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The Saga Continues....
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CHAPTER TWO - Lancer, Angus, Volunteer Down
Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Treasury Secretary Douglas Dillon, Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, Labor Secretary W.W. Wirtz, Secretary of the Commerce Luther Hodges, and Secretary of the Agriculture Orville Freeman as well as other administration officials like White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger are on a Boeing 707 used for the Tokyo trip was Aircraft 86972, one of the presidential jets. Each of these planes had a White House code book for radio transmissions to and from Crown (the code name for the White House). Rusk was curious about one radio message, relayed by Salinger, from someone code-named Stranger, on the question of whether to proceed to Dallas or Washington. For about five minutes they searched for the plane's White House code book, but it was not to be found. "We have to know who Stranger is," Rusk said, as they didn't know at that point what was happening in Dallas or who the government was. The decision was made to break the code procedure and find out the identity of Stranger. It turned out to be Major Harold R. Patterson of the White House Communications Agency, an officer whom Salinger knew well.
Patterson looked at Rusk and said, "What do you say, Mr. Secretary?"
Rusk said, "Let's turn back for D.C. With the President and Vice President incapacitated, our government currently rests in the hands of two tottering octogenarians!" Rusk was referring to Speaker of the House John W. McCormack (D-MA.) and President Pro Tempore Carl Hayden (D-AZ.). Rusk was known to neither like nor be liked by either man.
McCormack, Hayden, along with U.S. Congressmen Carl Albert (D-OK.), Carl Vinson (D-GA.), and U.S. Senators Olin D. Johnston (D-S.C.) were entertaining newly appointed U.S. Senator Nancy Kefauver (D-TN) who had been appointed to succeed her late husband, Estes Kefauver, the corruption muckracker who had passed away of a ruptured aortic aneurysm. Governor Frank G. Clement (D-TN) wanted to appoint a placeholder and was going to appoint an ally so he could run for the seat. However, President Kennedy who initially planned to name her as the first head of the Art in Embassies Program. Instead Kennedy leaned on Clement to appoint Kefauver to the vacant Senate seat and appointed former New York First Lady, Mary Norton Harriman, wife of Kennedy's Ambassador to South Vietnam, former Governor Averell Harriman (D-NY). Kennedy felt the Scottish-born and bred Mrs. Kefauver would be more pliable to the New Frontier's goals then one of Clement's hacks. Privately, those close to Kennedy say he never forgave Clement for double crossing him and seeking the 1956 Vice Presidential Democratic nomination when Kennedy and Kefauver battled, so spectacularly. Dr. Martin Sweig, an administrative aide and Edmund Fitzgerald, the administrative assistant to the House, had joined them for lunch.
Suddenly, Secret Service Agents appeared in the House Cafeteria. An aide slipped McCormack a note that until the condition of the President and Vice President were determined, he was the de facto head of government. The frail Senator Hayden was his second in command. He was told the Cabinet was racing back to Andrews AFB. The agents suggested the entire group come with them to a secure location.
"My God, My God, what are we coming to," McCormack exclaimed. Nancy Kefauver sobbed suddenly into a lace handkerchief sobbing, "Keef...Keef...oh I need you so." Meanwhile Vinson chomped on an unlit cigar and said, "Olin, it almost feels like the day we heard about that dark day in Warm Springs." Johnston nodded his head saying, "I feel inadequate to comment on how I feel at this moment for myself and for our nation."
Meanwhile in Dallas it was sheer chaos.
The Presidential limousine screeched to a halt under the awning. Followed closely behind by the Vice President's convertible. The President, maybe due to loss of blood, had collapsed into his wife lap. Governor Connally had been lifted up and onto a stretcher and raced into the Trauma Room # 2. Mrs. Kennedy sat there trembling and looking down at the President's bloodied but still breathing body. Suddenly, she was stirred simultaneously by the words of Agent Hill saying, "Mrs. Kennedy....Mrs. Kennedy we need to get the President inside!" The urgency of his words were broken by the sudden flash of a second gurney rushing by. Mrs. Kennedy saw Lady Bird and heard her say, "Hang on Lyndon," and it broke her from her haze. "Get him inside now, Clint." said the First Lady suddenly firmly and with a strong voice. The President was lifted onto a stretcher and wheeled inside with the First Lady in tow.
