Where were you 50 years ago when JFK was shot

Wow, LaMedicine. Those are still something.

It was afternoon and I was in the 9th Ordnance barracks at the US Army Ammunition Depot, Miesau, Germany. It was the largest ammo depot in Europe and I was in a nuclear weapons company. I was shining shoes getting ready to enjoy the rest of my 3 day pass and one of the guys was running down the hall shouting "Kennedy's been shot...!" Then he ran into every room shouting the same thing. Everybody ran to turn on the radios and get AFN. We were all hovering around the radios listening to this unusually somber music and every now and then the announcer would come on and say, "The President has been shot in Dallas" and we were all looking at each other. Holy s...! The Russians? Gulp! What the hell? People began milling around in the halls and downstairs in the lobby. Eventually the announcer came on and said in a very somber voice, "The President is dead." Uh-oh. Now what do we do? Surprisingly their was no immediate call to arms, everything was very calm and orderly. Trucks were sent out to collect all the officers and troops living with their families in civilian quarters and the main gates to the post were closed. Some guys were traumatized, there were some guys that were crying. We were all concerned we might be going to war the next morning and never see home again.

Nothing formal happened until morning assembly the next morning, Saturday, and the company was informed that all leave and passes were cancelled and the post would remain closed until further notice. By Monday morning I think they were permitting German workers to come back on post and everyone began to breathe easier.

One of the most memorable things about it was the Germans were shocked. Absolutely shocked. They loved Kennedy and shops, homes, and stores began displaying photos of Kennedy in their windows with black bands and shrouds over the pictures or doorways. I believe you can still find some places still displaying these things in Germany.

CaramelSmoothie,

Well you know how it is. The people who warned him that it was a bad idea probably were working class Joe Schmoes whose opinions didn't matter. Working in corporate America I've learned that a lot of powerful people are dead set on doing things their way or nothing else.

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Its called gethereitis and every student pilot (he was a new pilot) is very seriously counselled about it and the hazards of such behavior. It has led to the end for many a pilot. From Wikipedia:

"Kennedy never received a weather briefing or filed a flight plan with any Flight Service Station. Except for the take-off portion of his flight, Kennedy did not contact any air traffic controllers; during the flight, he never requested help or declared an emergency.[4] Under the conditions of his flight, Kennedy was not required to file a flight plan, and although he did not, no one knew his exact route or expected time of his arrival. According to the Weather Service International, Kennedy made two weather requests before taking off. The information he was provided indicated that visibility ranged from 10 miles along his route to four miles at Martha's Vineyard."

This assessment proves, unfortunately, that young JFK Jr. demonstrated egregiously poor judgement.

Edward,

Is the riderless horse a funeral tradition, or was that unique to Kennedy?]

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You may not be familiar with Joseph Campbell but he is an American icon of myth, religion, and culture. In one of his many books he goes into considerable discussion about Kennedy's riderless horse. Mind you, Campbell was a leader in new age philosophy and is considered the grandfather of the Star Wars creation. In his discussion of the riderless horse, he explains that when we are faced with the death of someone close, we have a funeral for us to bring closure to that persons existence and our association with them. The funeral is not for the dead, the funeral is for us and our wellbeing. Campbell asserts it was absolutely essential for the riderless horse to be in the funeral procession for us to make a connection to our loss and bring finality to it. Kennedy was truly loved and revered by a great many people and it was critical for us to make a connection with what had happened. Sorry, I can't remember which of his books this was in.

Foxer55, thanks for that description of how you remember JFK's murder, from an active-duty serviceman's experience.

Widebrim said:

Foxer55, thanks for that description of how you remember JFK's murder, from an active-duty serviceman's experience.

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My dad was not active duty at the time of the assassination, but had recently been discharged. He doesn't have any memorable stories of that day, but has others during Kennedy's days as President. He was in the 101st Airborne and has a great Bay of Pigs story, plus stories of being active duty during the Cuban missile crisis. In short, most people didn't, and don't, realize just how close we were to war.

Like some others neither I, nor my parents, had been born yet. This thread has been so fascinating to read though! It makes me really sad that we really are slowly losing these links to the past. I can't believe that I didn't pester my great grandmother, aka the woman who raised me, more about her childhood and life while she was still lucid.

Foxer55 said:

One of the most memorable things about it was the Germans were shocked. Absolutely shocked. They loved Kennedy and shops, homes, and stores began displaying photos of Kennedy in their windows with black bands and shrouds over the pictures or doorways. I believe you can still find some places still displaying these things in Germany.

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I'm from Massachusetts and there are ordinary people here named Kennedy who aren't Those Kennedys. One time a co-worker told us that when he was with the Army in Germany he could pull out his Massachusetts driver's license with the Kennedy name in any German bar and he never had to buy drinks.

I was born a few days before the assassination so obviously I don't remember it. And sadly, when people remark that that was when they 'lost their innocence' I never know what they are talking about. How innocent could people have been, after going through McCarthyism, the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the 1963 coup in Vietnam etc. etc.?

HudsonHawk said:

My dad was not active duty at the time of the assassination, but had recently been discharged. He doesn't have any memorable stories of that day, but has others during Kennedy's days as President. He was in the 101st Airborne and has a great Bay of Pigs story, plus stories of being active duty during the Cuban missile crisis. In short, most people didn't, and don't, realize just how close we were to war.

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Those would be interesting to hear, to say the least...

Alice Blue said:

I was born a few days before the assassination so obviously I don't remember it. And sadly, when people remark that that was when they 'lost their innocence' I never know what they are talking about. How innocent could people have been, after going through McCarthyism, the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the 1963 coup in Vietnam etc. etc.?

