PT 109 AND JFK

2nd – John F. Kennedy and PT 109

Tulagi, Solomon Islands. PT Boat Officers (L-R) James ("Jim") Reed ...

Lt. (jg) John F. Kennedy aboard the PT-109, 1943. (John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library) It is arguably the most famous small-craft engagement in naval history, and it was an unmitigated disaster. At a later date, when asked to explain how he had come to be a hero, one of the young commanders involved, by then an aspiring politician, replied laconically, "It was involuntary. They sank my boat." John F. Kennedy's comment speaks a soldier's clear-eyed appraisal of the mechanics of heroism. It is of course unjust, however true it may be, and to do justice to the young Lieutenant Kennedy, we must look at everything that he leaves out— everything that happened after the Japanese sank his boat sixty years ago this summer in the South Pacific during World War II. To understand the events of August 1 - 2, 1943, which culminated in the sinking of PT-109, it is important to remember that it was dark— deeply, unrelievedly dark. The disorienting effect, even for experienced sailors, of a moonless, starless night on the ocean should not be underestimated. In this profound darkness, PT-109 stood at her station in Blackett Strait, south of Kolombangara in the Solomon Islands, one of the remnants of an operation born into futility, the heir to bad planning and worse communication. Fifteen PT boats ("Patrol Torpedo" boats) had set out to engage, damage, and maybe even turn back the well-known "Tokyo Express," the Japanese navy's more or less regular resupply convoy that enabled resistance to the advance of U.S. forces in the islands farther south. When the patrol actually did come in contact with the Tokyo Express— three Japanese destroyers acting as transports with a fourth serving as escort— the encounter had not gone well. Thirty torpedoes were fired with no more effect than to make the Japanese even warier than they had been. Boats that had used up their complement of torpedoes were ordered home. The few that still had torpedoes remained in the strait, in the doubtful hope of catching the Express on its return voyage. The only thing that could be said about the action was that if the Japanese had not been damaged, neither had the Americans. That was about to change. PT-109 was one of the boats left behind. Lieutenant Kennedy rendezvoused his boat with PT-162 of his own patrol section and PT-169, which had been separated from another section, and the three boats spread out to make a picket line across the strait. At about 2:30 in the morning, a shape loomed out of the darkness three hundred yards off PT-109's starboard bow. So difficult was visibility that it was first believed to be another PT. When it became apparent that it was one of the Japanese destroyers, Kennedy attempted to turn to starboard to bring his torpedoes to bear. But there was not enough time. The destroyer, later identified as the Amagiri, the escort ship of the Express, struck PT-109 just forward of the forward starboard torpedo tube, ripping away the starboard aft side of the boat. Less than a minute had passed since the first sighting. The impact tossed Kennedy around the cockpit, and his radioman, John E. Maguire, was actually thrown from it. Most of the crew were knocked or fell into the water. The one man below decks, engineer Patrick McMahon, miraculously escaped, although he was badly burned by exploding fuel. Fear that PT-109 would go up in flames drove Kennedy to order the men who still remained on the wreck to abandon ship. But the destroyer's wake dispersed the burning fuel, and when the fire began to subside, Kennedy sent his men back to what was left of the boat. From the wreckage of the boat, Kennedy ordered the men with him, Edgar Mauer and John E. Maguire, to identify the location of their shipmates still in the water. Ens. Leonard Thom, Gerard Zinser, Ens. George Ross, and Raymond Albert were able to swim back on their own. Kennedy swam out to McMahon and Charles Harris. Towing the incapacitated McMahon by a life-vest strap, Kennedy returned to the boat, alternately cajoling and berating the hurt, exhausted Harris, who followed behind, to get him through the difficult swim. Meanwhile, Thom pulled in William Johnston, who was debilitated by the gasoline he had accidentally swallowed and the heavy fumes that lay on the water. Finally Raymond Starkey swam in from where he had been flung by the shock. Floating on and around the hulk, the crew took stock. Two men, Harold Marney and Andrew Jackson Kirksey, had disappeared in the collision, very likely killed at the impact. All the men were exhausted, a few were hurt, although none as badly as McMahon, and several had been sickened by the fuel fumes, with Johnston the most severely affected. On the other hand, there had been no sign of other boats or ships in the area; the men were afraid to fire their flare gun for fear of attracting the attention of the Japanese who were on islands on all sides. Furthermore, although the wreckage was still afloat because of its sealed bulkheads, it was taking on water, and it capsized on the morning of August 2. After a discussion of options, and aware that time was running out, the men abandoned the remains of PT-109 and struck out for an islet, three and a half miles away, that they hoped was unoccupied. Kennedy had been on the swim team at Harvard; even towing McMahon by a belt through his teeth, he was undaunted by the distance. Several of the other men were also good swimmers, but several were not; two, Johnston and Mauer, could not swim at all. These last two were lashed to a plank that the other seven men pulled and pushed as they could. Kennedy arrived first at the island, named Plum Pudding but called by the men "Bird" Island because of the guano that coated the bushes. So spent that he had to be helped up the beach by the man he had towed, Kennedy collapsed and waited for the rest of the crew. But Kennedy's swimming was not over. Alarmed by a Japanese barge that passed close by, Kennedy determined to swim down into Ferguson Passage, through which the American PTs passed when they were operating in Blackett Strait. Island-hopping and clinging to reefs, Kennedy made his way out into the passage, where he treaded water for an hour before deciding that the PTs were in action elsewhere that night. The return voyage nearly killed him as strong currents spun him out into Blackett Strait and then back into Ferguson Passage. Making the weary trip again, Kennedy stopped on Leorava Island, southeast of Bird Island, where he slept long enough to recoup himself for the final leg of the trip. Returning to Bird Island, Kennedy slept through the day but also made Ross promise to go out on the same trip that night. But Ross did not see any sign of the PTs either. On August 4 Kennedy led the men back into the ocean, striking out for Olasana Island in hopes of finding food and fresh