Air Force One Radio Transmissions Combined Transcript /Annotated

Air Force One Radio Transmission Transcript – D1 Version

LBJ Library – Clifton Tapes Combined w/Annotation & Commentary

Transcribed by William E. Kelly, Jr. Any corrections, questions or comments bkjfk3@yahoo.com] Updated July 26, 2013

Comments by Bill Kelly (BK), Douglas Horne (DH), David Lifton (DSL), Max Holland (MH), w/ more to come. 

ANNOTATED TRANSCRIPT - AIR FORCE ONE RADIO TRANSMISSIONS

Tape I - AIR FORCE ONE RADIO TRANSMISSIONS – November 22, 1963. 

Editor Notes: LBI Library version is timed by taped numbers in (paranthesis)

Clifton/Raab/NARA version is timed by taped numbers in [brackets]

Chronology in real time CST, when it can be determined, is {and Appendix 4 X}.

A Joint audio version is currently being produced.

Annotation is highlighted by name of commentator.

Doug Horne (DH) ARRB memorandum Subject: Air Force One Audiotapes Procedures: The audiotapes at NARA must be listened to in Suite 4000 at Archives II. An incomplete “transcript” of the edited audiotapes can be found in LBJ library box # 19. The LBJ transcript from LBJ has appended to it many of the USSS-WHCA code names used by personnel onboard SAM 26000, SAM 86972, and at the White House situation room; additional code names found on the tapes can be found on pages xxi and xxii of Death of a President, by William Manchester.)

Bill Kelly Notes: Wm. Manchester, T. H. White and Pierre Salinger apparently read and quote from a transcript of the complete unedited tapes, which have yet to publicly surface. Liberty station when it is the Collins Radio relay station in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is misidentified on the LBJ Transcript as White House or WHCC. A more complete list of code names: See Footnote A1.

DH: The Air Force One tapes presently held by NARA are 3 edited cassette copies provided by the LBJ library, and are identified as follows: LBJ Library Cassette No. Identifiers NLJ 3 SRT 969-1; NLJ 4 SRT 969-2; NLJ 5 SRT 969-3. Total length of the recorded material on these edited tapes is estimated at about 2 hours; without running a stopwatch a more precise estimate is not possible, since the 3 cassettes used for the transfer by the LBJ library are not uniformly filled with material. For example, the second side of tapes NLJ 4 and NLJ 5 are almost 100% blank, and the first side of tape NLJ 3 is not completely filled.

Listen to the LBJ Library audio version at Mary Ferrell:
http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/Audio_-_Other

Reel 1, Side 1 (30:55) Reel 1, Side 2 (30:57) Reel 2, Side 1 (29:42) Reel 2, Side 2 (30:06)

The Clifton Tape picks up about 35 seconds into LBJ Library tape and they often overlap, but both contain unique content, so while the Clifton/NARA version is 40 minutes longer, the LBJ Library tape contains content not on the longer tape. So there is unique content on each version.

The Clifton Tapes, found among the effects of the President’s military aide Gen. Clifton, and discovered by Nathan Raab at the Raab Collecition, in Philadelpha, Pa., included two identical reel to reel tapes, one of which Raab donated to the NARA and is now available on line from the NARA/GPO. Raab is marketing the other copy for $500,000. For more on Clifton see: Appendix: Clifton.

Listen to the Clifton/Raab audio version from NARA

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-NARA-JFK-ASSASSINATION-AUDIO/content-detail.html

DH: Four radio frequencies were identified as the means of communications between parties onboard aircraft SAM 26000, SAM 86972, and the White House Communications Agency in Washington, namely: 11176 MHZ (Upper sideband); 15011 MHZ (Upper Sideband) 13247 MHZ (Upper sideband) 18027 MHZ (Lower sideband)

DH: A typed summary prepared by Master Sergeant John C. Trimble, USAF (the WHCA technician who was the radio operator onboard Air Force One during the flight from Dallas to Washington on November 22, 1963) says: “I…had three phone patches going simultaneously most of the time.”

BK: To read Trimble’s complete report and other reports by radio operators see: [ A2 ]

DH: Since total fight time, from takeoff from Love Field, until “on the blocks” at Andrews AFB was 2 hours and 17 minutes, the unedited audiotapes could conceivably be as long as 7-9 hours in total duration. One serious problem with the edited Air Force One tape is that the listener does not know which frequency {i.e., “patch”} he is listening to at any one time, or whether or not the various conversations which are condensed onto the tape are recorded in the proper time sequence, and they apparently are not.)

Gary Mack GM: …Audio cassettes first became available in the early 70s, which indicates the LBJ copies were dubbed years after the assassination.  Since it is unknown what those cassettes were dubbed from, there’s no way to estimate how much radio time was recorded…What’s probably missing, it seems to me, is the pre-takeoff chatter from the moment everyone became aware of the shooting until just before takeoff more than two hours after the assassination and nearly an hour after the arrest of Oswald. And even then, we don’t know if the pre-takeoff material was recorded by anyone…[Gary also argues that we don’t know anything is missing from the material available, but we do, since White, Manchester and Schlesinger all quoted material from a transcript of conversations that aren’t available.]

DH: An unidentified voice informs the listener at the outset of the first cassette (NLJ 3) that the recording is “edited and condensed.” The agency or organization which performed the editing is not identified either.

BK: While the tapes are labeled White House Communications Agency WHCA, Maj. Harold Patterson, USA Signal Corps, who worked for the WHCA and was in charge of the White House Situation Room at the time of the assassination, said that the WHCA did not perform editing functions. [For more on Patterson see: Appendix A3   ]

AIR FORCE ONE RADIO TRANSMISSION TAPE - LBJ LIBRARY VERSION

LBJ TAPE: Reel 1, Side One

(00:01) Tape Begins with Announcer’s Introduction:

“The following recording has been reproduced from ground recorded non-high fidelity tape to re-cord record patch communications of Air Force One also includes eight, six, nine, seven two (86972) – the Cabinet plane carrying Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Presidential Secretary Pierre Salinger and other dignitaries enroute between Honolulu and Japan. The following information relative to presidential aircraft radio call signs is given for clarification due to interchangeable use. Air Force One and Angel are used when the President is aboard the aircraft, Air Force Two-Six-Thousand (26000) is used at all other times. This tape has been edited and condensed to contain only pertinent information relative to events during 22nd of November, 1963. Only material available from radio circuits used is available.”

DH: The Air Force One tapes commence when the Presidential aircraft (Special Air Mission, or “SAM” 26000) is still on the ground at Carswell AFB near Fort Worth, Texas on the morning of November 22, 1963; as the tape begins, President Kennedy has not yet boarded the aircraft following the Fort Worth breakfast event, so the aircraft is not yet referred to as “Air Force One.” The LBJ tapes include the flight from Carswell AFB to Love Field outside Dallas before the assassination, and the flight from Love Field to Andrews AFB outside Washington DC after the assassination.

BK: For easier reference and referral all of the conversations are broken into “patches” and numbered and timed according to tape counter.

LBJ Tape Reel 1, Side 1 (30:55)

Tape 1- Patch 1

T1-1

1 - 86972 [Cabinet plane], Andrews [Air Force Base]. You are readable at this time, sir. Also be advised Two-Six-Thousand [26000 – Air Force One, aka “Angel”] (is) coming up on this frequency shortly. Request that you contact Andrews on One-Five, Sir. 

BK: The radio operator (at Liberty relay station) advises the radio man aboard the Cabinet plane that Air Force One will soon be in the air and that they contact Andrews over the 15011 MHZ frequency.

 2 - Okay, One-Five. Relay. Will be off Honolulu at seventeen oh-three estimated approximate windshift, 2-1-4-0-2-2.
3 - 86972, Roger, copy. Thank you much. 

T 1 - Patch 2

T1-2

1 - Break, Command Post, Air Force One, 1725. Carswell. [Ft. Worth SAC AFB]

2 - Air Force One, understand. Airborne. One, seven, two, five (1725) Zulu [Military Greenwich Mean Time]. Do you have an ETA? [Estimated Time of Arrival] Over.
3 - Estimated 40 minutes, enroute. I’ll show a log time in a couple of minutes.
4 - Roger, Air Force One. Command Post listening. Out.

BK: Air Force One advises that it has taken off from Carswell AFB in Fort Worth at 17:25 Zulu – GMT – (11:25 AM CST) For more on GMT see:  GMT footnote.

T 1 - Patch 3

T1-3

1 - Pickup 1700 Zulu, weather please.
2 - Standby One, I have weather officer I can give it to you now, if you are ready to copy. Over.
3 - Okay, go ahead.
4 - 1700 Zulu weather, 6000 broken, 15 miles plus visibility, temperature – five-seven, ramp temperature, six-two, wind southwest ten, altimeter setting two-niner, decimal eight-seven. I just talked with the Ramp and they indicate it is clearing rather rapidly there.
5 - Roger. Copy, thank you, out.
6 - Weather out.

LBJ Tape Reel One, Side One

T 1 - Patch 4

T1-4

1 - Andrews, Air Force One, the Command Post List.
2 - Andrews, Air Force One, standby.
3 - Command Post altimeter.
4 - This is Airman Gilmore

DH: At Andrews an “Airman Gilmore” answers for Andrews AFB throughout the tape and appears to be the central player attempting to facilitate all “patches.”

5 - I have Air Force One for a patch.
6 - Standby please.
7 - Air Force One, Air Force Command Post on the line, go ahead sir.
8 - Roger, Command Post, Air Force One, our estimated time on the block, Dallas will be One, Seven, Four, Zero….(1740)…
9 - Roger. I understand. Seventeen forty on the block.
10- Roger, Out. 

BK: Air Force One advises that it will arrive in Dallas at 17:40 (11:40 AM CST).