As they were wheeling the President in, Agent Hill saw Agent Youngblood and said, "Rufus, what happened to Volunteer?" Youngblood looked shell shocked and said, "One minute he was talking and the next minute he turned blue in the face." He murmured something and I repositioned. It was when Mrs. Johnson screamed I knew something was wrong with the Vice President!" Agent Youngblood had broken protocol by not using the Secret Service codenames but in the moment it didn't matter. "When we got him out of the car, he wasn't breathing," said Youngblood trailing off.
"What are you saying, Rufus?"
"I'm saying he wasn't breathing, Clint!"
Julian Read, the Press Secretary to the Governor of Texas, joined by Governor Connally's son by his side, who was an aide to Read stepped up in a makeshift room to make an initial statement to the press.
As reporters were yelling questions, Read began his statement by saying, "At this time, President Kennedy and Governor Connally have sustained wounds from what we believe to be an attempted assassination...." As Read read the statement, the images come flooding back: the crowds lining the street; people hanging out of windows to catch a glimpse of the president and his wife; and then, as they drove past the School Book Depository, the pop, pop, pop of the rifle discharging from a sixth-floor window. Read continued on, "The first shot rang out and [Mrs Connally] feels quite sure it did hit the President. Governor Connally turned immediately to see what happened and as he turned he was struck. The President, according to Mrs Connally, tried to lean down but slumped and Mrs Kennedy grabbed him. A moment later Governor Connally slumped and Mrs Connally grabbed him."
Earlier, Read had arrived from the Trade Mart. When the bullets struck the motorcade he first thought it was a motorbike misfiring until he saw people rushing about on either side of the road, and a police motorcycle "scurrying up the grassy knoll". The presidential car disappeared and Read says he wasn't sure what had happened. "Everybody on the bus was asking what was going on." They pulled up to the Trade Mart but didn't see the Presidential car. Merriam Smith of the wire service United Press International [UPI] broke the news that the President and Governor Connally had been shot and potentially Vice President Johnson by commandeering a phone from a staff member in the press pool car. Sent through at 12.39pm, it read: "Dallas, Nov. 22 (UPI) -Three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas." "But," Read says in his book, "[Smith's] initial report carried no detail of the seriousness of the injuries." When they arrived at Trade Mart, the reporters that had been travelling in the bus with Read descended on a bank of phones in the lobby. Read ran to the head table to talk to Erik Jonsson, founder of Texas Instruments, who was hosting the meal and who would later become the city's mayor. As he did so, he passed tables of guests, dressed in their business attire.
Read felt it was the eeriest, eeriest feeling, running into that room and hearing the anticipatory murmur of a crowd waiting for something to happen. He ran up to Erik and said I didn't know for sure but that we thought something had happened to the president - that he may have been shot. He was standing on the podium and he just stared down at me. It could have only been three or four seconds but it seemed like forever. And Jonsson said, 'I think we'll wait a few minutes.' I found out later that after I'd left he turned to the minister who was there to give an invocation and asked him to say a prayer. Read says the murmurs turned to whispers. Some people began crying as the news spread. Others, helpless, milled around. As he walked out of the room, Read noticed a waiter picking up the empty plate from the table where the president was to sit, and with a napkin, he wiped away a tear.
