While Kennedy tried to ease the problem with executive actions that expanded black voting, job opportunities and access to public housing, he consistently refused to put a major civil rights bill before Congress. The 29th Division crossed the historic Rhine River on March 31, 1945, and joined in the Allied Expeditionary Forces blitzkrieg across central Germany. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox let the certificate confirming the medal sit on his desk for several months. Mary took the picture and fell on the ground and of course there were more shots. Most unnerving were the enemy destroyers running supplies and reinforcements to Japanese troops in an operation the Americans called the Tokyo Express. I saw this man coming down the street with the gun in his hand. Indeed, little is known about how he rated his performance on the night of August 2. Charlie Company, First Platoon, Second Squad (9) Lucas W. Pinto. 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.. He will tell you whether you can remove this body or not. I said: It doesnt make any difference. Another gentleman came into this little doctors roomhe represented himself to be from the Health Department or commission. His humanity in pursuing civil rights in the United States elevated him to a visionary level of both Presidents Lincoln and Washington. Heart-rending accounts tell also of horrible personal tragedy and of extraordinary courage and strength. Agent Kellerman: I just leaned sideways to [the driver] and said: Lets get out of here! And he says: Just a moment. Throwing firecrackers at the presidents car. Burke Marshall, the assistant attorney general for the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division, recalled that the president now saw Birmingham as representative of a pattern that would recur in many other places. JFK, Marshall said, wanted to know what he should donot to deal with Birmingham, but to deal with what was clearly an explosion in the racial problem that could not, would not, go away, that he had not only to face up to himself, but somehow to bring the country to face up to and resolve.. She began to say that people would sympathize with his wife [Marina] and that they would give her money and that she wouldnt get any and that shed starve to death, and she didnt know how she was going to live. King asked if an appeal to former President Dwight D. Eisenhower might help enlist Republican backing generally, and the support of House Minority Leader Charlie Halleck in particular. It was impossible for me to tell the direction from which the explosions came. He ran right by me. Eddie Barker: It was going to be quite an affair. When I heard the shots, I went out on this front porch. She didnt express much interest in what was going to happen to her son. When he was probably 150 or 200 feet away the first two shots rang out, and it was like a BoomBoom.. Photographer Jackson and newsman Pappas are there among the crowd. Congressman Jim Wright and Texas Attorney General Waggoner Carr describe the morning in Fort Worth. OSWALDS RIDE TO WORK Joe and Jack were bitter rivals. It made the first landings as part of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force in April 1915. Kennedy couldnt risk attempting to canoe with the natives for fear of being seen by a Japanese patrol boat or plane. In May, as black demonstrators, including many high school and some elementary school children, marched in defiance of a city ban, police and firemen attacked the marchers with police dogs that bit several demonstrators and high-pressure fire hoses that knocked marchers down and tore off their clothes. I ran down the slope. Lyndon Johnson: We were ushered into the private quarters of the presidents plane. All along, he harbored suspicions that the PT-109 incident was clouding his friends judgment. I got your card, I said. He said, What do you think? And I got to thinking. P.T. I did have my revolver in my hand at that particular time.Once I got to the balcony I could see several officers coming in from the stage or back entrance. Kennedy described those weeks as packed with a great deal in the way of death. According to the 59s crew, their commander volunteered for the riskiest missions and sought out danger. We had an unmarked police carparked in front of the theater, and as we went out there were numerous peoplepolice officers and civilian people out in front of the theater.As we were bringing him out of the theaterhe was telling meOh, the handcuffs are too tight. I reached back and felt that I could get my middle finger in between his wrists and the handcuffs, and in my opinion, they were not too tight. Nothing had happened by the time the limo was exactly opposite us. Spewing awesomeness all over the web! We had motorcycles running adjacent to both the presidential automobile and the follow-up car, as well as in front of the presidential automobile. Building manager Roy Truly, who was standing in front of the building at the time of the shooting, recounts what took place. To keep alive the spirit that never knew defeat; to glorify our dead, and to further keep before our country, the record of the 29th Division in all wars. Aboard PT-109, however, there was no sense of imminent danger. Ignoring enemy fire from shore, Kennedy and his crew pulled alongside and dragged the Marines aboard. The president and his attorney general brother, Bobby, discussed what he should say in an extemporaneous talk should no text be ready. I didnt realize I wasnt supposed to be here. And I got out of there. 