LBJ Tape Reel One, Side One

T 1 - Patch 5

T1 - 5

1 - Air Force One, Andrews.
2 - Roger, Roger Command Post, please.
3 - Standby sir.
4 - Command Post.
5 - I have Air Force One for a patch.
6 - Bring him up.
7 - Standby.
8 - Air Force One, Andrews. Command Post on the line, give them a call, sir.
9 - Roger

10- Command Post.
11- Air Force One on the ground 1738 Zulu.
12- Air Force One, understand. On the ground, seventeen thirty eight Zulu. Command Post listening.
13- Air Force One…..

BK: SAC Command Post in Omah, Nebraska or SAM Command Post in DC, requests AF1 ETA Dallas.

TAPE II - CLIFTON/RAAB/NARA TAPE

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-NARA-JFK-ASSASSINATION-AUDIO/content-detail.html

Clifton Tape – Begins – [00:00]

T 2 – Patch 1

T2-1

1 - Andrews Two Six Thousand   (26000) Delta

2 - 26000 Andrews Loud and clear.

3 - Roger, you are loud and clear, I will be monitoring this frequency.

4 - 26000 Andrews loud and clear. How do you read me now Larry?

5 - Roger. You are still loud and clear.

6 - …Okay Standing by.

[0035]

BK: These radio operators know each other and are on a first name basis

T 2 – Patch 2

T2-2

1 - White House Situation Room put in a priority one patch for me?

2 - Stand by sir.

3 - Yes.

4 - I have Liberty on the line for a priority one patch.

5 - Roger

6 - Stand by I’ll give you a call. Okay sir?

7 - I don’t know – [background conversation]

8 - Stand by One.

9 - Liberty, give him a call.

10 - Situation Room?

[0149]

BK: The White House Communication station is “Crown,” The White House Situation Room, in the basement of the White House, was established after the Bay of Pigs (April 1961), as a crisis “nerve center” by the President’s Navy Aide Tazwell Shephard, who is also mentioned on the tapes. For more on WHSR see: Appendix 5.

T 1/2 (3) – Patch 1
T3 – 1

TAPE 2 LBJ and Clifton Tapes Merge at this Point:
[0209]

LBJ Tape Reel 1 Side One
(Unintelligeable)...static.

1 - Air Force One?

2 - Liberty! Liberty? 
3 - Roger, I have White House Situation Room, SAM 86972,....Over.
4 - (Static) ... signal...unintelligable…..

5 - Eight Six Nine Seven Two 86972 do you read me? Over.
6 - White House?
7 - White House on.
8 - Standby. 

9 - White House, this is SAM 86972. How do you read? Over.

10- 86972, I read you loud and clear, loud and clear.
11- Roger, standby One, please, we have another phone patch going on with Sing Sing (CINAPAC) but we do have traffic for you, so hold on for one moment please.

12- Roger, Roger 86972. 

[0320]

BK: Here AF1, Liberty and the WH Situation Room are being paged by the Cabinet’s plane, but they are busy talking to another party on another frequency.

LBJ Tape Reel 1 Side One – Patch 5

T3 – Patch 2

T3 – 2   - Oliver Hallett in Situation Room

(6:30) [0357]
1 - White House, White House, this is Wayside, do you read me?
2 - This is White House. I read you loud and clear Wayside. Over.
3 - Can you give me the latest situation on President? Over.
4 - You want Situation Room? Is that a Roger?

BK: After hearing news reports from the wire service Pierre Salinger (aka “Wayside”) in the Cabinet Plane calls the White House (“Crown”) and asks for an official report, and “Crown” puts them through to the Situation Room in the basement, where Navy Aide Oliver Hallett answers.

5 - Repeat that transmission please?
6 - This is Crown, This is Crown. Do you want Situation Room? 

7 - I want the Situation Room That’s affirmative.

8 - Roger, Roger getting them now.

9 - Stand by Please.
10- Wayside, Wayside, this is Crown. Situation Room is on. Go ahead.
11- Situation Room. This is Wayside, do you read me? Over.
12- This is the Situation Room. I read you. Go ahead. (Oliver Hallett)

BK – For more on Oliver Hallett see: Appendix 7.

Max Holland – Unbeknownst to Commander Hallett, he is about to become a member of one of the world’s most exclusive clubs. Back in October 1959, Hallett and his wife were working for the U.S. mission in Moscow – Hallett as the naval attaché, Joan as a receptionist – when a twenty-year old ex-Marine walked in the door and loudly announced his intention to renounce his U.S. citizenship. The Halletts have never had a reason to remember the young man after that, except that in some obnoxious way, the name and the face of the ex-Marine were unforgettable. (See: Manchester, Death, p. 30-31). In about two hours Commander Hallett will be counted among the tiny number of people who can say they have met both John F. Kennedy and his accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. (The Kennedy Assassination Tapes, p.18).

13- [Salinger] - Give me all available information on President Over. 

14- [Hallett] - All available information on President follows. Ah,…Connally…He and Governor Connally of Texas have been hit in the car in which they were riding. We do not know how serious the situation is, we have no information. Mister Bromley Smith is back here in the Situation Room now. We are getting our information over the tickers. Over.   

15- [Salinger] - That is affirmative, affirmative. Please be advised that this is the plane on which the cabinet is on the way to Japan. Those heading to Honolulu are turning around and returning to Honolulu and will be there in about two hours. Over

16 [Hallett] - I understand. Those heading to Japan are turning around and heading to Honolulu and will be back there in two hours. Is that correct? Over. 

17- That’s Affirmative. Affirmative. Will need all information to decide whether some of this party should go directly to Dallas. Over.

18-  This is Situation Room. Say again your last please?
19- Will need to be advised to determine whether some members of this party should go directly to Dallas? Over.
20- Roger, you wish information as to whether some members of that party should go to Dallas.
21- Affirmative. Affirmative.
22- Do you have anything else, Wayside?
23- Any information you can give me as quickly as possible.
24- The Associated Press is coming out now with a bulletin that the President was hit in the head. That just came in. Over. 

25- Roger. Will get any new information to you. 

26- Where are you Wayside?

27 - Wayside is off the line. This is the radio operator. We are returning to Honolulu and should be back in Honolulu in about two hours. Will be in the air for about two hours and in to Honolulu and you can contact us on the ground there later.   

28- I understand. This is…..Hold, hold on the line there Wayside, we have some more information coming up. 

29-…right back.

[0640]

BK: Salinger has taken this information to Secretary of State Dean Rusk, the senior administration official on the Cabinet Plane, and the decision is made to return to Hawaii and fly on to Dallas or DC

T3 – Patch 3

T3 – 3 [0652]

1- Ah, Wayside, Wayside, this is Situation Room. I read from the AP bulletin. Kennedy apparently shot in head, he fell face down on the backseat of his car. Blood was on his head. Mrs. Kennedy cried “Oh no,” and tried to hold up his head. Connally remained half seated slumped to the left. There was blood on his face and forehead. The President and Governor were rushed to Parkland Hospital near the Dallas Trade Mart where Kennedy was to have made a speech. Over  

2 - I read that, over.
3 - This is Situation Room. I have nothing further for you now. I will contact you if we get more. 

4 - Wayside, Roger and out

5 - Situation Room out.

BK: From these reports it is quite clear that both the Cabinet Plane-86972 and the White House Situation Room are getting their first hand reports from the AP and UPI wire services or what they refer to as “over the ticker” as the reports are printed out over a ticker tape printer.

T3 – Patch 4

T3-4

[0740-1030]   

1 - Loud and clear.

2 - One thirty five…..Secretary of State….

3 - Roger, ….this…put them on this frequency…..stand by one, Andrews on two.  

4 - Give them a call Andrews

5 - Affirmative Andrews.

6 - Roger we have the aircraft and passengers ….

7 - Eight Six Nine Seven Two, we do not know the frequency…..

8 - Two Six Thousand.

9 - Will you have….give me a call please?

10- Stand by one sir.

[09:00]

11- Hello?

12- ….please?

13- This is Secretary Rusk. Give me eight, six, nine, seven two.

14- I’ll have….give you a call when he’s done.

15- I’ll hold the line.

16- Yes?

17- Copy Mr. Rusk….State Department is talking to…..

18- Mr. Ball back there.

19- State Dept. is not….

20- Well look…I want to talk to Ball.

21- Okay…Number one is trying….

22- I’ll wait.

23- Thank you

24- Okay, thank you.

25- I want a frequency open….

26- Please give…. a call please. ….

LBJ Tape Side One  

T 3 – Patch 5

T3-5
[1030]

1 - 26000, Andrews, I have the White House.

2 - Okay, thank you.

3 - And I want to keep this frequency open. 
4 - The frequency has been taken …
5 - …give ….a copy
6 - Roger.
7 - 86972 is good and readable. I have a party on that wants to talk to you. Stand by. 
8 - Standing by.
9 - Hello? What is your name again?
10- Jackson.
11- Mister Jackson?
12- Yes. 
13- Okay. Hold on line one.
14- 86972, 86972 I have a Mister Jackson, a Mister Jackson on. Will you give him a call, please? 

15- Mister Jackson, this is SAM 86972. How do you read me?
16- I read you very well 72. I would like to talk to Colonel Toomey or Colonel Holland please. Over.

17- Okay. Colonel Toomey is coming on right now, Stand by One please.

18 - Okay.
(11:35) [1130]

19- Roger. This is Colonel Toomey. Go ahead.
20- Colonel Toomey, this is Murray Jackson. The President of the United States has been shot and seriously wounded in Dallas, Texas. The President of the United States, John F. Kennedy has been shot and seriously wounded in Dallas, Texas. Governor Connally was also shot at the same time. Would you please get the message to Secretary of State Rusk, and I will stand by. Over. 

