Upstream | November 22, 2010 | 23 comments

John F. Kennedy's Secret Service Agents Re-Live the Tragic Loss of the President on November 22 1963 | Video

source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/11/22/jfk.anniversary.agents/index.html?hpt=C1

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EthicalVegan
JFK's Secret Service agents reflect on loss of a president
From Dugald McConnell and Brian Todd, CNN
November 22, 2010 2:33 a.m. EST

JFK and the Secret Service

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963
* The Secret Service agents who were in Dallas that day have said little since then
* Some of them are now offering their personal recollections of those tragic moments




Arlington, Virginia (CNN) -- After mostly avoiding the spotlight for decades, many of the former U.S. Secret Service agents who were assigned to protect President John F. Kennedy are now offering their accounts of the day he was assassinated, 47 years ago Monday.

After the first shot hit the president, former agent Clint Hill says, "I saw him grab at his throat and lean to his left. So I jumped and ran." Hill is the man seen running toward the limousine in the famous film of the shooting, captured by a bystander named Abraham Zapruder. Hill jumped onto the back of the presidential car, in a desperate attempt to protect the president.

"Just before I got to the car, the third shot hit him in the head." Hill says."It was too late."

First lady Jackie Kennedy had climbed onto the back hood of the car, but Hill moved her back into her seat, and attempted to shield the two of them from any further bullets, as the car sped to the hospital.

As the president's head lay in her lap, Hill heard Mrs. Kennedy say, "Oh, Jack, what have they done to you?"


We couldn't help, but we felt like we failed. It was a terrible feeling.
--Jerry Blaine, former Secret Service agent



A newly detailed account of the assassination is laid out in the new book "The Kennedy Detail," by former agent Jerry Blaine, written with journalist Lisa McCubbin, based on interviews with many of the agents who covered Kennedy. Former agent Hill, who has rarely granted interviews about the shooting, wrote a foreword.

Blaine and Hill say they are still burdened by the knowledge that they were unable to keep the president safe that day in Dallas, Texas.

"We couldn't help, but we felt like we failed," says Blaine. "It was a terrible feeling."

Hill was commended for the bravery he showed under fire, but even so, he says he holed up for years in his basement with alcohol and cigarettes, feeling guilty that he did not reach the limousine in time to take a bullet for the president.

"I felt that there was something I should have been able to do," he says. "Moved faster, reacted quicker, gotten there just moments quicker, could have made all the difference in the world."

Hill suffered nightmares, but post-traumatic counseling was not yet a common practice. Only with the passing of many years did he gradually recover, telling himself he did the best he could. "You just have to accept it and live with it, the best you can," he says.

Just days before the assassination, Blaine writes, Kennedy chafed at the close proximity of his protective detail. During a motorcade in Tampa, Florida, he asked them not to ride on his limousine.

"Have the Ivy League charlatans drop back to the follow-up car," the president told one of the agents. "We've got an election coming up. The whole point is for me to be accessible to the people."

But Hill and Blaine dismiss the notion that Kennedy's instructions in Tampa jeopardized his security in Dallas. Photos of the motorcade show, regardless of what the president said, Hill was riding on the back of the car during an earlier part of the route.

By the time the motorcade reached the stretch of roadway where the assassination occurred, however, agents could no longer ride on the fenders, Blaine says.

"We were going into a freeway, and that's where you take the speeds up to 60 and 70 miles an hour. So we would not have had any agents there anyway," he said.

Some of the agents see the book as a chance to counter some of the conspiracy theorists who have never accepted that it was Lee Harvey Oswald who shot the president, and that he acted alone.

"There's no question in my mind he was the assassin," Hill says. "I was there. I know what happened."

Blaine reveals for the first time that on the very same day that Kennedy was killed, newly sworn in President Lyndon Johnson was almost shot as well -- accidentally. Just hours after Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force One, Blaine was guarding his home, after going 40 hours without sleep.

"It was about 2:15 in the morning at The Elms, which was Johnson's residence before he became president. I heard all of a sudden a person approaching," Blaine says. He raised his gun and put his finger on the trigger -- only to see Johnson round the corner.

"He turned white, he turned around and walked in, and that was the last that was ever said of it," Blaine says.
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23 comments // John F. Kennedy's Secret Service Agents Re-Live the Tragic Loss of the President on November 22 1963 | Video

  • PressCore
    • +2
      PressCore  

    • http://Current.com

      I was a freshman in high school when they called us out of homeroom,
      brought us to assembly into the gym to tell us that President Kennedy
      had been shot and had died of gunshot wounds. We were all in shock.
      But you can't kill the spiritual message of Peace & Justice by merely killing
      the messenger. Not by killing Abraham Lincoln who carried it. Not by
      killing John Fitzgerald Kennedy who carried it. Not be killing Robert F.
      Kennedy who carried it. Not by killing Martin Luther King who carried it.

      They've likely Enslaved and Murdered a Millions of people in this world
      by one means or another since humans survived the last Ice Age.Many
      of them were enslaved & starved to death in death camps, gassed and
      burned. Many more since the World Wars of the 20th century killed in
      Iraq and Afghanistan. We all know the evil elements are still persecuting
      & oppressing all the messengers of Peace & Justice. We blog those
      stories every day here on Current.com & from the links to the originating
      Newspaper & UTube sources. The elements who killed JFK are rampant.

