Extreme VANITY/Where were you and what were you doing when you heard of JFK's Assasination?

19 Nov 2013 | US Navy Vet

[Bender2]

Re: It was/is my birthday. (11-22-43) I was in the US Navy, in the Bay Of Florida, and we were salvaging a U2 plane that had been shot down by Castro. We were all worried that a nuclear exchange with the Soviets was coming.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_military_aircraft_%281960%E2%80%9374%29:

20 November [1963]
Tenth Lockheed U-2A, Article 350, 56-6683, delivered to the CIA on 24 April 1956, converted to U-2F by spring 1963; loaned to SAC for Cuba overflight missions, crashes into the Gulf of Mexico 40 miles (64 km) NW of Key West, Florida, killing pilot Capt. Joe Hyde, Jr. Pilot was returning from a Brass Knob mission and was hand-flying the aircraft back to Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, at 69,000 feet (21,000 m) after failure of autopilot when it entered a flat spin and impacted in the Gulf. Wreckage retrieved from shallow water near Florida coast but ejection seat, seat pack and parachute missing - pilot never found.[118]

Assume above the one but they don't mention Castro shooting it down. Says 'failure of autopilot' to fault.

[NEMDF]

I was in first grade, but was home sick that day. We had just recently gotten our first TV. I was laying on the scruffy brown chenille couch in the main room of the house we lived in at the time. I seem to remember the images and reporting on TV. I recall my mother being upset and trying to explain it, but no vivid memories.

[knak]

Floating around in my mother’s womb. Born five months later.

[itsahoot]

I was aboard the USS Taluga AO 62, in the Gulf of Tonkin. We had arrived to unrep a carrier and her fleet and the Captain noticed the Flag ship had her flag at half mast. The Captain signaled to the flag asking why their flag was at half mast, that was the first we knew of the Presidents death.

I really don't remember the time but it was early morning but after sunup. Would have been a different day as well, but I really don't recall that either. That was my first Yankee Station cruise, made two more of those cruises and got out.

Warren commission must have used Old Scottish Law to create that magic bullet.

[Starstruck]

About 6 meters from where I sit now.

Sounds like you're bugging out.

[FreedomOfExpression]

I was less than a year old. In years past, my mother told me that she took me and my older brother to see the motorcade drive past to get to Carswell Air Force Base. She said that before we got home, she heard on the radio that President Kennedy had been shot.

[CrazyIvan]

Fourth grade. Prayer in school was a hot topic at the time. We knew that he had been shot but did not know his condition. Our teacher said that she was going to say a prayer for him but that no one had to participate who did not want to. Every child participated and no parents complained.

[Kartographer]

I was in the 4th grade Mrs. Doninger’s class. Had a cold so the while the class was out for rescess I was in the class room reading. Another teacher came to the classroom door and called Mrs. Doninger out into the hallway with here and the other 4th grade teacher from across the hall. there was a breif exchange and I remember they all three broke into tears. The beel rang for recess to be over the teachers did their best to compose themselves. When everyone came back we were told to sit quitely at our desk and that there was to be a special announcement over the PA.

[dainbramaged]

I was in 6th grade, the principal’s secretary brought in a large radio and set it up. Our teacher was an old chain smoking spinster with enough lipstick to paint a car and admonished a few girls in the class for crying. I guess she voted for Nixon.

[Tennessee Nana]

It was Saturday morning, 8AM where I was in New Zealand

T was going on 15 and still asleep in bed..

My younger brother age 13 woke me up bouncing into my room and boasting “I know something you dont know”

He and Dad had been out early trout fishing miles away. Dad had his unauthorized battery radio on for the 6AM news when the station opened for the day..

he would listen to the 5 minute news broadcast and assure that he was legally starting to fish at 6AM and not too early..and get the up to date news..

trout fishing in NZ was by permit/licence Oct 1 through April 30 6AM to 6PM every day...

You got a heavy fine if you were outside the 6-6 period..

anyhoo the news started that Saturday at 6AM NZ time with the news that President Kennedy had been assasinated..

My Dad had such respect for the US that he immediately packed up and left his secret fishing hole and came home emptyhanded...the only time Mum could remember he had not returned with a good catch..

When I got up after my brothers announcement I heard Dad in the kitchen telling Mum why he was back so early...