21- Roger, Murray. We have already received the news. We have the UPI on. We have turned around. We are returning to Hawaii. We are estimating Hawaii in one hour and twenty minutes. We will be on the ground in Hawaii in one hour and twenty minutes and will be returning to Washington or Dallas. We have another aircraft alerted to take part of the party to Dallas, and we are returning to Washington. Over. [1220]

22- Thank you very much Colonel Toomey. I will relay that information to Mr. Ball right away. Over and out. 
23- Okay, the secretary has talked with his office in Washington, I believe and also Pierre Salinger has been in contact with the White House from the aircraft. Over.
24-Okay thank you very much. Over and out

[1248]

BK: Col. Toomey is the pilot

T-3 – Patch 6

T3-6

LBJ Tape Reel 1 Side One

[1250]

1 - 26000, Andrews. Go ahead sir. 

2 - Loud and clear. A signal check please.  26000, I read you loud and clear, here also, sir. Stand by on this frequency.
3 - Right. Thank you. 

T 3 – Patch 7

T3 – 7

[1300]
Reel 1 Side One

1 - Andrews sideband. Airman Gilmore.
2 - Roger. Are you in contact with the party coming back from Tokyo? Go ahead.
3 - Yes sir. We’re going through Liberty airwaves for that aircraft. 

BK: As Airman Gilmore acknowledges here, these radio communications are being funneled and relayed through the Liberty Station – the Collins Radio “Fishbowl” at their HQ in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

4 – Roger, can you connect me with Wayside?   

5 - Standby One Six.
6 - Sir?
7 - Yes Sir? 

8 - There’s Mister Jackson running a patch to that aircraft at this time, would you like to listen in or would you like me to break the patch sir? 
9 - Ah, could I wait please?
10- Yes, you can standby. You’re number two.

[1333]

BK: Because we have some of the conversation with Murray Jackson, this appears to be a simultaneous transmission on another radio on another frequency, so there are more than one frequencies being taped at one time and more than one frequency on this tape.

T 3 – Patch 8

T3- 8

[1330]

1 - 86972, Andrews. 
2 - 86972.
3 - Roger, standby. I have another one.
4 - Who is this sir?
5 - This is the White House.
6 - Okay, standby please.
7 - 86972, 86972, Andrews, I have Crown on, will you give them a call sir   please? 

8 - This is 86972, go ahead.
9 - Roger, This is Crown, we wish a phone patch to Wayside. Go ahead.
10- Roger, standby for Wayside. 

11- Crown.
12- Roger, go ahead please. 

13- Crown this is Wayside. Go ahead. ‘

14- Go ahead please
15- Wayside? Wayside? This is Stranger. Do you read me? Over.
16- This is Wayside. Go ahead.
17- Kilduff has asked that all cabinet members return to Washington immediately. Over. 

18- We are enroute to Honolulu, where we have ah….Washington. Over

19- Roger Roger, will they notifiy us of time of arrival.

20-Situation…to  Dallas. ……Over

21- Roger, Roger, we do not have any firm….as to the exact status……go…..Dallas….Wayside…..go ahead.

22- ……..Wayside this is Stranger, over.

[1540]

BK: From the WH Situation Room, Maj. Harold Patterson (aka “Stranger”) relays orders from Kilduff in Dallas, officially recalling the Cabinet Plane-86972 to DC.

T 3 – Patch 9

T 3 – 9

[1553]

1 - Wayside Standby for Situation Room. Yea.

2 - Go ahead Wayside.

3 - Wayside, this is Situation Room. I read you the latest bulletin. President Kennedy has been given blood transfusion today at Parkland Hospital in an effort to save his life after he and Governor John Connally of Texas were shot in an assassination attempt. Over the TV we have the information that the governor has been moved to the operating room. The president is still in the emergency room at Parkland Hospital....Do you read me so far? Over

4 - I read you loud and clear.
5 - Wayside. This is Situation Room. Are you getting the press coverage or do you want us to continue to relay it to you? Over. 

6 - (garbled)….keep informed. Over
(15:18) [1644]

T 3 – Patch 10

T 3 – 10

[1658]

1 - This is Situation Room. Roger. New subject. We will have information for you on whether to proceed to Dallas by the time you land at Honolulu. Over
2 - Affirmative affirmative, also….Secretary of State….Dallas….Over.
3 - This is Situation Room. Roger. Will do. Get determination on whether Secretary of State should also go to Dallas. 
4 - Wayside. Out. Over.
5 - This is Situation Room. Out 

[1715]

T 3 – Patch 11 – “Stranger” – Harold Patterson Patch

T 3 – 11

[1722]

1- Liberty?

2 - Go ahead.

3 - 86972 86972 Andrews.

4 - 86972 You are loud and clear.

5 - Roger Give me the name, the real name of Stranger please….from the White House.       

6 - Say again the name. What is the name sir? Stranger.

7 - Stranger – S-T-R-A-N-G-E-R

BK: Salinger aboard the Cabinet Plane, on instructions from Dean Rusk, requests the real name of “Stranger,” the WH Situation Room officer who instructed them to return to DC. Salinger said they attempted to identify him from the official code book but it was missing from the Cabinet Plane’s safe.

8 - Command Post, will you give them a call? 

9 - We are returning to Hickam field….[ Hickam Field, Hawaii] three zero Zulu….We are standing by for more information…..

10-Stand by for just a moment sir.

11- Roger, Roger Seven two, Let us know when you are leaving Hickam and what your destination is.

12-Okay we will keep you advised, have Wayside give them a call.

13-86972 – Andrews.

14-Roger. In reference to request. A Major Harold R. Patterson, Major Harold R. Paterson.

[1842]

BK: Here, they identify “Stranger” as Major Harold R. Patterson, who Pierre Salinger personally knows as a WHCA officer who was then in charge of the WH Situation Room.

For more on Patterson see: Appenedix 8.

LBJ Tape Reel 1 - Side One

T-3 Patch 12

T 3 -12

[1859] [1906]

1 - Andrews talk to Wayside. The party is on the line now

2 - 86972 Andrews.

3 - Liberty?

4 - 86972. 86972.
5 - 86972. Andrews. I have a party that would like to talk to Wayside. Will you give them a call?
6- Wayside. The party is on the line now.
7 - 86972, I have a party that would like to talk to Wayside. 

8 - Wayside is coming on right now. 

9 - All right, fine there’s no rush. I’ll just talk to you here. This is the Situation Room. We’ll standby. We are looking for confirmation of something here.

10- Wayside,…Wayside.

11- Okay Wayside. Just standby for a moment please. We are getting confirmation now. Please stay on the line. We are getting confirmation now.

12- Wayside on the line.

13- Please stay on the line. This is Situation Room still on the line standing by. I read you loud and clear. Nothing further for you yet. 
14- Wayside. This is Situation Room.

15-We have ah conflicting reports now, so we have no confirmation. We will call you again. I have relayed your intentions and current position to the Front Office. Your office has the word. We will call you again when we get confirmation. Over. 
16- Okay This is Wayside. Out. 
[2048]

T – 3 Patch 13

T 3 – 13

LBJ Tape Reel 1 Side One

[2058]
1 - Andrews, 26000. Radio Check.
2 - 26000 (Two Six Thousand), Andrews, loud and clear.
3 - [Third voice] 26000, Liberty, loud and clear. Will you try to notify if you close down for good? Go ahead.
4 - Roger. Will do.
5 - Roger, Liberty. 

[2109]

T- 3 Patch 14

T 3 – 14

LBJ Tape Reel 1 Side One

[2113]

1 - Andrews. Sideband. Airman Gilmore. 
2 - Gilmore, this is Murray Jackson at State again. Can you get me Seven Two again? 

BK: 72 – 86972 – is the Cabinet Plane

3 - Could you say again, sir, you are very, very week. 

4 - This is Murray Jackson at the State Department. 
5 - Yes sir?
6 - I talked to Seven Two a little while ago. Can you get me Seven Two on a single sideband again?
7 - Mister Jackson, be advised that Seven Two is in a patch with the Situation Room at the present time sir. If you wish to standby. 
8 - That’s all right. They’re talking to them now?
9 - Yes sir. They are in a patch at the present time.
10- All right, very good. Can you listen in on this?
11- Ah, not from this console, no sir.
12- Well, what we want to tell the plane is that Under Secretary Ball requests that the Secretary and all the passengers return directly to Washington instead of going to Dallas.  13- Yes sir, I believe they received that message sir.
14- Very good. Thank you.
15- Thank you very much sir.
16- Oh, hello?
17- Yes sir?
18- One other thing. The Secretary is supposed to call Mrs. Ball when he gets on the ground in Honolulu.
19- Okay sir, we’ll relay that as soon as possible.
20- Thank you very much. 

[2210]

T – 3 Patch 15

T 3 – 15

LBJ Tape Reel 1 Side One - Patch 12 

[22:16]

1 - Andrews sideband, Airman Gilmore.
2 - Airman Gilmore, this is Murray Jackson again at the State Department.
3 - Yes sir?
4 - The message I just gave you about Mr. Ball wanting the Secretary and all of the passengers of the plane to return directly to Washington has now been reconfirmed by McGeorge Bundy who has also said that the plane and all its passengers should return immediately to Washington, rather than Dallas. 

5 - Standby sir.
6 - All right.

[2240]

T 3 – Patch 16

T 3 - 16

[2307]
1 - 86972. 86972. Andrews. 
2 - Andrews. Loud and clear. Loud and clear. You have Mister Jackson on the line. Would you give him a call sir?
3 - Mister Jackson, 86972. Go ahead sir.
4 - I have a message from Undersecretary Ball and from McGeorge Bundy at the White House. They request that the Secretary of State and ALL passengers aboard the aircraft return to Washington immediately. Over. 

5 - Roger. The message is from Undersecretary Ball and Mr. Bundy advised that the Secretary of State and ALL passengers return to Washington immediately. Over.
6 - That is correct. Over and out.
7 - Okay. Thank you. 

[2351]

T 3 – Patch 17

T 3 17

LBJ Tape Reel 1 Side One

[2400]
1 - Start again please, the party is on.
2 - Be advised there’s another patch from Wayside. Do you with to break Command Post?
3 - Yea, break it.
4 - Yes sir.
5 - 86972, 86972, Andrews. 