water but also wishing to be closer to Ferguson Passage. Kennedy again hauled McMahon by the strap of his life vest while the rest of the crew clustered around the plank and thrashed their way along. Olasana Island proved to be something of a disappointment. The coconuts were more plentiful but had a sickening effect on some of the men. Fresh water was not in evidence, and the men were too nervous about Japanese patrols to explore more than a small corner of this larger island. When the night of August 4 turned wet and cold, Kennedy determined to try the next island over the following day. Naru, or Cross, Island is the last in the chain, and its eastern shores look out over Ferguson Passage. Kennedy and Ross climbed up on to its beach a little past noon on August 5. Fearing enemy patrols, the two men stepped carefully through the brush but only saw the wreck of a small Japanese vessel out on the reef. On the beach they spotted a small box with Japanese labels. When they broke it open, they were delighted to discover it contained Japanese candy. Even better, a little further up the island they discovered a tin of water and a one-man canoe hidden in the bushes. Having had a drink, Kennedy and Ross were just walking back onto the beach when they saw two men out at the Japanese wreck. The men, clearly islanders, took fright and paddled away from the wreck in a canoe, despite Kennedy's hails. Uncertain about the outcome of this encounter, that night Kennedy took the canoe into Ferguson Passage once more, with as little success as previously. In this photo taken in 1943 at Tulagi, Solomon Islands, George "Barney" Ross (top) poses with (left to right) James "Jim" Reed, John F. Kennedy, and Paul "Red" Fay. Ross was on board PT-109 when the Amagiri struck the boat. Kennedy decided to take the canoe back to Olasana; he stopped off long enough to gather the candy and the water to bring to the other men, leaving Ross to rest until the next morning. Arriving at Olasana, Kennedy discovered that the two men he and Ross had seen at Naru had made contact with the rest of the crew. The two men, Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, were islander scouts for the Allies. Their hasty departure from Naru had left them tired and thirsty, and they had stopped for coconuts at Olasana, where Thom had been able to convince them that the crew was American. The next morning, August 6, Kennedy returned with Gasa and Kumana to Naru, intercepting Ross along the way as he was swimming back. The islanders showed the two Americans where a boat had been hidden on Naru. When Kennedy was at a loss for a way to send a message, Gasa showed him how it could be scratched into a green coconut husk. Gasa and Kumana left with the message— NAURO ISL COMMANDER . . . NATIVE KNOWS POS'IT . . . HE CAN PILOT . . . 11 ALIVE NEED SMALL BOAT . . . KENNEDY — as well as a backup note that they got from Thom when they stopped at Olasana. Perhaps not fully believing that their luck had changed, Kennedy insisted on going out with Ross into Ferguson Passage in the two-man canoe. Heavy seas swamped the canoe and so battered the men that they barely made it back to Naru. But the next morning, August 7, eight islanders appeared at Naru shortly after Kennedy and Ross awoke. They brought food and instructions from the local Allied coastwatcher, Lt. A. Reginald Evans, that Kennedy should come over to Evans's post. Stopping long enough at Olasana to feed the crew, the islanders hid Kennedy under a pile of palm fronds and paddled him to Gomu Island in Blackett Strait. Early in the evening of the seventh, a little more than six days after PT-109's sinking, Kennedy stepped onto Gomu. There was still a rescue to be planned with Evans, no small thing in enemy-held waters, but the ordeal of PT-109 was over. Evans had already notified Rendova of the discovery of PT 109's survivors, and the base commander was proposing to send the rescue mission directly to Olasana. Understandably somewhat wary of the ability of such a mission to be directed from afar, Kennedy insisted on being picked up first so that he could guide the rescue boats, PTs 157 and 171, among the reefs and shallows of the island chain. Late on the night of August 7, the boats met Kennedy at the rendezvous point, exchanging a prearranged signal of four shots. Kennedy's revolver was down to only three rounds, so he borrowed a rifle from Evans for the fourth. Standing up in the canoe to give the signal, Kennedy did not anticipate the rifle's recoil, which threw him off balance and dumped him in the water. It was a wet and thoroughly exasperated navy lieutenant who climbed aboard PT-157. The PTs crossed Blackett Strait under Kennedy's direction and eased up to Olasana Island early in the morning of August 8. The exhausted men of PT-109 were all asleep, and Kennedy, his relief and exhilaration enhanced by a couple of doses of medicinal brandy, began yelling for them, much to the chagrin of his rescuers, nervous over the proximity of the Japanese. But the rescue went forward without incident, and the men of PT-109 reached Rendova at 5:30 in the morning on August 8. For his courage and leadership, Kennedy was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, and injuries suffered during the incident qualified him for the Purple Heart; Ens. Leonard Thom also received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal. But the consequences of the event for John F. Kennedy were more far-reaching than simple decorations for a uniform. The story was picked up by the writer John Hersey, who told it to the readers of The New Yorker and Reader's Digest, and it followed Kennedy into politics, where it was a strong foundation of his appeal. For here was a war hero who had not won battles but who had shown courage and dogged will, responsibility for those he led and the ability to inspire them— and it would be hard to better this as a short list of qualifications for a political leader. "Any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction, 'I served in the United States Navy,'" wrote President John F. Kennedy in August 1963. A former naval officer, Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts on 29 May 1917 to Rose and Joseph P. Kennedy. After attending public schools in Brookline, Kennedy went on to The Choate School in Wallingford, Connecticut, and attended the London School of Economics from 1935 to 1936. Kennedy graduated cum laude from Harvard University in 1940 and began graduate school at Stanford University. Despite having a bad back, Kennedy was able to join the U.S. Navy through the help of Captain Alan Kirk, the Director, Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) who had been the Naval Attache in London when Joseph Kennedy was the Ambassador. In October 1941, Kennedy was appointed an Ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve and joined the staff of the Office of Naval Intelligence. The office, for which Kennedy