Read saw a friend in her car outside theTrade Mart building and asked her for a ride to Parkland Hospital which housed the nearest emergency room. He was surprised to find a back door to the hospital was unlocked. Read collared a nurse and asked her to take him to Gov Connally. That's when he found Nellie Connally sitting in the hallway outside the trauma room, her head in her hands. Just a few feet away from her sat Jackie Kennedy. Next to her was Lady Bird Johnson, tapping her feet, and staring down the hallways. Read says none of the women were speaking. Read could not overcome the unreal scene of the three wives, absolutely alone in the dark corridor, silently awaiting the fates of their husbands. Nellie and Read stood up and walked down the corridor, so they could talk quietly. She told him that she didn't think Lyndon Johnson would make it.
"Was he shot too," exclaimed Read.
Nellie bit her lip as she caught a glance of Lady Bird.
"No I think it's his heart. I think poor Lyndon heard those shots and in someway, in his state, in a trip he long fought for, his poor old heart just gave out," said Connally.
Then, Read and Nellie drew a rough sketch of the seating arrangement in the limousine. She looked away as she described the sickening experience of feeling blood splattering and sprinkle the interior of the limousine following the final shot at the President. He was also well aware that the press pack would descend on the hospital imminently and start asking questions.
Suddenly, Read was jarred back to reality when a reporter asked Read about the Vice President's condition. At that point, the Assistant White House Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff walked into the room. Read stepped back as Kilduff stepped up and read a statement.
"President Kennedy has sustained serious wounds from an attempted assassination. One of the most serious wounds is to the President's subclavian artery as well as suffering a wound to the neck, fractured collarbone, a cracked rib, and a bruised lung. As Governor Connally's wounds go, a bullet entered the back of the Governor's chest to the left of his right armpit. This bullet struck the fifth rib and shattered it, actually stripping away about 10 cm. of bone starting immediately below the armpit. The right lung was severely lacerated. The bullet exited from the anterior chest, causing a large sucking wound about 5 cm. in diameter just below the right nipple. There was an atypical entrance wound on the dorsal (back of the hand) side of the Governor's wrist and an atypical exit wound on the volar (palm) side. The radius (wrist bone) had been broken into about seven or eight pieces from the passage of the bullet. There was a 1 cm. puncture wound located on the Governor's left thigh some five to six inches above the knee. X rays revealed a small metallic fragment embedded in the left thigh bone, the femur...." Kilduff then steeled himself for the next words he had to speak. "At approximately 1:00 PM, CST, Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson died of an apparent coronary thrombosis. That's all the news I have to report at this time."
The shock was like a stun grenade going off and for a brief second, there was a moment of silence, and Read felt a tear form in his eye. Read went immediately to where he had seen the women before. Both were gathered around Lady Bird Johnson, sitting stunned in a white coat and matching hat, "Lyndon dead....it can't be. Lyndon oh not Lyndon." Meanwhile, Mrs. Kennedy held Mrs. Johnson's hand and said softly, "I can't imagine something worse," even though deep down she knew losing her husband would be more traumatic. Mrs. Connally who worried about her own husband half hugged Mrs. Johnson who was a fellow friend of many years. "We all loved him Bird. He was just Texas through and through," said Mrs. Connally.
As Mrs. Connally consoled her friend, Mrs. Kennedy stepped to the side and wrote something hastily. On it she wrote, "My thoughts have been with you constantly since being told the full truth today," it read. "I am overwhelmed beyond words. Jack and I grieve for you and your daughters and pray that God will sustain you and give all of us the courage and wisdom we need in this dark hour in our nation's history." Kennedy said to Read, "Give this to Mrs. Johnson at some point. Maybe it will give her some comfort." At that point, an aide came to gather Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. Connally to take them to another room. As they walked away they heard sad shrieks as Mrs. Johnson began to wail. All of a sudden, she recovered, jumped up and started walking away. "I must go get the girls. I don't want them to hear it from anyone else other than me." And with that, surrounded by Secret Service Agents, Mrs. Johnson departed the hospital.
She paused only slightly when she saw a hearse draw up from Oneal Funeral Home. Lady Bird paused and thought, "What will I do?"