6 - 972. Go ahead. 
7 - Roger sir, I have Crown on. Will you give him a call sir?
8 - Crown. Go ahead.
9 - This is Situation Room. Relay following to Wayside. We have report quoting Mr. Kilduff in Dallas that the President is dead. That he died about 35 minutes ago. Do you have that? Over. 

(22:43) [2447]

10- The President is dead. Is that correct?
11- That is correct. That is correct. New subject. Front Office desires plane return Washington with no stop Dallas. Over. 
12- Wayside, copy. All okay. We return direct to Washington without stopping in Dallas.
13- This is Situation Room, out. 

[ 2507]

T 3 – Patch 18

T 3 – 18

LBJ Library Reel 1 Side One

[2517]
1 - Andrews, give me the Situation Room please.
2 - 972 Andrews, standby, one sir.
3 - Crown on.
4 - Situation Room please. 

5 - Thank you.
6 - (phone ringing) Yea?
7 - Is this the Situation Room?
8 - Yes.
9 - This is sideman, I have 972 on sideband for another patch sir.
10- 972 again.
11- This is Situation Room.
12- Standby sir.
13- 972, I read you.
14- This is Situation Room. Over. 
15- Situation Room, 972. Wayside would like to know the whereabouts of the Vice President. Over.
16- Yes (Background conversation) Alright…He wants to know where the Vice President is in Dallas….right….
17- Ah, Wayside, from Situation Room. The Vice President is in the hospital building, Parkland Hospital, in Dallas. He is not injured. I repeat, not injured. Over.
18- I copy. I will call you right back.
19- Right. 

[2628]

T – 3 Patch 19

T 3 – 19

LBJ Tape Reel 1 Side One  

[2638]

1 - Andrews, 26000. Standby to take off.
2 - 26000.
3 - Andrews, 972, Command Central….
4 - Roger…..Command Post.
5 - I have 972 for a patch. 
6 - All right. Go ahead.
7 - 86972, Andrews, Command time, go ahead sir. 
8 - SAM Command, 86972, and we are returning directly to Washington, as latest instructions are to return direct to Washington from Hic Cup. [Hickam Field, Hawaii] Hic Cup is working up a flight plan and as quick as we can get the enroute time and on the ground time, we will give you an ETA Washington. 
9 - Roger, Roger 72. Can you give me your present ETA for Hickam?
10- In about 45 minutes was the last one that I heard. It should be about twenty-thirty Zulu... I’ll get you a more accurate one if you’ll stick around a little bit…
11- Zulu over.
12- Roger, Roger. As far as you know right now you’re coming directly to Washington? Is that affirmed? 
13- That is correct. Over.
14- Roger 72. Give us any changes that you have sir.
15- Okay, will do.
16- 26000. Andrews.
17- Loud and clear sir.
18- Roger, you are both loud and clear. 

19-I hear you both loud and clear.
20- 26000, do you copy my teletype?
21- 26000 is…outbound.
22- Okay. He’s too busy over there. 

23- Right.
24- You might want to check with him to make sure that he’s getting through.
25- Okay, standby.
26- 26000. Andrews, coming up.
27- 26000, check please.
28- 26000 Andrews. Loud and clear.
29- 26000 Andrews. Loud and clear.
30- We’ll be moving out pretty soon. 
31- 86972. Right sir. Standing by. 

[2900]

T – 3 Patch 20

T 3 – 20

[2910]
1 - 972 Andy, go ahead sir.
2 - Okay, we’re coming pretty close to Honolulu landing ah. I don’t know if we’ll be able to or not but I’m going to or not but I’m going to try to keep this equipment up, ah, but I’m not certain I’ll be able to do it. Understand that thirteen is pretty good. ….Is that correct? 
3 - This is Andrews. That is affirmed. 26000 is now getting ready to take off. He’s on One Three. If you standby, One, I’ll confer with Liberty and see what frequencies, in case you do drop out, what frequency we’ll have standing up on waiting for your call. 
4 - Okay, do that. Get them all set up. I might not be able to keep it open.
5 - Roger. Standby One. 
6 - Okay, Liberty? Yea, we got One Three and One Five up right now, besides this one going through you. I don’t know if One Three is going to be all tied up or not. And ah, what frequencies do you think you can have set up in case he drops out on so you he’ll know what frequencies we’re listening on? 
7 - I’ll be on One Eight, One Five and One Three. And we can hold him on eighteen for a while because we got Newport Jerry up there. 

8 - Right. Do you have another one, a little bit lower maybe?
9 - We’ll drop down from eighteen to fifteen to thirteen.
10- How about Tripple One? 

11- We have that too.

12- Tripple lower?
13- Ah, on the sideband.
14- Okay, I’ll tell him we’ll be on eighteen, thirteen, fifteen and Triple One, all uppers, right? 
15- All right.
16- Except this one, we’re on lower.
17- Go ahead.
18- Okay.
19- 86972, Andrews. 
20- Roger, Andrews is going to be standing by and Liberty on Triple One upper, Triple One Seven Six upper, One Five Zero One One upper, One Five Zero One One upper, One Three Two Zero Four Seven upper and this frequency One eight zero two seven, lower, sir.
21- Okay, very good, I’ll keep in touch.  

22- Roger 

T – 3 Patch 21

T 3 – 21

[3115]
LBJ Tape Reel 1 Side One

[3121]

1 -86972 Go ahead.
2 - Air Force Command Post, this is mission 137, mission One, Three, Niner, arriving Honolulu Two Two diagonal, Two Six, Zulu, ATV, Two One One five Zulu for Andrews, over.
3 - 86972, Roger, Andy, copy and standing by sir.
4 - Okay, I’ll be on this frequency and I’ll advise you when I leave it.
5 - Roger sir. 

T - 3 Patch 22

T 3 – 22

LBJ Tape Reel 1 Side One

[3147]

1 - Two Six Thousand. 26000
2 - Give me Crown please.
3 - Just a minute.

[32:21]

1 - Crown. (1) Crown

DH : 1 – “Crown” is the WHCA codename for the White House West Wing

2 - 26000 for a patch.
3 - Roger.
4 - Crown on. Go ahead.
5 - Roger, Crown, 26000, will you get a patch with Jerry Behn please?
6 - Roger, stand by. 

T – 3 B – Patch 1

T3B – 1

1 - 26000. Duplex (2 – Duplex) is on, go ahead. 

DH: 2- “Duplex” was the WHCA name for SAIC Gerald Behn, Head of the Secret Service White House Detail.

2 - Standby One.
3 - Hello?
4 - Okay.

5- (OK) Jerry? (3 – Digest)

DH: 3 – “Digest” was the WHCA codename for ASAIC Roy Kellerman, who was the Secret Service Agent in charge of physical security for the Texas trip. He was riding in the right front seat of the Presidential limousine during the assassination.

6 - Hello?

7- Go ahead.

8- We’re at the airport 26000, everybody’s aboard.

END Reel 1, Side 1

(30:55) [3251]

LBJ Tape Reel 1 Side Two

(30:57) [33:12]

9 - Duplex - Okay, go ahead. 

10 - We are waiting for the swearing in at the plane before take-off. 
11 - Of, the….That’s Volunteer? (4 Volunteer)

DH: 4 – Volunteer was the WHCA codename for Vice President Lyndon Johnson.

12- Roger. 

13- Say again, Roy, say again. 
14- We are waiting for a judge to appear for a swearing in.
15- That’s for Volunteer, is that right? 

16- Yes. We are having it done here before we takeoff Jerry.
17- That’s an affirmative. Do you have any idea yet what Lace (5 – Lace) wants to do and what Volunteer wants to do on their arrival here? 

DH: 5 – “Lace” was the WHCA codename for First Lady Jacqueline B. Kennedy.

18- No. But I will call you back. (Suggest)…we have 2 hour 15 flight into Andrews. We have a full plane with at least 40.

19- Okay, go ahead. 
20- I’ll have to call you again as to body, however, I’m sure the Volunteer’s party will go over….(his car)....and so forth…we will….(need)….be there with several others….
21- All right, let me know what Volunteer wants to do when they land. If they want to come into Crown by helicopter? -6) Crown
22- That’s a roger, I’ll call you again.
23- Okay. 

[3414]

DH 6:“Crown” was the WHCA codename for the White House Situation Room, in the West Wing of the White House.

TB 3 – Patch 2

TB 3 – 2

LBJ Tape Reel 1 Side 2 

[3420]

1 - 26000, Andrews
2 - Okay, go ahead. 

3 - Stand by for…

4 - Okay give them a call. 
5 - Go ahead.
6 - Roger.
7 - Air Force Command Post

8 - Can you read me?

9 - 26000 go ahead.

10- Can you give me Estimated Time of Departure from Dallas? Over. 
11- From Dallas? Go ahead. 

12- Would you repeat your estimated time of departure from Dallas? Over
13- Roger. It could be estimate in the next ten minutes. Go ahead.
14- Roger. Could you give me a call when you’re airborne? And can you give me any additional information? 

15- Not at this time.
16- Roger. Thank you.
17- Will call on takeoff. 

TB 3 – Patch 3 C

TB3 – 3 C

[3507]

Clifton/Raab Tape Patch #2b (Not on LBJ Library Tape)

[3512]

1 - Andrews, Air Force One.
2 - Air Force One, Andrews, go ahead sir.
3 - Andrews, - Roger, standby. 
4 - Andrews Air Force Base. 

5 - Air Force Command Post….

6 - Air Force One, standby please.
7 - Air Force One, Andrews. Give them a call please.