      But the mortal lives of those great men are like pebbles that sank
      beneath the surface of a clear pond long ago. Their bona fide actions,
      the movements they inspired with their benevolent practices, all sent out
      ripples which are infinite. Because they connected to so many people,
      inspiring us to take up their causes, each of us who contributes somehow
      here on Current.com continues their work. And we have a long way to go.

      So I thought I'd add to the poignant lyrics of the song Dion popularized
      by putting their sacrifices in perspective. None of those 4 men can speak
      to you here and now. But those of us who understand the nature of their
      wisdom in preaching Peace & Justice can speak to you beyond their graves,
      and tell you what they will to be now they're one one with their message:

      " Nothing worth doing to abolish the great evil that vexes us can ever be
      completed inone lifetime. Therefore we are saved by Hope. Nothing we
      can do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone therefore we are
      saved by Love itself. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the p.o.v.
      of either friend or foe, as our own experience, therefore we are saved
      by the final form of Love , which is forgiveness. " Reinholt Niebur

      "What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; All we have done
      for others remains after we are gone and is immortal " Albert Pike

      We all know President Kennedy was a WW2 hero who saved his badly
      burned sailor crew members by carrying them to shore after swimming
      miles in shark infested waters of the South Pacific to save them from
      drowning after their PT boat was cut in half after being rammed by a
      Japanese destroyer in the fog. God favors the brave heros who risk
      their own lives to save others' lives in all arenas of life. Be assured
      JFK's soul lives on in the hall of the valiant as his spirit lives on in us.

    • 2 years ago
  • Incredulous
    • 0
      Incredulous  

    • Politicians...they are all evil....to the core. I hope all their scheming, conniving, sellouts and murdering of each other is worth it, because life really is short, and they're all going to end up dead someday, and they are definitely gonna have some 'splainin' to do!

    • 2 years ago
  • JanforGore
  • EthicalVegan
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • PressCore
  • keithponder
  • PressCore
  • keithponder
  • PressCore
  • GLOBALPOLITICAL
    • +2
      GLOBALPOLITICAL  

    • What this story by the "Corporate Media" Propaganda Prostitutes fails to mention is the fact that the "SECRET SERVICE" was ordered to stand down on the tragic day. The "SECRET SERVICE" failed in their responsibility to protect President John F. Kennedy, the last "real" President, who was getting ready to disband the criminal banking cartel known as the Federal Reserve Bank.

      If you want to learn more about what really happened on November 22, 1963, you might start with watching the recent episode of Conspiracy Theory!

    • 2 years ago
  • im1mjrpain
  • GLOBALPOLITICAL
  • PressCore
    • +8
      PressCore  

    • John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his A.G. brother Robert F. Kennedy were
      the last of their kind in this world, occupying office when the USA still
      had an easy opportunity to rid our nation of the scourge of the NWO
      eliteists, their Bankster mob, and their Trojan Horse, the Federal Reserve.
      Many savvy citizens understand our hero President was Murdered exactly
      because he was brave enough to make a stand against them for us.
      And that they Murdered him & his brother,as they Murdered Martin Luther
      King to intimidate us from following their causes. Jimmy Carter & Walter
      Mondale had their spirit. Our county newspaper the Palladium Times
      featured a drawing of both appearing to resemble JFK & LBJ, but by
      then the damage had been done, and the USA's Slavery to the world
      Big Oil Monopoly had continued after the Arab OIl Embargo of 1973-74.

      As a teen I had a full color glossy photo of JFK on my bedroom
      dresser. I was lucky enough to see Bobby Kennedy when his motorcade
      passed by our high school in the 1960s. I remember pushing ahead in
      the crowd so that I could shake his hand and make eye contact with him.
      For a brief moment, while he brushed back the cowlick of his hair which
      characteristicly fell, as mine did, I did make eye contact & agreement
      with him of the causes he espoused. I still remember the ingenous look
      on his smiling face when I interacted with him. It's not something one
      could ever forget. By 1968, after their passing, they sang my heros' saga.
      Being a sentimental man, it still makes the tears well up in me, whenever I
      hear this popular song,because JFK & RFK personified America the beautiful:

      " Has anyone here seen my old friend Bobby ? Can you tell me where
      he's gone ?. He freed lots of people, but you know it seems the good- they die
      young like Martin Luth, and John " " Didn't you LOVE the things that they
      stood for. Didn't they try to find the good in you & me, so we'd be free ? "
      We all will be some day . Has anyone here seen my old friend John ?
      Can you tell me where he's gone ? Thought I saw him walking up over that
      hill, with Abraham(Lincoln), Martin Luther King, and John F. Kennedy "

      Thank you ethical vegan. They say a grief shared is half reduced, as a joy
      shared is twice increased. Their being cheated out of their young lives, as
      we were cheated of our heros has left salt in an open wound on the soul of
      this nation. And especialy of us in our generation who believed in them because
      they were not puppets, but rather the true leaders of our country. It would be
      a miracle to see any more like them ever come around again, imho. But then
      we don't need to , do we ? Like a pebble dropped into a clear pond, all they
      were vanished beneath the surface, but they lived to inspire all of us who
      believed in their spirit to continue their causes. So within each of us their
      actions ripple ever forward in time through our actions taking up their causes.

    • 2 years ago
  • stevensisaac
  • PressCore
  • im1mjrpain
  • PressCore
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