worked, prepared intelligence bulletins and briefing information for the Secretary of the Navy and other top officials. On 15 January 1942, he was assigned to an ONI field office the Sixth Naval District in Charleston, South Carolina. After spending most of April and May at Naval Hospitals at Charleston and at Chelsea, Massachusetts, Kennedy attended Naval Reserve Officers Training School at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, from 27 July through 27 September. After completing this training, Kennedy entered the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Training Center, Melville, Rhode Island. On 10 October, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, Junior Grade. Upon completing his training 2 December, he was ordered to the training squadron, Motor Torpedo Squadron FOUR, for duty as the Commanding Officer of a motor torpedo boat, PT 101, a 78- foot Higgins boat. In January 1943, PT 101 with four other boats was ordered to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron FOURTEEN, which was assigned to Panama. Seeking combat duty, Kennedy transferred on 23 February as a replacement officer to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron TWO, which was based at Tulagi Island in the Solomons. Traveling to the Pacific on USSRochambeau, Kennedy arrived at Tulagi on 14 April and took command of PT 109 on 23 April 1943. On 30 May, several PT boats, including PT 109 were ordered to the Russell Islands, in preparation for the invasion of New Georgia. After the invasion of Rendova, PT 109 moved to Lumbari. From that base PT boats conducted nightly operations to interdict the heavy Japanese barge traffic resupplying the Japanese garrisons in New Georgia and to patrol the Ferguson and Blackett Straits near the islands of Kolumbangara, Gizo, and Vella-Lavella in order to sight and to give warning when the Japanese Tokyo Express warships came into the straits to assault U.S. forces in the New Georgia-Rendova area. PT 109 commanded by Kennedy with executive officer, Ensign Leonard Jay Thom, and ten enlisted men was one of the fifteen boats sent out on patrol on the night of 1-2 August 1943 to intercept Japanese warships in the straits. A friend of Kennedy, Ensign George H. R. Ross, whose ship was damaged, joined Kennedy's crew that night. The PT boat was creeping along to keep the wake and noise to a minimum in order to avoid detection. Around 0200 with Kennedy at the helm, the Japanese destroyer Amagiri traveling at 40 knots cut PT 109 in two in ten seconds. Although the Japanese destroyer had not realized that their ship had struck an enemy vessel, the damage to PT 109 was severe. At the impact, Kennedy was thrown into the cockpit where he landed on his bad back. As Amagiri steamed away, its wake doused the flames on the floating section of PT 109 to which five Americans clung: Kennedy, Thom, and three enlisted men, S1/c Raymond Albert, RM2/c John E. Maguire and QM3/c Edman Edgar Mauer. Kennedy yelled out for others in the water and heard the replies of Ross and five members of the crew, two of which were injured. GM3/c Charles A. Harris had a hurt leg and MoMM1/c Patrick Henry McMahon, the engineer was badly burned. Kennedy swam to these men as Ross and Thom helped the others, MoMM2/c William Johnston, TM2/c Ray L. Starkey, and MoMM1/c Gerald E. Zinser to the remnant of PT 109. Although they were only one hundred yards from the floating piece, in the dark it took Kennedy three hours to tow McMahon and help Harris back to the PT hulk. Unfortunately, TM2/c Andrew Jackson Kirksey and MoMM2/c Harold W. Marney were killed in the collision with Amagiri. Because the remnant was listing badly and starting to swamp, Kennedy decided to swim for a small island barely visible (actually three miles) to the southeast. Five hours later, all eleven survivors had made it to the island after having spent a total of fifteen hours in the water. Kennedy had given McMahon a life-jacket and had towed him all three miles with the strap of the device in his teeth. After finding no food or water on the island, Kennedy concluded that he should swim the route the PT boats took through Ferguson Passage in hopes of sighting another ship. After Kennedy had no luck, Ross also made an attempt, but saw no one and returned to the island. Ross and Kennedy had spotted another slightly larger island with coconuts to eat and all the men swam there with Kennedy again towing McMahon. Now at their fourth day, Kennedy and Ross made it to Nauru Island and found several natives. Kennedy cut a message on a coconut that read "11 alive native knows posit & reef Nauru Island Kennedy." He purportedly handed the coconut to one of the natives and said, "Rendova, Rendova!," indicating that the coconut should be taken to the PT base on Rendova. Kennedy and Ross again attempted to look for boats that night with no luck. The next morning the natives returned with food and supplies, as well as a letter from the coastwatcher commander of the New Zealand camp, Lieutenant Arthur Reginald Evans. The message indicated that the natives should return with the American commander, and Kennedy complied immediately. He was greeted warmly and then taken to meet PT 157 which returned to the island and finally rescued the survivors on 8 August. Kennedy was later awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his heroics in the rescue of the crew of PT 109, as well as the Purple Heart Medal for injuries sustained in the accident on the night of 1 August 1943. An official account of the entire incident was written by intelligence officers in August 1943 and subsequently declassified in 1959. As President, Kennedy met once again with his rescuers and was toasted by members of the Japanese destroyer crew. In September, Kennedy went to Tulagi and accepted the command of PT 59 which was scheduled to be converted to a gunboat. In October 1943, Kennedy was promoted to Lieutenant and continued to command the motor torpedo boat when the squadron moved to Vella Lavella until a doctor directed him to leave PT 59 on 18 November. Kennedy left the Solomons on 21 December and returned to the U.S. in early January 1944. On 15 February, Kennedy reported to the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Training Center, Melville, Rhode Island. Due to the reinjury of his back during the sinking of PT 109, Kennedy entered a hospital for treatment. In March, Kennedy went to the Submarine Chaser Training Center, Miami, Florida. In May while still assigned to the Center, Kennedy entered the Naval Hospital, Chelsea, Massachusetts, for further treatment of his back injury. At the Hospital in June, he received his Navy and Marine Corps Medals. Under treatment as an outpatient, Kennedy was ordered detached from the Miami Center on 30 October 1944. Subsequently, Kennedy was released from all active duty and finally retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve on physical disability in March 1945.