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. I didnt even realize it was swollen. An estimated 250,000 mourners line up to pay their respects. Then, in just a couple of seconds more, there was a second shot, then everybodyseemed to realize something was wrong then because Kennedy had by then already fallen over on Jackies shoulder. I have no recollection of the press in front of me. Hersey proposed doing a PT-109 story for Life magazine. Im just kind of likewhat a stupid thing to throw firecrackers, and as they came downthe last shot that we heard was right in front of us and it was like the same soundfar off and to the leftbut I saw his head open up.So, of course, by this time I knew it wasnt firecrackers. The tremendous impact had thrown Kennedy into the cockpit where he landed on his bad back. Malcolm Kilduff: Now, in removing the casket on the forklift at Andrews Air Force Base, one of the handles got broken. We had representatives of the labor unions as well as of the professions and the large businesses. I never saw that picture in my life.. After the Hersey story came out, a friend congratulated him and called the article a lucky break. Its three huge Packard motors needed a complete overhaul. It was an old Cadillac where they had put running boards on the sides so that they could stand. The boat was a wreck. The wrong kind of demonstration at the wrong time will give those fellows [on the Hill] a chance to say that they have to prove their courage by voting against us. And Im just walking right on by him, getting away from him.My eyes are on the car. And wed go look at this place, and wed go look at that place. And if I wrapped the thing up, its likely to mess up the powder or prints that are on there. (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.) It was speed or nothing. I told them I was waiting for Mrs. Kennedy and for the presidents body to be placed on the plane, and would not return prior to that time. I sat down to make out a report at one of the desksand thats when Inspector Putman came over and advised me that there was something wrong with my right ankle, and I looked down and it was swollen. COFFIN BEARING JFK ARRIVES AT BETHESDA NAVAL HOSPITAL 5:25 P.M. (6:25 P.M. EST). It was too small to do anything with, there was no print there. Letter From MHQ, Spring 2011. 3 John F. Kennedy (far right) with his men, during World War II. OSWALD MEETS THE PRESS 12 MIDNIGHT The 29th Division in World War II In World War II, the 29th Infantry Division played a decisive role again when it successfully assaulted Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944, as part of the greatest amphibious invasion in history. A lot of you men have families and some of you have children. After six long days, their skipper came through and they were going home. Mrs. Kennedy came and stood with us during the moments that the oath was being administered. The 116th Infantry landed in the first wave at 0630 hours on the western half of the beach and met unexpectedly fierce resistance from German troops entrenched on the coastal bluffs. Bulkeley was a freshly minted national hero. I lost my footing, and I had to run about three or four more steps before I could get back up in the car. And everybody agreed: Oh yeah, no questions. I was there on that balcony at the Trade Mart, waiting for the president to come there to the luncheon. They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice. Therefore, this is the right message. One of the floor men who was up on the balcony there with me said, They want to talk to you in the truck.One of the engineers in the truck said: Hey, somethings happened. At some point, one of his torpedo tubes caught fire, illuminating his boat as a target. After receiving the sympathy of presidents, ministers and monarchs, Jacqueline Kennedy looking forward, not back hosts a birthday celebration later that evening for her son John, turning 3 years old that day. After we got the pictures taken, I reached down and picked the rifle up. On the open pastures surrounding Mnchen-Gladbach, Gerhardt ordered several parades to honor those 29th Division units that had gained the highly prized Distinguished Unit Citation during combat in Normandy: the 115th, 116th, and 175th Infantry, along with the 121st Engineer Combat Battalion. I got in the backseat with her and Bill drove, and I tried to talk to her and interviewed herbut she seemed to express no curiosity or interest in the president being shot. Nellie Connally: Then I dont know how soon, it seems to me it was very soon, that I heard a noise, and not being an expert rifleman, I was not aware that it was a rifle. Lieutenant Day: We were working on the fingerprints and so forth of the area where the shooting occurred. I yelled to the agents, Go get us two stretchers on wheels. I turned right around to the back door and opened it. I knew the back of his head was blown out, andI felt like she shouldnt be getting her hands under there because there wouldnt be nothing but blood.When I motioned to [a Secret Service man]about Mrs. Kennedy, he pushed her hands down and then told Mrs. Lincoln, I believe who was the secretary of the presidentYou take care of her. I photographed Marina, the kids and Oswalds mother in a group. The vice-presidential car was then about three car lengths behind President Kennedys car, with the presidential follow-up car intervening. Moreover, Kennedy feared that as many as 30 Southern cities might explode in violence during the summer. 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. Fellow PT skipper Ensign George Ross with his boat out of commission joined Kennedy aboard the 109. First, while recognizing this doesnt have anything to do with what we have been talking about, he urged the organizers to exercise their substantial influence in the Negro community by putting an emphasis, which I think the Jewish community has done, on educating their children, on making them study, making them stay in school and all the rest. The looks of uncertainty, if not disbelief, on the faces of the civil rights leaders, toward a proposal that, at best, would take a generation to implement, moved Kennedy to follow on with a practical explanation for restraint in dealing with Congress. I thought of Sarah Hughes, an old friend who is judge of the U.S. District Court in Dallas. Finally they had found shade, food with the coconut meat and hydration with the coconut milk. Witness Helen Markham describes the shooting, and Warren Reynolds and Detective Paul Bentley recall the pursuit of the suspect. After these initial observations we opened his shirt, coat, listened very briefly to his chest, heard a few sounds, which we felt to be heartbeats, and then proceeded with the remainder of the examination. Deputy Mooney: By that time there was a number of officers up there.And we were searching, trying to find the weapon at that time. During World War II, the 29th Infantry Division suffered 3,720 killed in action, 15,403 wounded in action, 462 missing in action, 526 prisoners of war, and 8,665 non-combat casualties, for a total of 28,776 casualties during 242 days of combat. Aside from a 17-year hiatus between 1968 and 1985, the 29th Division has existed continuously since 1917 as a component of the National Guard. The exhausted 29th Division called off its offensive on December 8. After V-E Day, the 29th Division garrisoned the German port of Bremen, the point from which thousands of American troops eventually returned to the States. Unclear motives and a virtual labyrinth of peculiar circumstances, coincidences and seemingly inexplicable actions leave even the most rational inquisitor much room for speculation. I picked it up by the leather strap. McMahon was almost helpless. 