At least, we didn't. And we are old enough to remember watching TV to see the events unfold, the funeral procession and burial.
Putting aside the finger pointing and conspiracy theories that usually litter the comments of posts like this one, we want to share this tidbit about President John F. Kennedy that now 50+ years later, came as a surprise to us.
November 22, 1963, Dallas Texas
Television stations around the United States aired President John F. Kennedy's November 1963 trip to Dallas Texas. Most Americans remember the image of the President and his wife Jackie sitting in the back seat of an open roof limousine with two Secret Service agents up front in the driver and passenger seats, followed by Senator John Connally and his wife in the middle seat, waving to the crowds that lined both sides of the road.
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| Kennedy's motorcade in Dallas, Texas |
All of a sudden, the President and the Senator slumped over in their seats. Both Senator John Connally and the President had been shot once, then two more shots rang out.
Within seconds of the third shot, the limo driver kicked into action at high speed and set his course toward Parkland Hospital, the closest hospital. Cops on motorcycles cleared the road, fell into formation and acted as escorts.
Secret Service Special Agent Clint Hill was walking alongside the car with the rest of the foot detail when he heard the first shot. He attempted to climb onto the back of the limo to render aid but he was fighting against the accelerated speed of the limo. The image of Jackie Kennedy reaching out to grab Clint Hill's hand is one that is indelibly imprinted on the minds of people all over the world. Hill was worried that Jackie Kennedy would fall off the trunk, thinking she was trying to help him to come onboard. But she wasn't. She was reaching for a piece of her husband’s skull that had landed on the trunk of the limo.
Within seconds of the third shot, the limo driver kicked into action at high speed and set his course toward Parkland Hospital, the closest hospital. Cops on motorcycles cleared the road, fell into formation and acted as escorts.
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| Police escort to Parkland Hospital |
Secret Service Special Agent Clint Hill was walking alongside the car with the rest of the foot detail when he heard the first shot. He attempted to climb onto the back of the limo to render aid but he was fighting against the accelerated speed of the limo. The image of Jackie Kennedy reaching out to grab Clint Hill's hand is one that is indelibly imprinted on the minds of people all over the world. Hill was worried that Jackie Kennedy would fall off the trunk, thinking she was trying to help him to come onboard. But she wasn't. She was reaching for a piece of her husband’s skull that had landed on the trunk of the limo.
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| Jackie Kennedy climbing over the trunk of the limo |
After Clint Hill helped her back into her seat, the President fell over into her lap. Hill saw that the President's eyes were fixed and he said later that he knew he was dead. He shielded both of them in the limo until they got to the hospital. Jackie Kennedy said "I have his brains in my hand. Oh my God, they've shot his head off. I love you, Jack."
When they got to the hospital, she said she didn't want anyone to see her husband's wounded head, so Hill threw his suit coat over him as he was taken into the hospital.
Hill set up a direct phone line from the hospital to Washington and the first call was from Attorney General Robert Kennedy who asked: "How bad is it?" Clint Hill didn't want to tell him that his brother was dead, so he said, "It's as bad as it gets."
Hill set up a direct phone line from the hospital to Washington and the first call was from Attorney General Robert Kennedy who asked: "How bad is it?" Clint Hill didn't want to tell him that his brother was dead, so he said, "It's as bad as it gets."
About 30 minutes later, all attempts to save him were exhausted. A priest had been called to administer last rites and President Kennedy was pronounced dead.
Reporters and representatives from hundreds of news wire organizations were camped outside the hospital waiting for word so they could hurry to write copy to push out special editions while other reporters waited to go live when their stations interrupted regular programming. Thus began three days of sitting vigil not just in the United States, but all over the world.
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| Reporters outside Parkland Hospital |
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| Newspapers rushed to put out special editions of the news |
At Parkland Hospital, Kenny O'Donnell, Presidential aide and personal friend to President Kennedy and his wife, assigned Special Agent Clint Hill he task of finding an undertaker so they could buy a casket for the President. Clint contacted Mr. Vernon O'Neal, a highly respected undertaker in Dallas, who showed him a very expensive silk-lined bronze coffin. Hill contracted for the purchase and said that it was needed forthwith. The undertaker said he would personally deliver it to the hospital.
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| Kennedy's casket, purchased in Dallas |
O'Donnell alerted Air Force One that President Kennedy's body would be en route to the airport shortly and that Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson would be sworn in on the plane as the new President of the United States before they landed in Washington.
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| Lyndon B Johnson taking the Oath of Office |
The President's body was prepared for travel, and although blood ceased to pump through his veins, extra precaution was taken when they transferred him to the bronze casket to wrap his head in clean bandages and wrap his body in plastic sheeting so the fine silk interior would not get soiled.