Jfk's Pt-109 Flag               JFK Awarded Purple Heart - June 11, 1944               ·PT-109               ·PT 109 Crew 2 ·but before he left rendova jfk took kumana and gaza aside and gave . jpeg·Researcher @ Large - PT-109, Lieutenant John F. Kennedy PT-109 island in front of Kolombangara island. The volcano in the ...         lt j g john f kennedy s pt 109   ·kennedy s pt 109 john f kennedy s pt 109   President Kennedy and the First Lady departing Air Force One followed The last day of President John F. Kennedy Nov. 22, 1963

 

Maine: Two out of 1000

of Nurses Quit Because of Vaccine Mandate (Good riddance to bad rubbish!) in Maine

What’s the truth?  There are no anti-vaxx nurses working in COVID wards.  There are some unemployed nurses, home heathcare nurses and lots of fake nurses who bitch about vaccines.

Real nurses who treat real COVID patients would gladly hack anti-vaxxers to death…and in the real world talk about little else.  Being forced to treat vaccine deadbeats is bad enough.  None would work around unvaccinated staff.  

Raw Story: Nurses and other health care workers opposed to getting vaccinated against the novel coronavirus have threatened a mass resignation campaign if their institutions implement vaccine mandates.

However, the Maine Beacon reports that this threat has been mostly hot air so far in the Pine Tree State.

“Employment data shows that very few Maine health care workers have quit their jobs over the recent statewide COVID vaccine mandate, despite a number of lawsuits and ongoing protests organized by anti-vaccine activists,” the publication writes.

The Maine Beacon specifically pointed to Northern Light, the second-largest health care provider in Maine, which said recently that only 20 of its 10,000-plus staff members had quit in protest of Maine Gov. Janet Mills’s vaccine mandate for health care workers.

And Maine Health, the largest in-state health care provider, said that only 45 staff members out of its 23,000-plus staff resigned due to the vaccine mandate.

In fact, the combined resignations of staff members is just a fraction of the number of Maine residents currently hospitalized with COVID-19, as more than 200 Mainers are currently receiving treatment at a hospital for the disease.

 

The way Johnson looked Kennedy up and down when they were seated at the morning banquet at 9:00 am in Fort Worth was disgusting. Johnson had the look that said, “ You sorry sap. You’re going to be dead in 3 and a half hours and you don’t have a clue.” Johnson was a POS.

 

 

