked into this center area of this emergency room looking for a telephone. And it just seemed an eternity. Agent in Charge Kellerman opened the door of the presidents car and stepped out on the street. This is the president of the United States and there should be some consideration in an event like this. And I told this gentleman, You are going to have to come up with something a little stronger than [the] law that this body cant be removed., Shortly he leaves this little room and it seems like a few minutes he is back and he has another gentleman with him, and he said: He is a judge here in Dallas. 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. The division was to stay there ten months. Perfect spot for them to get him. That was part of the tension that somebody would try to do something to Kennedy. I didnt know he was living away from his family. Deputy Chief [George] Lumpkin of the Dallas Police Department was standing a few feet from me. Posted at 14:25h in 116th, 29th Division, Bedford, Bedford Boys, Company A, D-Day, . Work crews dismantled the torpedo tubes and screwed armor plating to the hulls. He was now touring the country promoting war bonds and touting the PT fleet as the Allies key to victory in the Pacific. Jack felt very strongly about losing those two men and his ship in the Solomons, Cluster said. I believe I caught up with him inside the lobby of the building, or possibly the front steps. No problem, no questions, of course not. And everybody knew that as soon as he showed his face, there would be questions. From a medical standpoint, I suppose he was still alive in that he did still have a heartbeat. I found out that as soon as I said that they immediately took it back to New York, and Cronkite, my dear friend Walter, said: You know, that aint us, folks. Eventually, the men were found by two natives who were scouts for a coastwatcher, a New Zealand reserve officer doing reconnaissance. The description was derived from eyewitness reports at Dealey Plaza. He received a flash message that the Tokyo Express was coming out from Rabaul, the Japanese base far to the north on New Guinea. 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. We left the room and were ushered by a cordon of agents to cars which were awaiting us. But Cluster laughed it off, particularly when his friend earned the nickname Crash Kennedy. Detective L.C. Our intent is to convey as accurately as possible from the view of those who were therea true sense of the minutes and hours of the events that consumed the nation during four days in November 1963. Finally came the climactic night of August 1 and 2, 1943. Fellow PT skipper Ensign George Ross with his boat out of commission joined Kennedy aboard the 109. memo: review of selected items in the lee harvey oswald file regarding allegations of castro cuban involvement in the john f. kennedy assassination. I could see the blood on his shirt. In fact, [at WFAA studio] Julie Benell, they interrupted her cooking show and she was cooking a Hormel Cure Eighty-one ham. I grabbed it right over the cylinder. He was almost across Patton Street.walking up 10th, away from me. There were three men in suits running up and thats who I met. We had representatives of the labor unions as well as of the professions and the large businesses. The division was there for the duration of the ill-fated campaign. Hundreds honor fallen policeman J.D. Detective Graves: We were told the car would be backed up there right in position where all wed have to do was walk out and get in it. And they got word that he was down at a library, which was about three blocks down the street on the opposite side of the street. McMahon was almost helpless. Japanese barges, meanwhile, were equipped with light cannons far superior to the PTs machine guns and single 20mm gun. When other civil rights leaders at the meeting explained that the August 28 march would occur regardless of White House support, the Kennedys tried to ensure its success. Ensign Kennedy emerged from his sickbed ferociously determined to see action. I told him to get the crime lab officers in route, that I had the location spotted. The next thought that I had isthis is history and upon these words youll be judged as a reporter and as a human being. And my husband never made any sound. Henry Wade: Aaron Ward was a justice of the peace at Parkland. Hersey had big ambitions for the PT-109 article; he wanted to use devices from fiction in a true-life story. The 29th entered Germany on October 1, 1944, holding an extended front north of the historic city of Aachen. He instead cut a message on a coconut that read "NAURO ISLCOMMANDERNATIVE KNOWS POS'ITHE CAN PILOT11 ALIVENEED SMALL BOATKENNEDY". Dr. McClelland: About the time that Dr. Baxter and I were gonna walk around the head of the gurney and leave the room behind everybody else, the door came open, and Father Hubert came inso we just kind of melted back up against the wallwhile he gave the president his last rites. Division alive. I returned to the 17th floor and remained with Mrs. Kennedy until we departed the hospital. Lyndon Johnson: This is a sad time for all people. The 29th Infantry Division is one of America's most illustrious military units. We brought him in there in front of the screen and kept him there as I recall only about four or five minutes. They liked his refusal to pull rank. Agent Hill: I assisted Mrs. Kennedy and the attorney general, who had joined her at that time, into the ambulance bearing the presidents body.I entered the automobile immediately behind the ambulance. The planes often appeared without warning, dropped a flare, and then followed with bombs. She didnt express much interest in what was going to happen to her son. Just before he was assassinated, Hollywood released a movie based on Donovans book and starring Cliff Robertson. 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. The 15 boats that had left Lumbari that evening fired at least 30 torpedoes, yet hit nothing. We are confronted primarily with a moral issue, he said. Captain Alan Goodrich Kirk, head of the Office of Naval Intelligence, had been the naval attach in London before the war when Joe Kennedy had served as ambassador to the Court of St. Jamess. It is on wheelsand I stayed inside the door of the emergency room most of the time while the doctors were working on the presidents body. In May 1962, the division staged the large-scale Exercise Iron Dragoon, still remembered among National Guard armor exercises. An incredible 48 hours in Dallasthe presidents murder in broad daylight and the astonishing killing of his alleged assassin on live televisionhas spawned countless conspiracy theories. 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. The march marked a memorable moment in a century-long crusade for black equality. (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.) I called Robert Kennedy.Despite his shock, he discussed the practical problems at hand problems of special urgency because we did not at that time have any information as to the motivation of the assassination or its possible implications. John was honorably discharged in 1945. Malcom Kilduff: I heard this first noise, and Merriman Smith said, What the hell was that? And I said, Well, it sounded to me like a firecracker. And then, the second shotby that time, I had noticed that Clint Hillhad jumped off the Secret Service follow-up car and was running towards the presidents car. The division penetrated onto the flat and featureless Cologne Plain, swung 90 degrees to its left,and attacked relentlessly to the north in an effort to link up with Montgomerys Twenty-First Army Group, which was progressing southward in an effort to encircle German troops west of the Rhine River. Detective Leavelle: I made a statement to him, in jest really, when I was getting him ready to transfer him downI said, Lee, I hope if anybody shoots at you, theyre as good a shot as you are, meaning, of course, that itd hit him and not me. He did have a mouse on his eye. That campaign, according to scholar John Hellman, marks the true beginning of the Kennedy legend. The 29th Division sailed for England in September 1942 aboard the famous Cunard liners Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. The bigger of the two variants by about 10 feet complete with a formable array of torpedoes, heavy machine guns and depth charges. 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