Dad taught us to love and respect the US..

He said “I couldnt fish when the President has been murdered..”

We were New Zealanders and not Americans but even the teachers at school had sad things to say on Monday when I went to high school..

You would have thought it was our Prime Minister or the Governor General...or even the Queen herself..

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

16 years old, senior year high school.

Shop class. A student came running in and yelled the President had been shot!

We went out into the garage area where we had in a car we were working on, turned on the car radio and stood around listening as it was on all the stations.

[Bender2]

Re: I had yet to be conceived.

Gadzooks, Army! Don't blame me-- Back in that time, there was so little time... and so many ladies!

[NEMDF]

You were certainly clairvoyant.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

I was working helping to support the then ever growing number of parasites, all while working my way through college. I was on the job at the time he was killed. Goldwater was ahead of him by all polls of the time that is why the degenerate was in Texas.

[stockpirate]

I was 12 years old, my mother had taken me to a boat yard in SW DC to check up on our small boat. When I heard the news I walked to the WH and had my picture taken and was in the next days paper, it was an afternoon paper in DC.

[Fresh Wind]

I was in Latin class, sophomore year HS.

[Vigilanteman]

I was in 2nd grade and still remember the principal's name (Mr. Keck) and the teacher (Mrs. Burket). He came in, whispered in the teacher's ear who informed us that the president had been shot.

We didn't get sent home early, but were dismissed for an early recess in the school gym as the weather outside was not hospitable. No assembly, no formal announcement or anything of the sort. Just kids dribbling basketballs in one area, playing dodge ball in another, the normal type of activity for an indoor recess except the principal was standing in the corner talking to a couple of teachers with a grim look on his face.

We could tell the news was not good. A few of the kids (including me) even went up to them and asked to confirm what we feared: the president had died.

After what seemed like an unusually long recess, we were told to return to our home rooms as there would be an early dismissal. This was a small-town school where probably two-thirds of the kids rode a bus home. I suppose it took that much time to contact the bus drivers to come in early.

Some of the homeroom teachers, including ours, must have thought the news would be upsetting to early elementary kids so only told us that school was dismissing early. Of course, I knew the real reason as did any of the other kids who had talked to faculty during recess.

My older sister and brothers, of course, were told by their teachers and when I got home and compared notes, I was actually more upset about being treated like a little kid who couldn't handle the bad news.

Not that I didn't feel bad. We all felt terrible. It is just that I felt excluded for the crime of being too little.

[tbpiper]

At home from school(Fannin Jr High just across the street), eating lunch. As soon as we got back, my brother went to the office to tell them about it. They didn’t believe him at first and he almost got in trouble for telling such a horrible lie. He kept insisting they turn on a radio and find out.

[Conservative4Ever]

Was in HS. Was home from school due to my sister and her family visiting early for Thanksgiving. Yeah, I skipped school. All of us were following the TV broadcasts and news of course, and during all the commotion my youngest niece age about 3-4 was upstairs in the guest room getting into her mothers prescription pills, the came back down stairs and curled up and fell asleep in front of the TV. Sister went up to the room, saw the scattering of the remaining pills and screamed her head off. My Mom tried to wake up the youngster and could not. Grabbed her up raced to the nearest hospital, and my poor neice had her stomach pumped. The doctor said to my sister and family, a few more minutes we would not have been able to save her. Sooo, the family visit was extended a few days. Hard to believe all that was 50 years ago.

[SamuraiScot]

I was home sick from second grade, but my mother had to go to the 5 & 10, so she took me with her. There was complete silence in the place when we walked in, and my mother explained it to me after talking to the cashier. (Cashiers were grown-ups in those days, in seems to me, not gum-snappers.) I was listening to the radio in the store as it reported that the stock market had crashed. It was an abstract thing, but it fit.

We'd never been big Kennedy fans. Nor Nixon fans. But my mother was mystified: "Who would do this? Someone else, you could say, 'He has enemies.' But he was . . . loved!"

TV coverage around the clock, of course. Black-and-white, of course. We never got a color television. My father was an experienced shooter, and immediately snorted when Specter and the Warren Commission finally came out and said one bullet had gone through both Kennedy and Connally and then popped out onto a stretcher, still perfectly formed, with just a tiny scratch on it.