That GHWB knew Malcolm “Mac” Wallace from Yale is especially stunning.  ”Mac” Wallace was LBJ’s personal hit man and murdered as many as a dozen persons for Lyndon, including one of his own sisters, who was talking too much about his business to allow her to continue to speak.  There is substantial proof that LBJ was involved in the assassination, where his life had been dedicated to becoming “the president of all the people”.  As Phil Nelson, LBJ: Mastermind of JFK’s Assassination (2nd revised edition, 2011) documents, he was relentless in its pursuit.  Madeleine Duncan Brown, Texas in the Morning (1997), Barr McClellan, Blood, Money & Power (2003), and Billy Sol Estes, A Texas Legend (2004), have also identified LBJ as the pivotal player, which has been confirmed by E. Howard Hunt, “Last Confessions” (2007), who identified LBJ, Cord Meyer, David Atlee Phillips, William Harvey and David Sanchez Morales as in “the chain of command”. Even Jack Ruby, who was in the position to know, asserted that, if someone else had been Vice President, the assassination would never have occurred.  McClellan concluded that Texas oil men, such as Clint Murchison and H. L. Hunt, had provided financing for the assassination in order to preserve the oil depletion allowance at 27.5%, which remained unchanged under LBJ.  Over 100 conversations with Madeleine Duncan Brown, who began an affair with Lyndon in 1948 and bore him a son, Steven, in 1950 (who was not his only child out of wedlock but was his only male offspring), who told me about their rendezvous at the Driskill Hotel in Austin, TX, on New Year’s Eve, only six weeks after the assassination, when she confronted him with rumors that he had been involved, since no one stood to gain more personally, whereupon Lyndon blew up and told her that the CIA and the oil boys had decided that JFK had to be taken out.  And that Mac Wallace was involved is not in serious doubt. Wallace went to work for Harry Lewis and L & G Oil. In 1970 he returned to Dallas and began pressing Edward Clark for more money for his part in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. According to Barr McClellan it was then decided to kill Wallace. “He had to be eliminated. After driving to see his daughter in Troup, Texas, he went by L & G’s offices in Longview, Texas. There his exhaust was rigged for part of it to flow into his car.”On 7th January, 1971, Malcolm Wallace was killed while driving into Pittsburg, Texas. He appeared to have fallen asleep and after leaving the road crashed his car. Wallace died of massive head injuries. Soon afterwards Clifton C. Carter died aged 53. 1971 was also the year Billie Sol Estes was due to leave prison. According to Clint Peoples, a Texas Ranger based in Austin, Billie Sol Estes had promised to tell the full story of the death of Henry Marshall when he obtained his freedom. On 9th August, 1984, Estes’ lawyer, Douglas Caddy, wrote to Stephen S. Trott at the U.S. Department of Justice. In the letter Caddy claimed that Wallace, Billie Sol Estes, Lyndon B. Johnson and Cliff Carter had been involved in the murders of Henry  Marshall, George Krutilek, Harold Orr, Ike Rogers, Coleman Wade, Josefa Johnson, John Kinser and John F. Kennedy. Caddy added: “Mr. Estes is willing to testify that LBJ ordered these killings, and that he transmitted his orders through Cliff Carter to Mac Wallace, who executed the murders.” This is consistent with Billy Sol’s interview with French investigative reporter, William Reymond, during which he explained that Lyndon had sent his chief administrative assistant, Cliff Carter, down to Dallas to make sure that all the arrangements for the assassination were in place, which he reaffirms in A Texas Legend (2004).  Billy Sol knew both Cliff Carter and “Mac” Wallace personally, inferring their involvement from personal conversations. A copy of email correspondence between John Simkin of The Education Forum and Douglas Caddy may be found on amazon.com, which substantiates Lyndon’s use of Cliff Carter to convey instructions to “Mac” Wallace to commit those crimes.  Therefore stunned to discover that GHWB and “Mac” Wallace were both members of Skull & Bones at Yale. George H.W. Bush Coordinated the Dal-Tex Hit Team GHWB at the TSBD: a Houston oil man by Richard Hooke George H.W. Bush was working for the CIA at least as early as 1961; more than likely he was recruited in his college days, at Yale, when he was in the Skull and Bones Society. He and his wife Barbara moved to Houston where he ran an offshore oil drilling business, Zapata Offshore Co., which was a CIA front company with rigs located all over the world, making it very convenient for him to vanish for weeks at a time on CIA business where one would suspect what he was doing. Bush was a major organizer and recruiter for the Bay of Pigs invasion, which was codenamed Operation ZAPATA. Col. Fletcher Prouty, former Pentagon high ranking official, who was the basis for the “Col. X” character in Oliver Stone’s “JFK”, obtained two Navy ships for the operation that were repainted to non-Navy colors and then renamed HOUSTON and BARBARA. George H.W. “Poppy” Bush is one of the few who could never recall where he was or what he was doing when JFK was assassinated; as a matter of fact, for over 20 years, he could not recall any details at all. He was 39 years old at the time and chairman of the Harris County (Houston) Republican Party and an outspoken critic of JFK. But on 21 November 1963, GHWB was staying at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Dallas and spoke that very evening to the American Association of Oil Drilling Contractors. Some time later, he was reportedly at “the ratification meeting” at the home of Clint Murchison, Sr., receiving last minute instructions and toasting JFK’s murder the night before it happened. [NOTE: Madeleine Duncan Brown has written about this event in her book, Texas in the Morning (1997). It was corroborated by Nigel Turner in Part 9, "The Guilty Men", of "The Men who Killed Kennedy".] YouTube - Veterans Today - Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig reported to Jim Garrison he knew of twelve arrests made in Dealey Plaza that day. One, in particular, was made by R.E. Vaughn of the Dallas Police Department, was of a man coming out of the Dal-Tex Building, who said he was “an independent oil operator from Houston, Texas.” The prisoner was taken from Vaughn, by Dallas Police detectives, and that was the last he saw of him:  no mug shot, no interview, no fingerprints, or name is in existence of this mystery man. “Independent oil operator from Houston” was always George Bush’s (CIA) cover. Exactly why was he arrested? Garrison reported the man came running out of the Dal-Tex building and authorities could hardly avoid arresting him because of the clamor of onlookers. He was taken to the Sheriff’s office for questioning, although there is no record of it. Afterward, two officers escorted him out of the building to the jeers of the waiting crowd. They put him in a police car and he was driven away; presumably right back to Dealey Plaza, because that is where he was photographed with USAF Gen. Ed Lansdale. Indeed, he was identified walking past “the three tramps” (center) by no less authorities than L. Fletcher Prouty, the liaison between the Pentagon and the CIA for covert activities–who was the basis for the figure, “Col. X”, in Oliver Stone’s “JFK”, and Victor Krulak, former Commandant of the Marine Corps, both of whom knew him well. As for the identity of GHWB, we have these observations from Ralph Cinque, a professional chiropractor, who is an expert in dealing with person’s bodies and clothing, “The case for George HW being there is cinched. What’s the serious alternative? That a simply amazing coincidence occurred in which a man who  looked strikingly like him just happened to be there? How many times does V (for Vendetta in the film, “V for Vendetta”) have to tell us that he, like God, does not play dice and does not believe in coincidences? Neither do I or any other serious student of murder,  especially not when it involves the JFK assassination.” We have a photo of him standing in front of the Texas School Book Depository; we have photos of Ed Lansdale in Dealey Plaza at the time; and we have yet another in which Lansdale, who was famous for arranging assassinations around the world, waiting to speak to him.  