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To say nothing of the assassination attempt on Truman by a couple of Puerto Rican nationalists in 1950, and Giuseppe Zangara taking a shot at FDR in 1933 (he missed, and killed the Mayor of Chicago instead.)

I think most of the people who lost their innocence in 1963 were kids and very young adults, those who had likely cast their first vote for JFK. Their parents and grandparents had lost their innocence long before, somewhere among two world wars and a depression.

Alice Blue,

I was born a few days before the assassination so obviously I don't remember it. And sadly, when people remark that that was when they 'lost their innocence' I never know what they are talking about. How innocent could people have been, after going through McCarthyism, the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the 1963 coup in Vietnam etc. etc.?

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It is unfortunate that we have had to endure these changes in the world that seem to be taking us backward instead of forward. The world was a fairly messy place prior to WWII but following that, at least in this country, there was an interlude of well deserved self adulation for having won the war and being able to move on to greater things. The war also drove a lot of changes in western culture from the bad - European introspection and defeatism - to the good - an explosion in the scientific fields of endeavor here in the US. The '50s and ''60s and even some of the '70s were a dreamy period of growing financial security and contentment in the US.

Some of the things that stand out in my mind from this period of time was the music of the period was so calm and creative as opposed to much of the music now which is raucous, commercial, and just plain vile. Who could complain about anything the Drifters, Frank Sinatra, the Beachboys, the Beatles, the Ronettes, or what even the Pink Floyd did. The cars of the time were simply elegance and style on wheels, a reflection in my opinion, of the creative genius that was flowing freely. The women were absolutely gorgeous, stylishly dressed in narrow-waisted dresses, high heels, and beautifully coiffed hair. And their demeanor was as pleasant and approachable as their appearance. Myself and my friends in high school were immersed in the ideas of space, space travel, and the coming future of science and knowledge.

Compare that to the future we found and there is no comparison. As I said, it seems as if we have traveled backwards. The world is beset by terrorism, growing populations that cannot manage themselves, increasing numbers of dependent people who don't seem to have any interest in education or personal sacrifice, drugs, drugs, and more drugs, bottom line, profit only businesses and cronyism, decreasing personal freedoms, more and more government driven scams and control schemes, rampant corruption, the space program is lucky to be on life support, but we saw none of this in the future. I think you can see that many posters here are driven to frustration by these backsliding changes to a feudal world and I am sorry that those like yourself missed the really good stuff. There was a lot of optimism for the future and I think we were fairly indoctrinated with it considering what had been seen in WWII. The idea was a lot of the bad stuff was behind us. To quote an old, oldtimer who was interviewed on TV in Central Park in NYC a day or two after 9/11, "When I came home from the war we left the world at peace. Hitler was dead, the Nazis were finished, Tojo was dead and the world was at peace. We left the world at peace. Its your problem now."

Widebrim said:

Those would be interesting to hear, to say the least...

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On the Bay of Pigs...the 101st were over the water, hooked up, waiting for the green light, seconds away from an invasion. Kennedy called if off at literally the last minute

Foxer55, thank you.

vintageTink said:

Foxer55, thank you.

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:arated:

I wasn't around yet, but can share a memory that my grandmother told me the other night. It was mid afternoon and she was listening to the radio in the kitchen while starting to get things ready for dinner. She heard the announcement that the president had been shot. As a fellow Catholic, she said a prayer asking for God to guard him. A few minutes later, the radio announced that the President was dead. She said that she was angry at God for a long time after that.

LizzieMaine said:

To say nothing of the assassination attempt on Truman by a couple of Puerto Rican nationalists in 1950, and Giuseppe Zangara taking a shot at FDR in 1933 (he missed, and killed the Mayor of Chicago instead.)

I think most of the people who lost their innocence in 1963 were kids and very young adults, those who had likely cast their first vote for JFK. Their parents and grandparents had lost their innocence long before, somewhere among two world wars and a depression.

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Was it Art Buchwald who reported a conversation about that time. Someone said "we'll never laugh again" and someone else said "we'll laugh again but we will never be young again".

I was six at the time and my Mother was a great fan of JFK - maybe as much as FDR. I well remember running to get the Kleenex tissues as she sat crying in front of the TV. We were at home watching TV when we heard about the shooting and death.

Being at a time when the 100th anniversary of the Civil war was going on in a big way, I had some idea about what an assassination was.

The family got a hotel room (in Maryland in think) for the funeral. Being so young, standing along the funeral route I recall a lot of legs and the clopping of the horses hooves and especially the shiny wheels of the caisson.

Waiting in line to see the casket was cold and at one point my Dad picked me up and I saw the long winding line of people. It was dark before we made it to the Rotunda.

Still hard to believe it all happened.

John

I was in utero, didn't arrive until December 27th, but my parents were big fans of JFK.

High School lunch room. The announcement came over the school PA. I was a JFK fan and because of him, I joined the Peace Corps. Although in retrospect, he was no different than the current crop... Bay of Pigs and the tribulations of Otto Otepka (Google him) - he was part of my not-so-extended family.

I was six years old and in a small parochial school in rural Michigan. Our teacher, Ms. Perkins, told us that the President had been shot and killed and that our parents were coming to pick us up. Even as young children we understood the seriousness of the event, we were all quiet and somber. My mother (and I'm sure many other people) still has the newspaper announcing the assignation. It was a monumental event for the nation which is why anyone living at that time can tell you excatly where they were when they heard about it.