8 - Command Post, Air Force One, how do you read?
9 - Fine, (Roger) sir. Go ahead.
10- ...Dallas... (20 Two – O)… Four seven (4-7) Zulu will call in a couple of minutes for (with ah) block time for Andrews. (7)

DH: 7 – Air Force One appears to have just taken off from Love Field in Dallas, Texas, and is giving its actual takeoff time in “Zulu time,” or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which was (and still is) the standard for all military communications. “Andrews,” of course, refers to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, south of Washington, D.C. Andrews AFB was the permanent home of SAM 26000, the Presidential aircraft, and was the landing site whenever the destination was Washington D.C. After an aircraft comes to a complete stop it is put “on the blocks” – blocks or chocks, are literally placed around its tires, to prevent it from moving. In Air Force parlance, “block time” is the formal designation for the end of an aircraft’s journey. Because an aircraft has to taxi after landing until it reaches its assigned berth, the “block time” is usually a few minutes after “touchdown” or time on the ground.

[3558]

11- Do you have an approximate block time, sir? 

12- Ah, Well, two plus one zero go ahead.
13- Two plus one zero. And do you have any passengers on board?
14- Roger. Forty plus.
15- Do you have Mrs. Kennedy on board?
16- Affirmative. I’ll call you back, Command Post.
17- All right, sir. Air Force One, Andrews. I have SAM Command Post standing by sir. 

BK: SAM – Special Air Mission is out of Andrews AFB in DC and is responsible for air transport of the President, the Cabinet and all top military commanders

18- Command Post, Air Force One, go ahead.

19- Stand By One Sir.

20- Give Air Force One a call please.

21- Air Force One. (SAM Command Post, go ahead).
22- Roger, Roger. You called me, go ahead sir.

23- (Sergeant) This is Colonel Hornbuckel in Operations. We have a request from staff officer. (8. ie Chief of Staff)

[36:48]

BK: For more on Col. Hornbuckel see: Appendix 9.

DH:8 - The “Chief of Staff” clearly refers to Air Force Chief of Staff Curtis LeMay. General LeMay was in Canada on the day of the assassination, in or near Toronto, for reasons unknown. The evidence for this is the “Chuck Holmes Logbook” passed to the ARRB by an Air Force civil servant who said he rescued the logbook from the trash. The log records the content of the conversations between the 1254^th Air Transport Wing Command Post at Andrews AFB, and various aircraft on special air missions, and details how one special air mission was sent to Canada to pick up General LeMay on the day of the assassination. A recent biography of General LeMay, by Warren Kozak, incorrectly states on page 356 that LeMay was on a hunting trip in Michigan when he learned of JFK’s assassination. LeMay: The Life and Wars of Genearl Curtis LeMay, was published in 2009. The Chuck Holmes Logbook was released to the general public by the National Archives in the autumn of 1998.

24- [Hornbuckel] – [LeMay wants] (to know) Do you have Mr. Johnson and Mr. Kennedy’s body on board? 
25- Okay, Air Force One. Affirmative on all those questions. Go ahead. 
26- Roger, thank you very much. Out. 

[36:09]

TB3 – Patch 4

TB3 – 4

[3707]
LBJ Tape Reel 1 Side Two - Patch 3

1 - Air Force One for a signal heck.
2 - Air Force One, Andrews, loud and clear.
3 - Loud and clear, Liberty.
4 - Roger.
5 - Scott, loud and clear. 
6 - Air Force One, I have……standing by. 

7 - 26000 26000 SAM Command Post. (9 SAM Command Post)

[3731]

DH: 9: “SAM” is an Air Force acronym that stands for “special air mission.” It is normally used in conjunction with the tail number of an individual aircraft, such as “SAM 26000” or “SAM 86972.” [AF1 and the Cabinet Plane]

8 - Air Force One, go ahead please.
9 - Roger, Air Force One, are you airborne at present? Are you airborne at present?
10- Affirmative. Airborne at Two Zero Four Seven, 2047. Estimated time on the block at Andrews is Two Three Zero Five – (2305 go ahead). 

11- Roger, Roger, I understand, (Departed at 2047, ETA (estimated time of arrival) Andrews, 2305, is that Charlie? 10) Charlie

[38:04]

DH: 10 The use of “repeat back procedures” was, and still is, common in military communications. It is a simple but effective way to confirm that the listener received the sender’s message accurately, and is particularly important in situations where the radio communications are tenuous and not “crystal clear,” which was the case on November 22, 1963. The quality of the radio communications between the various parties and Air Force One on 11/22/63 varied greatly throughout the 2 hour, 17 minute flight from Love Field to Andrews AFB. “Charlie” is military radio slang for “correct.”

12 - That is Charlie.
13 - Roger, Roger Air Force One, SAM Command Post clear. 

TB3 – Patch 5
TB3 – 5

[38:10]

1 - Air Force Command Post, go ahead.
2 - I have Air Force One standing by, stand by please.
3 - Air Force One, give Command Post a call please.
4 - Command Post, Air Force One. 

5 - Go ahead Air Force One, this is Command Post. 
6 - Okay, departure 2-0-4-7, estimated time on the block Andrews 2-3-0-5, and we are rounding off at flight altitude 2-9-0. Over.
7 - Roger, understand. Standby One, please. 

[3840]

TB3 – Patch 6

TB3 – 6

[3841]

1 - Go ahead.
2 - Air Force One, this is the Air Force Command Post. If possible, request the names of passengers on board please?
3 - We have forty plus. Go ahead.
4- Forty people, is that affirmative? 

5- That’s affirmative.
6- Can you tell me in regards as to ah, one and two, the top people? 

7- Roger. The president is on board, the body is on board, and Mrs. Kennedy is on board. 
8- All right. Can you confirm once again your takeoff time and your estimated time of arrival at Andrews?
9- Two Zero Four Seven (2047) take off time…Andrews, two three zero five. (2305)
10- Roger, thank you. This is the Air Force Command Post out. 

[3928]

TB3 – Patch 7

TB3 – 7

[3943]

1 - Call please?

2 - Air Force One Air Force Command Post Over.

3 - Roger we are estimating…two one…one...seven

4 - Roger 26000 Command Post Copy

5 - Air Force One – 970 ….John….wants to know on the ground if you have Congressman Thomas, Thornbury and Brooks aboard? Can you check that out for us?

6 - Say again, say again.

7 - Roger……needs to know if you have Congressman Thomas, Congressman Thornbury and Congressman Brookes aboard? Will you check?

[4010]

TB3 – Patch 8

TB3 – 8

1 - Air Force One, Command Post.
2 - Roger.
3 - Roger 26000
4 - Air Force One, give me a shout please?
5 - Air Force One, standby sir.
6 - Crown? This is….on standby please.
7 - Air Force One, Andrews, give them a call please.
8 - Air Force One, Andrews, give them a call please.
9 - Air Force One, Andrews, give them a call please.

10-Air Force One, Andrews, give them a call please.
11- Crown, Air Force One.

12- This is Crown, go ahead. 

13- We need a patch with Surgeon General of the Army Heaton.Go ahead.
14- Please repeat the message.
15- We need a patch with General Heaton. H-E-A-T-O-N the Surgeon General. Heaton present whereabouts….
16- Roger, Roger. That’s General Heaton, the Surgeon General of the Army. Over. 

17- That is correct. 
18- Roger, Roger, standby.
19- Air Force One, Crown. Standby please. This is the general now, over.
20- Command Post weather is 26000, please.
21- Okay, Air Force One, standby.
22- Roger.
23- We’re in a patch right now….Air Force one, Air Force One, Andrews on One Five, I’ll Copy sir.
24- Yes, sir?
25- You’ll have to hold on there. We’re in a long patch with the White House right now.
26- Right, I’ll hold. 

27 - Okay, sir.
28- 26000
29- One, Andrews.
30- Roger sir…give them a call….
31- Are we on….One…Eight….pick up on 14 meg….

32- We could try…frequency do you have blocked out there ….13 -18…also….
33- Roger and One, Five, Zero, One, One.
34- Roger….is that correct? [

35- Roger, one of them is. The other is a backup and the other is gong to be busy in a couple of minutes. 

36- Roger with the….
37- Roger, very good.
38- Roger, can you patch me with Air Force One please?
39- Who is this please?
40- This is Airman Stanz. 

41- Standby, you are number three.
42- Okay, right.   

43- Will you call me back through Command Post
44- Because this is taking quite a while and there’s no sense you holding onto the line….We’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
45- This is in regards to the Forecast….go ahead.
46- Okay, right sir.

47- Forcast….
48- Say again…..

[4250] –

TB3 – Patch 9

TB3 – 9

Reel 1 Side 2

[4302] (9:40) 

1 - Air Force One, Crown. Hello? 

2 - Give Crown a call please.

3 - Air Force One, this is Crown, do you read me? Over.
4 - Roger, Roger, Crown. Air Force One. 

5 - Hello?
6 - Air Force One, this is Crown. You were cut out. General Heaton is at Walter Reed Hospital. You will have to stand by just a moment or else let me call you back when I get him on the line. It will take about a minute to reach him. 

7 - Air Force One, Crown, do you Roger? 11) Roger  Over. 

[4330]

DH: 11) In military communications parlance, “roger” means “I understand,” or “I received your message clearly.”

8 - Crown, Roger. Try and get General Heaton, and in the meantime, try to get the Deputy Surgeon General. We will talk to either one. Go ahead.
9 - This is Crown. Roger. Will you standby, and let me call you back? Over.
10 - This is very important.
11 - Roger. I’ll put an emergency on it and we will get him as soon as possible.
12- Roger, Roger. 
13- We are standing by.
14- Roger. I’ll give you call in just a while. 

15- Air Force One Roger.
16- …Air Force One, go ahead. 

17-…Air Force One, Crown. 

18- ….standby for a message. 

19- This is Dr. Burkley

20- (Did you hear?)

21- Dr. Burkley, Dr. Burkley, this is Crown. You’re cutting out, you’re cutting out.

22- You’ll have to repeat, over.
23- This is Dr. Burkley. 12) Dr. Burkley) … I want to get in touch with General Heaton or General Heaton’s deputy. 