In this case, it may justifiably be said that “pictures really are worth more than a thousand words”. The Phony Alibi The next we hear of George H.W. Bush on 22 November 1963 is an FBI Memorandum according to which GHWG, having been cut loose from his anonymous interrogation at the Dallas Sheriff’s Office, called into SAC Graham W. Kitchel of the FBI Office in Houston alleging was establishing a phony alibi in saying he recalled hearing, in recent weeks, a man named James Parrott talking of killing the President when he came to Houston. Shortly after Bush made this call, FBI agents were dispatched to the Parrot house. In another FBI memo Parrot’s mother said James, who was not home when the FBI arrived, had been home all day helping her care for her son Gary. Mrs. Parrot advised that shortly after 1 PM a Mr. Reynolds came by and talked to her son about painting some signs at Republican Headquarters on Waugh Drive. The net effect was Kerney Reynold’s, George Bush’s assistant, gave Parrot an alibi and Parrot was Bush’s alibi; everyone’s ass was covered. A bogus phone call reporting a would-be assassin who was one of Bush’s Republican Party sign-painters; who himself is also freed by an alibi from one of Bush’s buddies, really doesn’t cut it; this is CIA Alibi 101. This type of stuff cannot be allowed to stand in history; if Bush was so concerned about his sign painter, why didn’t he call in to alert the FBI before President Kennedy came to Dallas? Bush has handed us his head on a silver platter with this memo; that’s why he always said he didn’t remember what his was doing on 11/22/63; he was hoping this incredibly stupid memo never surfaced. Bush was worried he had been seen and subsequently panicked and stupidly called the FBI, thinking he was being clever by providing evidence that it wasn’t him that was arrested in front of the Dal-Tex building that day. It seemed like a good idea, at the time, but he was actually creating a permanent record of his involvement. The memo identifies Bush as an oil man from Houston placing a long distance call from Tyler, Texas. Bush was trying to establish he was not in Dallas during, or shortly after, the assassination. He must had been worried that someone would identify him as the oil man detained running out of the Dal-Tex building and being ushered in and out of the Dallas Sheriff’s office. This FBI memo, dated 22 November 1963, states that Bush called from Tyler, Texas but there is no proof he was actually there. For over 20 years after the assassination, Bush said he did not remember where he was when the assassination took place at 12:30 PM in Dallas.  The only other person of whom I hae heard such a story was Richard Nixon, who flew out of Love Field just two hours before JFK flew in. Conspicuously, this FBI memo fails to provide an answer to where George Bush actually was. The memo, however, does tell us that the first moment Bush was free to create a phony alibi was at 1:45 PM. Bush was staying in downtown Dallas at the Sheraton Hotel, just few blocks from Dealey Plaza, yet he’s trying to tell us he was in Tyler, Texas at 1:45 PM. George Bush’s CIA assignment was obviously in Dallas, that’s why he was staying there, so what would he have been doing in Tyler? JFK had just been shot at 12:30 PM. Would  Bush not have been in Dallas at 12:30 PM as well, like everyone else, which was presumably the reason for him having been in town at the Dallas Sheraton Hotel? Would Bush not have driven down the road to Parkland Hospital, to check on the President’s condition; like everyone else? Except Bush was being interrogated at the Sheriff’s Office. The FBI Memorandum Bush appears to be a candidate for prosecution for treason: his alibis for 22 November 1963 are fabricated and we have evidence that shows he was there. An FBI memo of a call from Tyler Texas does not prove his location, except that he had concocted a textbook CIA alibi, that he was lying and probably was an accessory to JFK’s murder. Bush maintained for over twenty years after the assassination that he simply did not remember what he was doing at the time of the assassination. As a matter of fact, he had no explanation even in his autobiography; and then, all of a sudden, he concocted a story that he was speaking in Tyler, Texas to The Rotary Club. Aubrey Irby said Bush was speaking when the bellhop came over and informed Aubrey that JFK was dead. Mr. Aubrey passed the info on to Mr. Wendell Cherry Irby, who passed it onto Bush, who stopped his speech. According to Irby, Bush explained he thought a political speech was inappropriate under the circumstances, concluded speaking and simply sat down. It is inconceivable that George Bush could not have remembered this event for over twenty years. Walter Cronkite’s announcement to the world that JFK was dead came on TV at 1:38 PM. Does anyone think that Bush was making a speech at that time, in Tyler Texas to the Rotary Club, after the President and Governor Connally were known to have been shot at 12:30 PM? President Kennedy had been scheduled to give a speech for lunch at the Dallas Trade Mart, after he passed through Dealey Plaza. Everyone who was anyone around Dallas was going to attend that speech; and after JFK was shot, most rushed to Parkland Hospital to find out the latest news concerning the gravely wounded President and Governor. A speech being given in Tyler Texas, inside a building owned by right wingers, to a group of Republican JFK haters, hardly qualities as evidence Bush was not in Dallas, where the available evidence suggests that he was on assignment for the CIA and was supervising the Dal-Tex hit team, from which three shots appear to have been fired with a Mannlicher-Carcano, which appears to have been the the only non-silenced weapon that was used: Bullet hole/Doorway Man/Dal-Tex window/Danny Acre and Johnny Rosselli(?) Next, George Bush can be seen in photos of Dealey Plaza, next to the TSBD doorway and Ed Lansdale, shortly following the assassination (see below). These photos, unmistakably George Bush, tell us where he went after he left the Dallas Sheriff’s Office: back to the crime scene to get an update on all that he had missed. He must have made his call to the FBI reporting James Parrot from the Dallas Sheriff’s Office, at 1:45 PM, because Bush is seen in Dealey Plaza with Lansdale, who would leave the plaza at about 2 PM and walked past the three tramps toward the parking lot. Bush obviously had to go straight back to Dealey Plaza to be photographed with Lansdale who remained around Dealey Plaza until Oswald was arrested at the Texas Theater at 1:50 PM. If Lee had not been arrested, then Lansdale as “Plan B” might have framed the three tramps–Charles Rogers, Charles Harrelson and Chauncey Marvin Holt (often misidentified as E. Howard Hunt)–who had been directed to go to a boxcar and the assassination have been blamed on them. Holt (CIA), the tramp with the hat, reported that they were found in the box car and taken through the plaza right after Oswald was arrested, which he knew because he was listening in, on a CIA provided radio concealed inside the paper bag that he is carrying in the familiar photos. An Incriminating Memorandum An FBI Memo from director J. Edgar Hoover (to the right), discovered by John McBride in 1988 but written just seven days after the assassination, provides verification George H.W. Bush was an officer of the CIA in 1963 and was provided updates on the anti-Castro Cubans. George Bush has said this memo was referring to another “George Bush” because he wasn’t in the CIA at the time.  