END OF CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER TWO - Lancer, Angus, Volunteer Down
Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Treasury Secretary Douglas Dillon, Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, Labor Secretary W.W. Wirtz, Secretary of the Commerce Luther Hodges, and Secretary of the Agriculture Orville Freeman as well as other administration officials like White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger are on a Boeing 707 used for the Tokyo trip was Aircraft 86972, one of the presidential jets. Each of these planes had a White House code book for radio transmissions to and from Crown (the code name for the White House). Rusk was curious about one radio message, relayed by Salinger, from someone code-named Stranger, on the question of whether to proceed to Dallas or Washington. For about five minutes they searched for the plane's White House code book, but it was not to be found. "We have to know who Stranger is," Rusk said, as they didn't know at that point what was happening in Dallas or who the government was. The decision was made to break the code procedure and find out the identity of Stranger. It turned out to be Major Harold R. Patterson of the White House Communications Agency, an officer whom Salinger knew well.
Patterson looked at Rusk and said, "What do you say, Mr. Secretary?"
Rusk said, "Let's turn back for D.C. With the President and Vice President incapacitated, our government currently rests in the hands of two tottering octogenarians!" Rusk was referring to Speaker of the House John W. McCormack (D-MA.) and President Pro Tempore Carl Hayden (D-AZ.). Rusk was known to neither like nor be liked by either man.
McCormack, Hayden, along with U.S. Congressmen Carl Albert (D-OK.), Carl Vinson (D-GA.), and U.S. Senators Olin D. Johnston (D-S.C.) were entertaining newly appointed U.S. Senator Nancy Kefauver (D-TN) who had been appointed to succeed her late husband, Estes Kefauver, the corruption muckracker who had passed away of a ruptured aortic aneurysm. Governor Frank G. Clement (D-TN) wanted to appoint a placeholder and was going to appoint an ally so he could run for the seat. However, President Kennedy who initially planned to name her as the first head of the Art in Embassies Program. Instead Kennedy leaned on Clement to appoint Kefauver to the vacant Senate seat and appointed former New York First Lady, Mary Norton Harriman, wife of Kennedy's Ambassador to South Vietnam, former Governor Averell Harriman (D-NY). Kennedy felt the Scottish-born and bred Mrs. Kefauver would be more pliable to the New Frontier's goals then one of Clement's hacks. Privately, those close to Kennedy say he never forgave Clement for double crossing him and seeking the 1956 Vice Presidential Democratic nomination when Kennedy and Kefauver battled, so spectacularly. Dr. Martin Sweig, an administrative aide and Edmund Fitzgerald, the administrative assistant to the House, had joined them for lunch.
Suddenly, Secret Service Agents appeared in the House Cafeteria. An aide slipped McCormack a note that until the condition of the President and Vice President were determined, he was the de facto head of government. The frail Senator Hayden was his second in command. He was told the Cabinet was racing back to Andrews AFB. The agents suggested the entire group come with them to a secure location.
"My God, My God, what are we coming to," McCormack exclaimed. Nancy Kefauver sobbed suddenly into a lace handkerchief sobbing, "Keef...Keef...oh I need you so." Meanwhile Vinson chomped on an unlit cigar and said, "Olin, it almost feels like the day we heard about that dark day in Warm Springs." Johnston nodded his head saying, "I feel inadequate to comment on how I feel at this moment for myself and for our nation."
Meanwhile in Dallas it was sheer chaos.
The Presidential limousine screeched to a halt under the awning. Followed closely behind by the Vice President's convertible. The President, maybe due to loss of blood, had collapsed into his wife lap. Governor Connally had been lifted up and onto a stretcher and raced into the Trauma Room # 2. Mrs. Kennedy sat there trembling and looking down at the President's bloodied but still breathing body. Suddenly, she was stirred simultaneously by the words of Agent Hill saying, "Mrs. Kennedy....Mrs. Kennedy we need to get the President inside!" The urgency of his words were broken by the sudden flash of a second gurney rushing by. Mrs. Kennedy saw Lady Bird and heard her say, "Hang on Lyndon," and it broke her from her haze. "Get him inside now, Clint." said the First Lady suddenly firmly and with a strong voice. The President was lifted onto a stretcher and wheeled inside with the First Lady in tow.