DH: 12)  Rear Admiral George G. Burkley, Medical Corps, U.S. Navy, was the Military Physician to President Kennedy. Early in the administration he did not hold a favored place at the White House, and was clipsed by Dr. Janet Travell, JFK’s private physician. Eventually he rose somewhat in prominence, and Dr. Travell’s influence waned. Burkley was convinced that Dr. Travell was administering too many procaine injections to JFK to combat his chronic back pain, and that as a result JFK’s back muscles were beginning to atrophy, and he was in danger of becoming a cripple who could not walk unaided. Burkley intervened in 1961 and insisted that President Kennedy be placed under the supervision of Dr. Hans Kraus, who placed JFK on a strict regimen of exercise to strengthen his back and abdominal muscles. Thereafter, Dr. Travell’s access to the President was limited. By the spring of 1962, Brukely and Kraus considered his general health to be “excellent.” Brukley was well aware of President Kennedy’s Addison’s disease, ad his many other ailments. RADM Burkley was the only physician who observed JFK’s wounds at both Parkland Hospital, in Dallas, and at his autopsy, conducted at Bethesda Naval Hospital. Burkley stayed after the assassination to serve President Lyndon Baines Johnson for his entire time in office as President, and was promoted by LBJ to Vice Admiral. Admiral Burkley told an oral historian that he had been in charge of JFK’s autopsy, and Dr. Boswell, one of the two Navy pathologists who conducted JFK’s autopsy, independently corroborated this when interviewed by the HSCA. Dr. James J. Humes, the chief prosecutor at the Bethesda autopsy (and Dr. Boswell’s superior in the chain-of-command), adamantly disagreed with this at his ARRB deposition. One HSCA deponent, Navy photographer Robert Knudsen, testified in 1978 that Dr. Burkley had played a key supervisory role in the developing and processing of President Kennedy’s autopsy photographs. The ARRB medical witness depositions revealed that many of the photographs taken at JFK’s autopsy never made it into the official collection which now resides in the National Archives. Dr. Burkley was also the last known person to sign for, and handle, key skull bone fragments (the Harper fragment, and the Burros fragment) which were found in Dealey Plaza, and then flown to Washington, D.C. - - bone fragments which are missing today.

[4444]

24- Dr. Burkley, this is Crown. We are working as fast as possible trying to get the call through for you. He’s at Walter Reed. We are unable to locate. Still searching. Over.

25- The Deputy must be in the General’s office over at the main Navy building.
26- Roger, Roger. If you’ll standby, we’ll try to reach him.
27- Market….This is Crown. You Roger? We’re trying to reach one of them. If you’ll standby, please. 13)

DH: 13. This statement was made by a different person than the preceding Crown statement.

[4515]

28- All right. Roger. 
29- Air Force One, on fifteen.
30- Air Force One, loud and clear.
31- Okay, do you have another line in to Crown?
32- This is Andrews. Roger.
33- Okay, go ahead. 

TB3 – Patch 10

TB3 - 10

LBJ Tape Clifton/Raab Tape

 (11:45) [4542]

1 - Roger.

2-  Stand by One.

3- Can you give me White House switchboard, please?

4 - Thank you. 
5 - Signal.
6 - Right….ah……
7 - Crown, are you still on?  I have Air Force One for a patch.
8 - Roger, Roger…Air Force One, Andrews, Crown is on, go ahead sir. 

9 - Air Force One Crown come in?  

10- Air Force One, Crown is on go ahead sir.

11- Call into Duplex please

12- Roger, Roger, Locating

13- Air Force One Andrews Copy Andrews Sir 

14- (Dots and dashes in background)

15- Air Force One Andrews you are transmitting one three Sir

16- Roger, Roger, how about the patch into Crown?

17- Crown is on.

18- Will you get a hold of Duplex for us please?

19- Roger, Roger. Duplex is on the line, go ahead. 

20- Digest, Duplex - 14)

[4730]

 DH: 14: Roy Kellerman reversed the normal mode of speech here; he should have said, “Duplex, [this is] Digest.”

DSL: About the radio transmissions made by Roy Kellerman: Every word spoken by SS Agent Roy Kellerman is important, because (a) he was the senior agent on the Dallas trip and (b ) President Kennedy's body was in the Dallas coffin when it was placed aboard Air Force One at 2:18 PM CST, and was not in that coffin when AF-1 took off at 2:47 PM. Roy Kellerman, the Assistant to the Special Agent in Charge ("ATSAIC") was on the scene --at Love Field in Dallas, and at Andrews Air Force Base. He had to know what happened; he had to be part of whatever happened.
And one other thing: it didn't happen by magic.

BK: Jerry is Gerald Behn, the head of the White House Detail who was officially on vacation but came into the office and they established a radio communications from Behn’s office phone to AF1.

20- Jerry? (Static) …Jerry we are arriving Andrews…eight oh five…rather….

21- Can receive, go ahead.

22- Helicopter….Johnson party…south lawn.

23- Say again, say again.

24- Air Force one is patch line is not as good

25- You are very week on one five. Can you take me one five lower?

26- One five lower?

27- This frequency is lower sideband. Lower sideband.

28- Can you take me down frequencies?

29- This is Duplex, this is Duplex.

30- Arrival Andrews, Six-Zero-Five, standby. 

31- Ambulance to take Body to Walter Reed.

32- Repeat please, Repeat please.

33- Ambulance to transport body to Walter Reed. Over.

34- Say again.

35- Ambulance to Walter Reed, to transport body.

36- Arrangements have been made for a helicopter for the Bethesda Naval Medical Center.

37- Stand by Jerry we’ll have to get Berkley again.

38- Say again, I cannot read, I cannot read.

39- Stand By

40- He’s on Lower

41- Can you read me at all.

42- That’s good.

43- Air Force one – Andrews, one five lower

44- One five lower, do you read sir?

45- We have them at one thee and one five, go ahead.

46- We’re trying to run two patches at the same time.

47- Okay we’ll try to get them back on one five

48- Air Force One Andrews. We have your party on but having trouble reaching them on this frequency. Do you read me sir?

49- We read you but your party on patch is way down.

[5100]

TB3 – Patch 11

TB3 – 11

[5142]
1 - Arriving Andrews, Fifteen, Zero, Five, rather…
2 - Have received. 

3 - Air Force One.

4 - Duplex is on

5 -  Duplex is on. This is Dr. Burkley. What arrangements have been made with regard to the reception of the President? 

6 - Everybody aboard Air Force One, everyone aboard Air Force One, with the exception of the body, will be choppered into the South Ground. The body will be choppered to the Naval Medical Center at Bethesda. Over. 

7- The body will be choppered or will go by ambulance to the Navy Medical Center? 

8- Will be choppered, will be choppered. 
(1738) [5215]

9 - I’ll call General Heaton and ask him to….Washington in regards to this. Would you call him and cancel the….have him go to Walter Reed….I didn’t know the arrangements were already made.

10 -  Say again, say again Doctor. 
11- The body is in a casket you know, and it will have to be taken by ambulance and not by chopper.

12- Alright. I’ll tell Captain Shepard that.

13- Be sure to contact…..General Heaton.

[5300]

14- Say again doctor say again.

15-Hello?

16-Hello. Say again please?

17-Ambulance.

18-Say again doctor……

[5320]

TB3 – Patch 12

TB3 – 12

[5340]

1- Hello sir

2- Put Mr. Behn on again.

3- He is standing by. We are having trouble reading you.

4- Can you check me through Liberty on nine zero?

5- Stand by for a call from Andrews, stand by for a call from Andrews on nine zero.
6- Stand by Crown, Come in.

7- Air Force One, this is Crown Come in.

8- Air Force One, this is Crown come in,

9- Air Force One,

10- Roger Crown.

11- I have Gen. Heaton standing by.

12- Crown, I am putting Gen. Heaton on the line. Over

13- General Heaton?

14- Air Force One Crown, go ahead. General Heaton on the line. Go ahead.

15- Hello, General Heaton?

16- Yes, General Heaton

17- General Heaton, this is Admiral Burkley.

18- Yes, Burkley?

19- On Air Force One.

20- Yes.

21- Air Force One Andrews give General Heaton a call. Go ahead.

22- General Heaton this is Admiral Burkley, do you read? Go ahead.

23- Hello?

24- General Heaton this is Dr. Burkley.

25- Yes Burkley?

26-….(use the ) …Military District of Washington in regards to the taking care of the remains of President Kennedy and we are planning on having the president taken directly to Walter Reed. Ah Probably Mrs. Kennedy will probably also be going out there. But we will clarify that later.

27- Oh, all right. 15.)

[5545]

DHN 15: Communications problems follow: These two sections --- beginning at times 54:20 and 55:17 on the Clifton tapes --- are not present on the LBJ version of the Air Force One tapes. They appear as if they might be out of sequence here --- that is, as if they should have preceded the segment of conversation between Burkley and Duplex beginning at time 51:28 on the Clifton tapes. In that segment of conversation, beginning at 51:28, Burkley tells Behn that he has called General Heaton (past tense) and says he has already asked Heaton to consult with the Military District of Washington about performing the JFK autopsy at Walter Reed. It makes no sense, therefore, when just a few minutes later on the Clifton recording, Burkley introduces himself to Heaton as if speaking for the first time that day, and asks him to do just that: consult with the Military District of Washington about a Walter Reed autopsy. It is as if those who were editing together the Clifton recording screwed up --- royally--- and reversed the sequence of two conversations. This appears to be strong evidence that the Clifton recording is not an unbroken, linear recording --- that is, proof that it is NOT the unedited, pristine original Air Force One recording that the media has portrayed it be. This internal inconstancy is therefore quite damning --- evidence that the Clifton tape was itself apparently constructed from a different “master.” But this should be no surprise, since AF1 radio operator MSGT John C. Trimble, USAF, wrote in his after action report that he was operating three patches simultaneously for virtually the entire flight. The true “master” recording should consist of three separate tracks, or tapes (each approximately two hours long) recorded at “Liberty,” the Collins Radio station at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. That facility was tasked with assisting, and recording, Presidential and government VIP in-flight communications. SAM 26000, the Presidential aircraft, became operational in 1962 with Collins Radio equipment installed, and at the same time in 1962, “Liberty” went on line in Iowa, tasked with serving as a backup communications center, and with recording Presidential communications. (Researcher Bill Kelly is the source for information on “Liberty.”]

