Clint Hill, a White
House Secret Service agent, had been assigned to guard the president’s wife;
affectionately known to many, perhaps most, of my parent’s generation as
‘Jackie.’
He was positioned on
the front bumper of the Secret Service automobile behind the president’s
vehicle that day. Like other members of the White House security detail, he’d
been concerned about Pres. Kennedy’s decision to leave the top down on his
limosine. But he was all too aware that when ‘Jack’ wanted something done a
particular way, he usually got what he wanted.
Today would be no exception.
We’ve all watched
the Zapruder film again and again, and witnessed the horrendous homicide of the
35th President of the United States. As the presidential limo
rounded the curve into Dealey Plaza, several shots echoed across the well-known
Dallas landmark. President Kennedy clutched at his throat, and a gasp had
hardly escaped his lips when the fatal bullet slammed into the rear right
quadrant of his head.
Agent Hill
dismounted the Secret Service vehicle and ran to the presidential limosine. By
this time Mrs. Kennedy had clamored onto the rear end of the car. (She later
claimed she had been attempting to recover a piece of her husband’s skull). Mr.
Hill immediately climbed onto the trunk of the automobile, and managed to drag
the mortified First Lady into the rear seat; where the president lay mortally
wounded. Jackie’s personal agent wasted no time covering the nation’s chief
executive and his wife with his own body.
Of course, there was
that fateful ride to Parkland Hospital, the death of the president, and the
return of Mr. Kennedy’s mortal remains to Air Force One. Who can forget the
photograph of the new president, ‘Lady Bird’ Johnson, Jackie and the presiding
judge as they stood in the bulkhead of the most famous, (or infamous) aircraft
of our time, and the almost indistinct recording of the presidential swearing
in ceremony?
By
William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 50. Copyright pending
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