But while there was another man by that name, he was a file clerk and would not have been receiving a memorandum about the Bay of Pigs operation.  And other information has surfaced showing the George Bush in the document was indeed George H.W. Bush and had his same address. In 1976, President Ford appointed George Bush as the Director of the CIA, replacing William Colby. Bush served in this role for 357 days, from 30 January  1976 to 20 January 1977. Bush falsely testified before Congress that he had never worked for the CIA, and it was widely reported that this was the first time that a civilian would be appointed to run the agency.  But that was more poppycock from Poppy. George Bush appears to have been a CIA lifer, probably recruited right out of Yale. George H.W. Bush (CIA) was also a close friend with George De Mohrenschildt (CIA), including they were both members of the Dallas Petroleum Club. After De Mohrenschildt was found shot to death the day before he was to be questioned by Gaton Fonzi for the HSCA reinvestigation of the deaths of JFK and MLK in the late 1970’s, Bush’s name and address were found in De Mohrenschildt’s address book: “Bush, George H.W. (Poppy) 1412 W. Ohio also Zapata Petroleum Midland.” CIA documents reveal that during the planning of the Bay of Pigs Operation (Operation Zapata), De Mohrenschildt made frequent trips to Mexico and Panama and gave reports to the CIA. His son-in-law also told the Warren Commission that he believed De Mohrenschildt was spying for the planned Cuban invasion. George De Mohrenschildt, notably, was Lee Harvey Oswald’s best friend and appears to have been his handler after Oswald was brought to Dallas in the fall of 1963 and would find work at the TSBD. Was Bush in the Window? In The Killing of a President (1994), Robert Groden observes that a dark-complected man was seen in the window, whom James Richards has identified to me as having been Nestor “Tony” Izquierdo, for whom there is a statue in Freedom Park of “Little Havana”, Miami, Florida.  He was an anti-Castro Cuban, whom GHWB may have known from the Bay of Pigs.  I have built upon the prior research of Duncan MacRae, “Dal-Tex Shooter 2nd floor”, which provides the most suggestive interpretation of the location from which three rifle shots appear to have been fired: Given that Bush was in the building at the time, I infer that he was there in the background, inside the window of a broom closet of a uranium mining company on the second floor of the Dal-Tex building (which was a CIA asset). My interpretation is that someone with GHWB’s preppy haircut, large left ear, tall height, body language (head tilt), hairline part and forehead profile, was supervising the Dal-Tex hit team (see collage below). He was in Dallas for a reason, which was not to watch the presidential motorcade, and appears to have been a supervisor rather than a shooter, were it is very likely he was communicating using a radio device with a spotter. That spotter may have been Danny Arce (CIA), who can be seen speaking into a walkie-talkie, out on Houston Street (in the Altgens6 photo above), standing next to Johnny Roselli (CIA/Mafia). Arce was talking with someone as multiple shots were fired. Ruth Ann (CIA) was reported (by complicit witness Loy Factor) to have been counting down a cadence and to have been receiving information by walkie-talkie from the 6th floor of the TSBD. Umbrella Man’s assistant, probably Orlando Boshe (CIA), was not talking on his radio as limousine passed the Stemmons Freeway sign and the Umbrella man pumped his umbrella up and down, which appears to have been a signal to “keep firing” because the target was still alive.  [NOTE: It was at a location that was visible from all of the shooting locations that I have identified above.] Chauncey Holt (CIA), the oldest of the tramps, said he had a CIA supplied radio, concealed in his brown paper bag that kept him updated on events even from inside the Rock Island Railroad boxcar. Holt had delivered 15 sets of fake Secret Service ID and left them in a red pick-up truck parked in the lot behind the  grassy knoll, which was used by the Dallas Police Department, earlier that morning, facilitating the escape of the grassy knoll shooters. And Lee Bowers, the railway tower switchman, also testified to the Warren Commission that he observed strange people driving behind the picket fence and noticed one using a walkie-talkie. Proof Sketch GWHB was there (1) The FBI report (memo) Bush called in at 11/22/63 1:45 PM identified him as an oil business man from Houston, Texas and the FBI office he called was the Houston office. (2) The man arrested running out of the Dal-Tex building at approximately 12:35 PM on 11/22 was said (per Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig) to have identified himself as an oil man from Houston. Bush was arrested by R.E. Vaughn of the Dallas Police Department. (3) Bush called his FBI warning about James Parrot by long distance to his friend, FBI Special Agent Graham W. Kitchel, at the FBI office in Houston. (4) James Parrot had no history as a subversive and was a sign painter for George Bush’s Republican Senate campaign. (5) James Parrot was quickly provided an alibi by another friend, who was also an assistant of Bush, Kerney Reynolds. (6) George Bush was staying in Dallas at the downtown Sheraton Hotel and had spent the previous night (of the 21st) there. (7) There are at least two photos of George Bush (CIA) in Dealey Plaza speaking with police shortly after JFK was shot at 12:30 PM. (8) One of those photos has Bush (CIA) standing next to Ed Lansdale (CIA). (9) One of the photos shows Bush near the TSBD doorway in a zone police had cordoned off, which would have taken special ID (CIA). (10) The photo next to Lansdale most likely was taken between 1:45 PM, when Bush called in his bogus FBI memo, and 2 PM, when Lansdale is pictured exiting the plaza passing the three tramps. The tramps were taken from the boxcar at approximately 1:50 PM, when Oswald was arrested at the Texas Theater. (11) For over 20 years George H. W. Bush said he did not remember what he was doing during the assassination, then he suddenly remembered he was giving a speech to the Rotary Club in Tyler at 1:38 PM, while his FBI call reporting James Parrot was placed at 1:45 PM. (12) His attendance with Malcolm “Mac” Wallace at Yale, when “Mac” was LBJ’s personal hit man and his attendance at the ratification meeting at the home of Clint Murchison, Sr., are powerful circumstantial evidence of his complicity in the assassination of JFK. POSTSCRIPT Remarkably, there is a figure (in the DCA film) walking off the corner of Houston & Elm and toward the Dal- Tex building, where “the oil man from Houston” (George H.W. Bush) had been arrested minutes earlier, who looks a great deal like his son, 17 year old George W. Bush.  This figures ear, nose (where a crude effort to change the nose has been made in the second of these three images), bridge indent and jawline are a very close match to George W. Bush, where the preppy loafers and white sox he’s wearing are cheerleader appropriate.  