TB3 – Patch 13

TB3 – 13

[5555]

1- Hello?

2- Can you hold for just a minute please?
3- Sure

4- Gen. Heaton, this is the operator at Andrews, when you are on the radio talking back, only one party can talk at a time. When Admiral Burkley is talking to you, you cannot. You have to wait for him to reply.

5- Okay, Thank you.

6- Hello?

7- Air Force One Give General Heaton a call please.
8- General Heaton is on, this is Admiral Burkley.
9- Yes, Burkley?
10- Air Force One.
11- Yes? 

12- Can you read me?

13- I read you Admiral Burkley. 

14- Hold for a minute, please. General Clifton here…
[5700]

15- Ah….this is General Clifton.
16- Yes General Clifton?
17- We do not want a helicopter for Bethesda Medical Center. We do want an ambulance and a ground return from Andrews to Walter Reed. And we want the regular post mortem that has to be done by law, under guard, performed at Walter Reed. Is that clear? Over. 

18- That is clear General Clifton. You want an ambulance and a ah….another limousine at Andrews and you want the regular post mortem by law done at Walter Reed. 

19 - That is correct. Hold on for a minute. Buy…
20- I’ll hold on. 

21- What did he say?

22- Air Force One standby.

23- Roger.

24- Air Force One. Will you repeat your last transmission you faded out sir

25- Okay Stand by One.

26- General Heaton? This Clifton over.

27- Yes General Clifton.

28- Hold on for a minute, over.

29- I’ll hold on.  

30- Air Force One?
31 - Air Force One, Andrews. Go ahead sir. 

32 - Okay, I think our patch was cut there on 13. 

33 - Air Force One, its still in progress, will you give the ground party a call sir.

34 - How do you read Andrews?

(20:07)[5908]

TB 3 – Patch 14

TB3 – 14

[5919]

1- One Liberty, Copy Andrews?

2- Arrangements have been made…..

3- Air Force One. Liberty.

4- General Heaton.

5- Stand by General. They are getting someone on the aircraft.

6- Liberty, nine seventy, give me a call fifteen.

7- Dr. Burkley?

8- Nine seventy?

[01:00:00]

 [01:00:15]

1- Hello? Jerry? 16) Gerald “Jerry” Behn

 DH: 16. Burkley is asking for Gerald (or “Jerry”) Behn here --- the Chief of the Secret Service White House Detail --- and is not using his WHCA codename “Duplex,” as he should be. Instead, he gets General Heaton again.

2- Go ahead Heaton.

3- Jerry, what arrangements have you made?  
4- We have made no arrangements, but will follow through on what you just told me. An ambulance and a limousine at Andrews and in regards to the post mortem studies.
5- General Heaton, will you kindly hold, we have arrangements already made. We will have to clear that before we make any further. 

6- A limousine and ambulance at Andrews (background conversation).
7- Air Force One, repeat your last transmission….
8- Hello Andrews? This is Crown.

(21:12) [01:01:15]

1-     Crown, go ahead. 

2-     Ah, we have Captain Shepard 17)

DH: 17. Captain Tazewell Shepard, U.S. Navy, was the Naval Aide to President Kennedy

3-     …here who also has evidently made some arrangements on the funeral and so forth here in Washington, and bringing the body back and so forth. He would like to get on and talk with Air Force One when General Heaton is finished. It might be possible to put him up on a conference so they can all make the arrangements together. I understand that Captain Shepard the Naval aide has made some arrangements also. So you might explain that to Air Force One and we can try to put them on a conference, if they like.

4-     - Andrews, okay standby, we’ll advise Doctor Burkley. 

(21:59) [01:01:48]

TB 3 – Patch 15

TB3 – 15

LBJ Tape Reel 1 Side 2 - Patch 6 

[01:02:12]

1- Air Force One, Andrews. 

2- Air Force One, Andrews.

3- Air Force One, Andrews.

5-     Crown?

[1:02:20]

DH 18: [The following is back-chatter between unknown persons, picked up by a “hot mike” while Air Force One was not transmitting due to communications problems. The following snippets of conversation appear to be related to getting President Kennedy’s body to the autopsy site as soon as possible, and the mode of transportation.]…(black car…[fadeout, garbled]…that Cadillac is the …[garbled and faint conversation, fadeout]….black[?] [or “that”] Caddillac … [garbled, fadeout]… I’d get him out there anyway, regardless! And then get him out there [?anyway?] regardless, then maybe, then maybe … [garbled, faint] …. Black Cadillac 17) (DH 17- This last mention of “Cadillac” during the “hot mike” conversation is definitely the phrase “BLACK CADILLAC.” This is significant because HM1 Dennis David and the sailors he was supervising offloaded a cheap metal shipping casket from a hearse --- a black Cadillac, mortuary-type ambulance --- at the loading dock at the Bethesda morgue at 6:35 PM on November 22, 1963, thirty one minutes after Air Force One was “on the blocks” at Andrews, at 6:04 PM. Following the autopsy on JFK, Dr. Boswell confirmed to Dennis David that the casket he offloaded earlier that evening had indeed contained the body of President Kennedy. The official motorcade from Andrews AFB, in which a light-gray Navy ambulance carrying the bronze, ceremonial Dallas casket traveled, did not arrive at Bethesda Naval until 6:55 PM, twenty minutes after Dennis David’s working party delivered a shipping casket from the black Cadillac, mortuary-style ambulance (the hearse) to the morgue anteroom. A memorandum (his after action report about the performance of the Marine Barracks security detail), written by USMC Sergeant Roger Boyajian, on 11/22/63, unambiguously and definitively records the time of arrival of the President’s casket: 1835 hours local (in military time), or  6:35PM, EST. This clearly marks the precise time of the shipping casket’s arrival.

[1:03:13]

6 - Air Force One, Liberty

7- Andrews to Liberty, stand by One please.

8 - Liberty

9 - Liberty to Andrews, go ahead. 
10 - Did you copy the full 9-7-2 off of Hickman? 2-1-1-1 Zulu, estimated Andrews Zero Five Three Zero Zulu, ultimate…
11 - Liberty, Andrews, Roger.
12 - Forward that to Air Force One.
13 - Liberty, Andrews, Roger. 

[01:03:50]

Dead Air

TB 3 – Patch 16

TB3 – 16

[01:04:17]

1- Let’s run a patch to Jerry Behan on this frequency.

2-     I have General Heaton

3-     Will you take Gen Heaton off for a moment.

4-     You want me to hold on?

5-     Please hold the line.

6-     Please notify Air Force one Capt. Shepard for a phone patch, which ever they want to put through first.  

[01:05:05]

7 - Please call on this frequency, go ahead sir. Air Force One, give Duplex a call please.

8-     Duplex, Duplex?

9-     This is Crown, Duplex dropped off.

10 - This is Watchman…..

11- Roger

[01:05:50]

TB 3 – Patch 17

TB3 – 17

LBJ Tape Reel 1 Side 2 - Patch 7 

[01:05:56]
1- Go ahead, Duplex is on one, sir.
2- Air Force One, Andrews. Give your party a call.
3- Okay, Duplex, Duplex, this is Watchman. 19)

(DH: 19 – This is General Ted Clifton, Military Aide to the President, speaking. He has suddenly stopped using his own name and has reverted to the correct communications procedures, and is now using his WHCA codename.).

[01:06:10]

4- ….Over.
5- Go ahead Watchman. Over.
6- Duplex, this is Watchman.

7- I understand that ambulance to take Mrs. Kennedy to Bethesda is this correct? Over.
8- Watchman. It has been arranged to helicopter, helicopter the body to Bethesda Over
9- This is Watchman. Okay if it isn’t dark. What about the First Lady? Over.
10- Everybody else aboard, everybody else aboard, it has been arranged to helicopter into the South Grounds.
11- Watchman….helicopter operation will work because we have a very heavy casket. Over.
12- Ah, according to Witness, 20)

 DH: 20) - “Witness” was the WHCA codename for Navy Captain Tazewell Shepard, Navy Aide to the President.

[01:06:47]

13-….. yes.
14- This is Watchman. …. don’t take a chance on that. Also have a mortuary type ambulance stand by in case the helicopter doesn’t work. 

15- That’s affirmative. Over.
16- That’s affirmative. I receive.
17- Now some other instructions. Listen carefully. We need a ramp, a normal ramp at the front of the aircraft, on the right hand side, just behind the pilot’s cabin in the galley. We are going to take the First Lady off by that route. Over do you understand?
18- I receive. Affirmative. 

19- Also, by the right rear, on no, the left rear, the left rear of the aircraft, where we usually dismount, de-bark, we will need a fork lift rather than a ramp because it will be too awkward. We will need a platform to walk out on, and a fork lift to put it on. Is that possible? Over.  

20- Say again, say again Watchman.
21- I say again. The casket is in the rear compartment, and we suggest, because it is so heavy, that we have a fork lift, a fork lift there to remove the casket. But if this is too awkward, we can go along with a normal ramp and several men. Over.

22- Affirmative. We will try for the fork lift.
23-  All right. Next item. Duplex, Duplex. Ah ….The press, according to Mr. Johnson, the press is to have a normal…at Andrews field, and he is going from there by helicopter to the White House. Over.