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. Airbrushed from this PR confection was Lieutenant Kennedys reaction to the accident. Ive learned to duck, he wrote, and have learned the wisdom of the old naval doctrine of keeping your bowels open and your mouth shut, and never volunteering.. Kennedy responded, We want success in the Congress, not a big show at the Capitol. He acknowledged that civil rights demonstrations had pushed the administration and Congress into consideration of a major reform bill but said, now we are in a new phase, the legislative phase, and results are essential. Item #29divfrosted. His eyes were open, pupils were seen to be dilated and later were seen not to react to light. Work crews dismantled the torpedo tubes and screwed armor plating to the hulls. For me, it is a deep personal tragedy. Jim Wright: As we turned, heading westwe looked and saw pandemonium in the cars and Jacqueline Kennedy on her knees in the back seat, looking out behind, and we couldnt imagine what was happening. We were both sitting on the back of the convertible as we got to the canyon of the big buildings downtown. Connally, and he was sort of crouched down and holding himself. Would you carry us to WFAA? We jumped in this strangers car and went to WFAA. He called out into the darkness and could hear 5 other members of his crew somewhere in the darkness of the now quiet sea. 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. This would be a post-World War II event that could plunge the global climate into a nuclear winter and kill millions. May 29, 1917. When we got to the Dallas Police Station, this tale became even stranger. Mrs. Johnson went back to be with her. Detective Bentley: I was assigned to the corner of Main and Harwood, and I was at that particular location when the presidential parade passed and made a right turn onto Main. It was the first of several trips that Kennedy made into Ferguson Passage to find help. Such missions took a toll on Jacks weakened body. He also kept and had preserved the coconut shell with his inscrption "NAURO ISLCOMMANDERNATIVE KNOWS POS'ITHE CAN PILOT11 ALIVENEED SMALL BOATKENNEDY" Years later when he was asked how he had become a hero, John F. Kennedy replied casually by saying it was involuntary, they sank my boat. Kennedy attempt to steer his boat into a firing position but before he could react, the massive destroyer slammed broadside into the much smaller wooden boat cutting the. I noticed a police car coming. You better go to work.by the time I got to the First National Bank building where we parkedand just as I parked my carit came over my car that the president was dead. And just being down in the car with his head in my lap. No voluntary movements, only the spasmodic respirations. Kennedy and his crew roared in with guns blazing long enough to provide suppressing fire as the Marines made their way to the 59. Older brother Joe joined the Navy and was training to be a pilot. [On the second floor] I saw the officer almost directly in the doorway of the lunchroom facing Lee Harvey Oswald. Then the officers gathered around there had piled on him and pushed him to the ground. Jacqueline Kennedy: You know, there is always noise in a motorcade, and there are always motorcycles beside us, a lot of them backfiring. In the hallway we had some 200 news reporters and cameramen with big cameras and little cameras and cables running on the floors to where we could hardly get in and out of the officeand each time we went through that hallway to and from the jail we had to pull him through all those people, and they, of course, would holler at him and say things to him,and I dont think that helped at all in questioning him. The attorney general said that he would like to look into the matter of whether the oath of office as president should be administered to me immediately or after we returned to Washington, and that he would call back. He had already been covered up with a sheet at that timehis right foot was sticking out from underneath the sheet.And as she passed by, she kind of, almost as an afterthought, she leaned over and kissed his foot, and then she walked out of the room. He also put a stop to his fathers efforts to bring him home. CBS Radio reporter Ike Pappas recalls speaking with Ruby. At 2 a.m. Kennedy noted a vague silhouette of vessel approaching in the darkness. His search provided little and he returned to his crew. Navy and Maine Corps Medal I knew I had something, I figured it might be of some helpI didnt know what. Worried about an all-black demonstration, which would encourage assertions that whites had no serious interest in a comprehensive reform law, Kennedy asked Walter Reuther, head of the United Automobile Workers, to arrange substantial white participation by church and labor union members. Jerry Haynes [WFAA reporter] and another gentlemancame running over to us, and we had stood up by this time. All of the dignitaries in the city were going to be on hand for the speech. Kennedy, possibly doubtful of the Mark 8 and Mark 14 torpedoes abysmal performance decided to discard her torpedo tubes and convert her into purely a gunboat. I helpedtake the stretcher that he was on into the emergency room. 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