53 Years Ago This Day

[spongella]

It has been 53 years since the JFK assassination. Do you remember what you were doing then?

We were in class, teacher was called out of the room, she comes back in, asks us to all stand up and leads us in several different prayers. We have no idea what this is all about. Then she sits us down and makes the announcement that Pres. Kennedy has died. Back then every TV station was covering the event. Nothing else was on. There were no UHF channels, only VHF. They say this was the end of the age of innocence.

 

[dfergie]

On the playground, 2nd grade teacher told us after recess ... Remember going to my Grandfathers and seeing the funeral on his TV.

 

[navychop]

Nun abandoned us in classroom. I went to the bathroom and back and she still hadn't returned.

 

[Foxbat]

I don't recall what I was doing when I was told (I was nine) but I do remember watching the funeral procession with my parents on our B&W TV. The later assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. (5th grade class) and Robert F. Kennedy (coming in after playing outside) I remember hearing about, but I can't recall how I found out about JFK.

 

[Bronxiniowa]

In fifth grade. Principal went on the comm system throughout the school and told us. School was dismissed early. A very gray, rainy, dismal, punch-in-the-gut weekend, followed by the funeral under sunny, cold skies in Washington.

 

[thomasjk]

I remember exactly where I was. I was in my junior year of engineering school waiting to begin a heat transfer class. The Prof came in and told us what had happened. Classes were dismissed and I took the bus home. The tone was very somber.

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[Bobby]

I was in a missile silo launch control center having lunch with my maintenance team watching the noon news on TV. Then Walter Cronkite came on and the rest is history...

 

[klang]

I was only three, don't recall the assassination but do remember the funeral procession on TV.

 

[Bronxiniowa]

I was in a missile silo launch control center having lunch with my maintenance team watching the noon news on TV. Then Walter Cronkite came on and the rest is history...

Wow. Didn't the U.S. strategic command go on high alert right after the assassination? What was your feeling?

 

[Bobby]

Wow. Didn't the U.S. strategic command go on high alert right after the assassination? What was your feeling?

Yes, they did! All except Combat Crew members were told to evacuate the complex. We moved to a quonset hut outside the fenced in area. I was a former Combat Crew member so I had an idea what was going on. While in the quonset, we saw the doors to the missile bay open. All of us said oh s!!t... They were not open long so it was a matter of figuring out what was what. It was a very scary time. I had that same feeling during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a year earlier, when I was on a Combat Crew. We had a test, unbeknownst to us, to see if we would actually follow through with our orders. That one was SAC wide and with very few exceptions everyone passed the test.

 

[navychop]

"...very few exceptions...."

Hmmmm. Ungood.

 

[Bobby]

"...very few exceptions...."

Hmmmm. Ungood.

When you think of thousands of personnel (this included missile and aircraft) and the number was less than 10, that's not so bad. I remember my thoughts, vividly, as we were going through the countdown sequence. I could see a different world than I woke up to that morning. It wasn't a pretty thought.

 

[navychop]

I remember what I had to do after we launched for real (missile boat). And what I or (more likely) other officers might have had to do beforehand, if there were any hesitation (or worse) to carry out those orders.

ANY failures to carry out such orders may mean missiles not launched, and maybe targets not destroyed in a timely fashion. Really depends upon which op plan was chosen.

 

[Bronxiniowa]

Can't imagine having that kind of responsibility ...

 

[Bob Haller]

i still wonder if they could launch around the launch crews. a button somewhere that could order the launch if the crews refused to start ww3?

 

[Bronxiniowa]

i still wonder if they could launch around the launch crews. a button somewhere that could order the launch if the crews refused to start ww3?

I wouldn't want someone in that position to have the actual finger on the actual button.

 

[Bobby]

i still wonder if they could launch around the launch crews. a button somewhere that could order the launch if the crews refused to start ww3?

Trust me, if they pushed the button there would be no WW3. There may very well be no world to war with.... Do you have any idea of the destruction of these weapons?

 

[Bronxiniowa]

Trust me, if they pushed the button there would be no WW3. There may very well be no world to war with.... Do you have any idea of the destruction of these weapons?

If we push the button, they know it, and push the button. And there may very well be no world.

 

[Bobby]

If we push the button, they know it, and push the button. And there may very well be no world.

I think I said that the first time!

 

[navychop]

But for many, no suffering at all.

It's the "survivors" that will suffer.

On the Beach by Nevil Shute.
Alas Babylon by Pat Frank.