The President's Secret Service detail found that leaving Dallas wasn't going to be that easy. On their way out of the hospital with the casket, they were stopped by Dr. Earl Rose, the Dallas Medical Examiner who barred them from taking the body back to Washington. He said since the President died in Dallas, an autopsy had to be performed in Dallas, not Washington, D.C.
Kenny O'Donnell and several members of the Secret Service detail took the Medical Examiner aside to remind him that "this is the President of the United States we are talking about!" O'Donnell said the autopsy would be done when they got back to Washington, D. C.
However, the Medical Examiner was not giving in. He maintained that this occurred in his jurisdiction.
The Secret Service detail was not giving in. This was their President.
The Medical Examiner suggested to let the Justice of the Peace render his opinion. The Secret Service agents fully expected him to side with them and overrule the Medical Examiner. But the Justice of the Peace said the assassination of a President of the United States was to be treated as "just another homicide."
Kenny O'Donnell got pissed off. The Secret Service detail and the Presidential aides boldly walked around to bypass the Medical Examiner, the Justice of the Peace, and various policemen who were guarding the location, then they hurriedly put the President's casket in the ambulance, and headed to the airport, followed by the media.
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| Arriving at the airport |
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| Carrying the casket up the ramp of Air Force One |
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| At the airport |
Given the condition of the President's body due to massive head wounds, the casket didn't arrive back in Washington D. C. in the best condition. In fact, the white silk interior was so damaged from blood stains that oozed out of the plastic sheeting that Jackie Kennedy opted to not use that casket for the funeral and burial.
She said she wanted to focus her attention on making her husband's funeral emulate other Presidential funerals, namely that of President Abraham Lincoln. She picked out a mahogany casket for the President's burial.
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| A second casket |
After the President's body was transferred to the new casket, the next dilemma was what to do with the first coffin. The undertaker, ever mindful of the lookey-lous and of the resale hounds who stole artifacts to make a fast buck, decided to put the solid bronze casket in storage.
The President's flag-covered mahogany casket lay in the Rotunda of the U. S. Capitol through the night of November 24, 1963.
The President's flag-covered mahogany casket lay in the Rotunda of the U. S. Capitol through the night of November 24, 1963.
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| Kennedy's body lay in state at the US Capitol |
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| Caroline kneeling at her father's casket |
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| No one can ever forget John Kennedy Jr. saluting his father's casket |
On November 25, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.
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| Funeral Procession |
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| The Eternal Flame at Arlington |
In 1965, the original bronze casket was moved to a secret warehouse in Washington with a guard stationed on the post.
There were reports that government officials were getting offers to buy the casket - one offer was for over $100,000 - with intentions to put it on display with other Kennedy memorabilia. However, the temptation to steal it or buy it disappeared when the Kennedy family requested that the casket be disposed of ... quietly.
Their quiet "disposal method" boggles the mind and begs the question: What was wrong with incineration? This is what they did.
On February 18, 1966, the Secret Service filled the blood-stained bronze casket with hundreds of sandbags, put the casket inside another casket made of solid pine, drilled 40 holes in it for drainage, bound it with metal banding tape, and fitted it with parachutes.
Yes, parachutes!
The prepared casket was loaded onto a C-130 transport plane and flown out 100 miles over the Atlantic Ocean, where the water was about 9,000 feet deep and far from shipping lanes.
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| Air Force planes |
They pushed the casket out of the plane and waited for the parachutes to open, which were meant to give the casket a smooth landing on the water. They watched the casket sink down 9,000 feet, then the transport plane hovered for another 20 to 30 minutes to make sure the casket didn't rise back to the surface.
The official report given to the Kennedy family read, in part: "The casket was disposed of at sea in a quiet, sure and dignified manner."
This isn't about a body being buried at sea.
We are talking about a staged burial at sea for a casket that in 100 years may be located by explorers, just like the Titanic. It would have been cheaper to burn it in an incinerator with or without a ceremony, and save the expense of a C-130 transport plane (pilot, fuel, employees), and skip the holes, second pine casket, sandbags, metal bands, and parachutes.
This is a classic example of American tax dollars at work. Government spending hasn't changed much since 1966.
To readers who were born before 1953, do you remember where you were when you heard that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated? Tell us in the comments.
The official report given to the Kennedy family read, in part: "The casket was disposed of at sea in a quiet, sure and dignified manner."
This isn't about a body being buried at sea.
We are talking about a staged burial at sea for a casket that in 100 years may be located by explorers, just like the Titanic. It would have been cheaper to burn it in an incinerator with or without a ceremony, and save the expense of a C-130 transport plane (pilot, fuel, employees), and skip the holes, second pine casket, sandbags, metal bands, and parachutes.
This is a classic example of American tax dollars at work. Government spending hasn't changed much since 1966.
To readers who were born before 1953, do you remember where you were when you heard that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated? Tell us in the comments.
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