As they were wheeling the President in, Agent Hill saw Agent Youngblood and said, "Rufus, what happened to Volunteer?" Youngblood looked shell shocked and said, "One minute he was talking and the next minute he turned blue in the face." He murmured something and I repositioned. It was when Mrs. Johnson screamed I knew something was wrong with the Vice President!" Agent Youngblood had broken protocol by not using the Secret Service codenames but in the moment it didn't matter. "When we got him out of the car, he wasn't breathing," said Youngblood trailing off.
"What are you saying, Rufus?"
"I'm saying he wasn't breathing, Clint!"
Julian Read, the Press Secretary to the Governor of Texas, joined by Governor Connally's son by his side, who was an aide to Read stepped up in a makeshift room to make an initial statement to the press.
As reporters were yelling questions, Read began his statement by saying, "At this time, President Kennedy and Governor Connally have sustained wounds from what we believe to be an attempted assassination...." As Read read the statement, the images come flooding back: the crowds lining the street; people hanging out of windows to catch a glimpse of the president and his wife; and then, as they drove past the School Book Depository, the pop, pop, pop of the rifle discharging from a sixth-floor window. Read continued on, "The first shot rang out and [Mrs Connally] feels quite sure it did hit the President. Governor Connally turned immediately to see what happened and as he turned he was struck. The President, according to Mrs Connally, tried to lean down but slumped and Mrs Kennedy grabbed him. A moment later Governor Connally slumped and Mrs Connally grabbed him."
Earlier, Read had arrived from the Trade Mart. When the bullets struck the motorcade he first thought it was a motorbike misfiring until he saw people rushing about on either side of the road, and a police motorcycle "scurrying up the grassy knoll". The presidential car disappeared and Read says he wasn't sure what had happened. "Everybody on the bus was asking what was going on." They pulled up to the Trade Mart but didn't see the Presidential car. Merriam Smith of the wire service United Press International [UPI] broke the news that the President and Governor Connally had been shot and potentially Vice President Johnson by commandeering a phone from a staff member in the press pool car. Sent through at 12.39pm, it read: "Dallas, Nov. 22 (UPI) -Three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas." "But," Read says in his book, "[Smith's] initial report carried no detail of the seriousness of the injuries." When they arrived at Trade Mart, the reporters that had been travelling in the bus with Read descended on a bank of phones in the lobby. Read ran to the head table to talk to Erik Jonsson, founder of Texas Instruments, who was hosting the meal and who would later become the city's mayor. As he did so, he passed tables of guests, dressed in their business attire.
Read felt it was the eeriest, eeriest feeling, running into that room and hearing the anticipatory murmur of a crowd waiting for something to happen. He ran up to Erik and said I didn't know for sure but that we thought something had happened to the president - that he may have been shot. He was standing on the podium and he just stared down at me. It could have only been three or four seconds but it seemed like forever. And Jonsson said, 'I think we'll wait a few minutes.' I found out later that after I'd left he turned to the minister who was there to give an invocation and asked him to say a prayer. Read says the murmurs turned to whispers. Some people began crying as the news spread. Others, helpless, milled around. As he walked out of the room, Read noticed a waiter picking up the empty plate from the table where the president was to sit, and with a napkin, he wiped away a tear.
