November 22, 1963......................56 years ago Today..................
I was in the USAF (UK) and just about 45 days away from rotation back to the ZI (States). I was in the barrack hallway getting ready to leave the base to go into town (Ipswich) when I heard the chimes of the loud speaker which was in every hallway of every barrack on our base.
The words, “This is an announcement from the Commander,Third Air Force”
“At approximately 1:00 PM CST the President of the United States of America, John F Kennedy was pronounced dead from a gunshot wound to the head he received while in a motorcade in Dallas Texas.
All leaves are cancelled, all military personnel are restricted to base pending further announcement of this Command.”
About 30 minutes later the base went to full alert and remained that way for about 3 days. The aircraft in the VA (FB 101 Voodoo’s) which were loaded with their bombs at all times were taxied out of the alert area and to the active runway where they remained for approximately 6 hours before returning to their hangers.
All in all pretty scary moment although at age 21 the full impact didn’t hit me until much, much later. My initial thought was something like, “Oh shit, I’ll never get back to the States now”