It looks like W. was there, too. Johnson's deceitful speech of Aug. 4, 1964, won accolades from editorial writers. The president, proclaimed the New York Times, "went to the American people last night with the somber facts." The Los Angeles Times urged Americans to "face the fact that the Communists, by their attack on American vessels in international waters, have themselves escalated the hostilities." An exhaustive new book, The War Within: America's Battle Over Vietnam, begins with a dramatic account of the Tonkin Gulf incidents. In an interview, author Tom Wells told us that American media "described the air strikes that Johnson launched in response as merely `tit for tat' -- when in reality they reflected plans the administration had already drawn up for gradually increasing its overt military pressure against the North." Why such inaccurate news coverage? Wells points to the media's "almost exclusive reliance on U.S. government officials as sources of information" -- as well as "reluctance to question official pronouncements on `national security issues.'" Daniel Hallin's classic book The `Uncensored War' observes that journalists had "a great deal of information available which contradicted the official account [of Tonkin Gulf events]; it simply wasn't used. The day before the first incident, Hanoi had protested the attacks on its territory by Laotian aircraft and South Vietnamese gunboats." What's more, "It was generally known...that `covert' operations against North Vietnam, carried out by South Vietnamese forces with U.S. support and direction, had been going on for some time." In the absence of independent journalism, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution -- the closest thing there ever was to a declaration of war against North Vietnam -- sailed through Congress on Aug. 7. (Two courageous senators, Wayne Morse of Oregon and Ernest Gruening of Alaska, provided the only "no" votes.) The resolution authorized the president "to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression." The rest is tragic history. Government releases complete Pentagon Papers for first time today... after 40 years of secrecy about the Vietnam War era Hero: Daniel Ellsberg, in file photo, was a government analyst when he leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971 Forty years after the explosive leak of the Pentagon Papers, a secret government study chronicling deception and misadventure in U.S. conduct of the Vietnam War, the report is released in its entirety. The 7,000-page report was the WikiLeaks disclosure of its time, a sensational breach of government confidentiality that shook Richard Nixon's presidency and prompted a Supreme Court fight that advanced press freedom. Prepared near the end of Lyndon Johnson's term by Defense Department and private foreign policy analysts, the report was leaked primarily by one of them, Daniel Ellsberg, in a brash act of defiance that stands as one of the most dramatic episodes of whistleblowing in U.S. history. The National Archives and presidential libraries released the report in full Monday, long after most of its secrets had spilled. The release is timed 40 years to the day after The New York Times published the first in its series of stories about the findings, on June 13, 1971. The papers showed that the Johnson, Kennedy and prior administrations had been escalating the conflict in Vietnam while misleading Congress, the public and allies. As scholars pore over the 47-volume report, Mr Ellsberg says the chance of them finding great new revelations is dim. Most of it has come out in congressional forums and by other means, and Mr Ellsberg plucked out the best when he painstakingly photocopied pages that he spirited from a safe night after night, and returned in the mornings. He told The Associated Press the value in Monday's release was in having the entire study finally brought together and put online, giving today's generations ready access to it. Press freedom: Katharine Graham (with Bobby Kennedy in 1968) led The Washington Post through the Pentagon Papers era At the time, Mr Nixon was delighted that people were reading about bumbling and lies by his predecessor, which he thought would take some anti-war heat off him. But if he loved the substance of the leak, he hated the leaker. He called the leak an act of treachery and vowed that the people behind it 'have to be put to the torch'. He feared that Mr Ellsberg represented a left-wing cabal that would undermine his own administration with damaging disclosures if the government did not crush him and make him an example for all others with loose lips. It was his belief in such a conspiracy, and his willingness to combat it by illegal means, that put him on the path to the Watergate scandal that destroyed his presidency. Mr Nixon's attempt to avenge the Pentagon Papers leak failed. First the Supreme Court backed the Times, The Washington Post and others in the press and allowed them to continue publishing stories on the study in a landmark case for the First Amendment. Then the government's espionage and conspiracy prosecution of Mr Ellsberg and his colleague Anthony J. Russo Jr. fell apart, a mistrial declared because of government misconduct. The judge threw out the case after agents of the White House broke into the office of Mr Ellsberg's psychiatrist to steal records in hopes of discrediting him, and after it surfaced that Mr Ellsberg's phone had been tapped illegally. Battled: President Richard Nixon at first supported release of the Pentagon Papers, then decided to aggressively stop the leak That September 1971 break-in was tied to the Plumbers, a shady White House operation formed after the Pentagon Papers disclosures to stop leaks, smear Mr Nixon's opponents and serve his political ends. The next year, the Plumbers were implicated in the break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate building. Mr Ellsberg remains convinced the report - a thick, often turgid read - would have had much less impact if Mr Nixon had not temporarily suppressed publication with a lower court order and had not prolonged the headlines even more by going after him so hard. Mr Ellsberg said, 'Very few are going to read the whole thing. That's why it was good to have the great drama of the injunction'. The declassified report includes 2,384 pages missing from what was regarded as the most complete version of the Pentagon Papers, published in 1971 by Democratic Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska. But some of the material absent from that version appeared - with redactions - in a report of the House Armed Services Committee, also in 1971. In addition, at the time, Mr Ellsberg did not disclose a section on peace negotiations with Hanoi, in fear of complicating the talks, but that part was declassified separately years later. Mr Ellsberg served with the Marines in Vietnam and came back disillusioned.

Anti-war protests in the United States. New York: pacifist protesters march and demonstrate against the United States involvement in the Vietnam War from the Central park to the UN headquarters building. Masses of people including doctors,teachers and businessmen on streets. People dressed in different costumes as they protest. Martin Luther King, an African American civil rights activist walks with other officials advocating peace. Policemen drag a protester. San Francisco : 50000 people carry banners as they protest and march to the Kezar Stadium for a mass assembly. People push each other during the protest. A huge crowd gathered at a stadium. Location: United States. Date: April 18, 1967. Vietnam protesters at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco during one of many rallies around the country as part of the April 1967 "Spring Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam."

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