Read saw a friend in her car outside theTrade Mart building and asked her for a ride to Parkland Hospital which housed the nearest emergency room. He was surprised to find a back door to the hospital was unlocked. Read collared a nurse and asked her to take him to Gov Connally. That's when he found Nellie Connally sitting in the hallway outside the trauma room, her head in her hands. Just a few feet away from her sat Jackie Kennedy. Next to her was Lady Bird Johnson, tapping her feet, and staring down the hallways. Read says none of the women were speaking. Read could not overcome the unreal scene of the three wives, absolutely alone in the dark corridor, silently awaiting the fates of their husbands. Nellie and Read stood up and walked down the corridor, so they could talk quietly. She told him that she didn't think Lyndon Johnson would make it.
"Was he shot too," exclaimed Read.
Nellie bit her lip as she caught a glance of Lady Bird.
"No I think it's his heart. I think poor Lyndon heard those shots and in someway, in his state, in a trip he long fought for, his poor old heart just gave out," said Connally.
Then, Read and Nellie drew a rough sketch of the seating arrangement in the limousine. She looked away as she described the sickening experience of feeling blood splattering and sprinkle the interior of the limousine following the final shot at the President. He was also well aware that the press pack would descend on the hospital imminently and start asking questions.
Suddenly, Read was jarred back to reality when a reporter asked Read about the Vice President's condition. At that point, the Assistant White House Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff walked into the room. Read stepped back as Kilduff stepped up and read a statement.
"President Kennedy has sustained serious wounds from an attempted assassination. One of the most serious wounds is to the President's subclavian artery as well as suffering a wound to the neck, fractured collarbone, a cracked rib, and a bruised lung. As Governor Connally's wounds go, a bullet entered the back of the Governor's chest to the left of his right armpit. This bullet struck the fifth rib and shattered it, actually stripping away about 10 cm. of bone starting immediately below the armpit. The right lung was severely lacerated. The bullet exited from the anterior chest, causing a large sucking wound about 5 cm. in diameter just below the right nipple. There was an atypical entrance wound on the dorsal (back of the hand) side of the Governor's wrist and an atypical exit wound on the volar (palm) side. The radius (wrist bone) had been broken into about seven or eight pieces from the passage of the bullet. There was a 1 cm. puncture wound located on the Governor's left thigh some five to six inches above the knee. X rays revealed a small metallic fragment embedded in the left thigh bone, the femur...." Kilduff then steeled himself for the next words he had to speak. "At approximately 1:00 PM, CST, Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson died of an apparent coronary thrombosis. That's all the news I have to report at this time."
The shock was like a stun grenade going off and for a brief second, there was a moment of silence, and Read felt a tear form in his eye. Read went immediately to where he had seen the women before. Both were gathered around Lady Bird Johnson, sitting stunned in a white coat and matching hat, "Lyndon dead....it can't be. Lyndon oh not Lyndon." Meanwhile, Mrs. Kennedy held Mrs. Johnson's hand and said softly, "I can't imagine something worse," even though deep down she knew losing her husband would be more traumatic. Mrs. Connally who worried about her own husband half hugged Mrs. Johnson who was a fellow friend of many years. "We all loved him Bird. He was just Texas through and through," said Mrs. Connally.
As Mrs. Connally consoled her friend, Mrs. Kennedy stepped to the side and wrote something hastily. On it she wrote, "My thoughts have been with you constantly since being told the full truth today," it read. "I am overwhelmed beyond words. Jack and I grieve for you and your daughters and pray that God will sustain you and give all of us the courage and wisdom we need in this dark hour in our nation's history." Kennedy said to Read, "Give this to Mrs. Johnson at some point. Maybe it will give her some comfort." At that point, an aide came to gather Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. Connally to take them to another room. As they walked away they heard sad shrieks as Mrs. Johnson began to wail. All of a sudden, she recovered, jumped up and started walking away. "I must go get the girls. I don't want them to hear it from anyone else other than me." And with that, surrounded by Secret Service Agents, Mrs. Johnson departed the hospital.
She paused only slightly when she saw a hearse draw up from Oneal Funeral Home. Lady Bird paused and thought, "What will I do?"
END OF CHAPTER TWO
- DCPritt
- Word Count: 2.4k