24- Say again, Watchman, say again please.
25- Watchman, this is Duplex, say again.
26- The press, the normal corral, it will have to be in front of the aircraft, because that is where President Johnson will come off. Okay?
27- Watchman this is Duplex. Will you say that all over again please?
28- Duplex this is Watchman. I say again. On the right front, a ramp for Mrs. Kennedy, on the left rear, if possible, a fork lift for the casket, and in the right front, near the pilot, a normal ramp…..Over.
29- Say again, Watchman, you’re breaking.
30- (non-broadcast communications – someone else behind radio operator) I got that, on the left front, I got that, normal ramp for President Johnson…on the left front…press arrangements…all right.
31- Did everybody get that clear? Over.
32- That is affirmative.
33- Hold One, …Tillerman would like to talk to you.
34- Watchman, Watchman, Standby One. Are you there?
35- Watchman, Watchman, this is Duplex.
36- Duplex, this is Watchman, Over. Go ahead.
37- Watchman, should the Secretary of Defense and others be at Andrews on your arrival?
38- No, I am about, no negative….Have them call the White House. President Johnson wants to meet with the White House staff….the leadership of Congress, and as many of the Cabinet members as possible at the White House as soon as we get there, approximately eighteen thirty - one, eight, three, zero. Over.
39- Will you say again please…

40- I got it.

41- you got it?
42- (unbroadcast communications) President Johnson is supposed to meet as many of the cabinet members at the White House at 1830.
43- This is Watchman. Did you get it all? Members of the White House staff. Also the leadership of Congress. Also as many Cabinet members as available at the White House at 1830. Over.
44- That is affirmative Watchman. That is affirmative. 

45- Repeat that to me. 
46- All the leaders of Congress, as many Cabinet members as possible at the White House at 1830

47- The key members of the White House staff. That is Bundy, Sorrensen, etcetera.
48- That is correct.
49- Okay. 

50- Hold on for Kellerman.

51- Roger

52- Go ahead.

53- Go ahead Roy, this is Duplex.

54- Up there.

55- Air Force One say again please.

56- ….helicopter…

57- Did you get that?….

58- Negative…..

[01:12:58]
(Fade out – Clifton Tape ends – Audo 1).

BEGIN GPO-NARA-JFK-ASSASSINATION AUDIO-2 (1)

[00:00]

TB 4 – Patch 1

TB4 – 1

LBJ Library Tape : Reel 1 Side 2 - Patch 8
[01:03]

1- Digest to Duplex, come in.
2- Go ahead Digest, this is Duplex.
3- ...sir.

4- ...helicopter transportation for President Johnson.
5- Air Force One, Andrews.
6- Air Force One, this is Andrews. Can you change position, you have a bad microphone.
7- Okay, how’s this?
8- Air Force One, Roger. Go ahead with your traffic now sir. 

9- Go ahead, Digest, this is Duplex.
10- Again, I repeat, three helicopters to transport people to the White House lawn. Okay?
11- That is affirmative. 

12- Digest Digest, this is Duplex, say again.

13- Did you read that?

14- Digest, Digest, this is Crown. Repeat.

15- I understand you are ordering two cars. Is that right?

16-Request you change position. You are coming in completely busted.

17- How’s This.
18- Roger, okay. White House 102 and 405x, for transportation to Navy hospital, okay? 

19- That is affirmative.
20- That’s a Roger. I am keeping ah….will join Hill and his party at the Navy Hospital. Okay?

21-That is affirmative.

[04:26]

22- Digest, this is Duplex. You accompany the body aboard the helicopter?
23- Roger, request, I was unable to get a hold of…….and Bob Burke…. (break in tape – midsentence)

24- Go ahead, I receive.

25- Air Force One Go Ahead Sir.

END of (LBJ Library) Tape – Reel 1, Side 2 (30:57) 

TB 4 – Patch 2

TB4 - 2

Reel 2, Side 1 (29:42)

1- Andrews. Duplex.
2- Go ahead Digest, this is Duplex.
3- Static…… (unintelligible) …. okay?
4- Say again Digest.
5- …..static……were not notified……(unintelligible)
6- Okay.
7- ...unintelligible)...
8- Say Again, Sir. (third voice – radio operator).

9- That is affirmative Digest. 

10- Okay, Gerry. One more… Standby.
11- Okay one more. ....is on six, nine, seven oh.
12- Right....

13- Go ahead Digest.
14- Say again sir. (radio operator)
15- Go ahead Digest 

16- Repeat. Number….Six nine seven oh (6-9-7-0). Okay?
17- That’s affirmative. I receive.
18- Ah, do you have any questions? Is that enough?
19- Not at the moment. But if we do we’ll call back.

20- That’s a Roger, but hold on.
21- I got…. (muffled background conversation)...the aircraft...good.
22- Digest for Duplex. Go ahead. 

23- Go ahead Digest, this is Duplex.  

24- Could you call Dr. John Walsh in Washington and advise him of our arrival?
25- That is affirmative.
26- Okay.
27- Where does Lace want Dr. Walsh to meet her? Where?
28- Say again sir.
29- Digest, this is Duplex. Where does Lace want Doctor Walsh to meet her? 

30- Ah,…at the White House when we get there with her.
31- At the White House…..That’s affirmative.
32- Standby. I don’t have anything but I think they want the line open here.

33- This is Crown. I have Witness standing by. 21)

DH – 21– On four or five occasions, “Witness” (Navy Captain Tazewell Shepard) attempted to speak to Air Force One. There is no evidence on the “Clifton” tapes that he got through. [Not all of those attempts are quoted in this transcript.

1- Get up, hang up, ah. There’s another call here.
2- Digest? Digest, Digest, this is Crown, come in? 
3- Digest, Digest, this is Crown, come in?

4- Stand by Crown. (radio operator)
5- Air Force, Air Force One, Andrews. (radio operator)
6- Negative Crown, negative Crown.

7- Air Force One, Andrews, say again sir.
8- Air Force One, Air Force One, this is Crown, come in.
9- This is Dagger 22)

DH: 22- “Dagger” was the WHCA codename for Secret Service Agent Rufus Youngblood, who was reported to be Lyndon Johnson’s favorite Secret Service agent. He was riding with Vice President Johnson during the assassination of President Kennedy in Dealey Plaza

10- …. Crown...I have traffic for Behn.

11- Air Force One, Air Force One, repeat.

 [Break in tape]

TB 4 Patch 3

TB4 - 3

Reel 2, Side One - Patch 2
[0839]

1- Andrews Sideband, radio.
2- Command Post Weather. We’re still waiting to bring up Air Force One. We’ve been waiting now for fifteen minutes, what’s up?
3- Yes sir. We are running two patches at once into the White House and they are real busy. We can’t get through to them. They’re making arrangements to take the body off and everything else. 

4- Let me patch in for Air Force Weather so they know.
5- I already told them that earlier.
6- Go ahead sir.
7- Go ahead sir.
8- Weather’s on.
9- Hello sir?
10- We’re running two patches at one time to Air Force One from the White House, and they are making arrangements to take the casket and stuff off and we can’t get through to you, and as soon as we can we’ll give you a call. 

11- Okay, he needs that temperature before he gets there.
12- Right sir. They should be done soon. They’ve been on it for quite a while now.
13- Air Force One. Loud and clear. Okay
14- ……Standby and we’ll have General Heaton come on this other line.
15- Sir, Command Post weather has been trying to get a patch. Can we run it at this time, sir?
16- Command Post? I have weather.
17- Weather’s on. Go ahead.
18- Weather on Air Force One, give them a call please?

19- Weather, Air Force One, go ahead.

20- This is Command Post Weather, be advised of a severe weather area from forty miles west of Fleetwood, Mississippi, to twenty miles west of Glanville, Arkansas extending one twenty miles, one hundred miles to the east for tornadoes, tops five zero thousand, fifty thousand. I want you to be advised of that. I have a revised landing forecast for Andrews. If you are ready to copy, over. 

21- I will have to call you back on it.
22- Roger.

23- Okay I’ll call you right back on it.

24- Okay.

25- Whose this?

26- Hello?

27- Hello?

28- Hello Crown?

29- Hello Crown?

[10:56]

TB 4 – Patch 4

TB4 – 4

[11:00]

1- Andrews Sideband.Sir?

2-     This is Dorman, General LeMay’s aide. General LeMay is in a C-140; last three numbers are “497.” SAM C-140.

3-     “487” – last three numbers.

4-     Right. He is in bound. His code name is Grandson, and I want to talk to him.

5-     Grandson. Okay sir, we’ll see what we can do. We’re really busy with Air Force One right now.

6-     (Okay). You don’t have the (c)apiblity to work more than one, huh?

7-     Well, we’re running Air Force One on two different frequencies, we’re giving them two different patches at one time right now, and that’s all we can do.

8-     I see. And what is your drop, sir? Are you off [a] drop off the Washington switch?

9-     Well, I am, yes --- either drop 303 or 79225.

10- 79225

11- Either

12- But if you can’t work him now it will be too late because he will be on the ground in a half hour.

13-   Okay, and what is your name again sir?

14-   Colonel Dorman. D-O-R-M-A-N

15-   (D-O-R-M-A-N. OK, I’ll try to get back to you if we can get him right away, sir.

16-  Thank you.

17- (Right.) 23))

[1204]

BK: For more on Col. Dorman see Appendix 10.

DH: 23.  Like the earlier “black Cadillac” segment, this exchange between Colonel Dorman, General LeMay’s aide, and Andrews AFB, is not on the LBJ Library version [and presumably this was in late 1963 or early 1964], someone in a position of authority did not want General LeMay’s name to surface in the recording. Was it because of the well-known animosity between JFK and LeMay? Was it because General LeMay was at JFK’s autopsy (as alleged by Navy corpsman Paul K. O’Connor)? Was it because of the disobedience LeMay exhibited toward the civilian leadership that day in refusing orders from the Air Force Secretary to land at Andrews, by landing instead at Washington D.C.’s National Airport? At this writing in 2012, we do not know, and we are not likely to know why this exchange between LeMay’s aide and Andrews was excised from the first, “edited and condensed” version of the Air Force One radio conversations. Journalist and JFK researcher Bill Kelly has interviewed Colonel Dorman’s widow and his grown children; from them he learned that Colonel Dorman was literally ALWAYS with the Air Force Chief of Staff, and by his side, seemingly no matter what activity LeMay was engaged in. It is therefore most curious that LeMay was on a trip to Canada for unknown reasons on the day President Kennedy was assassinated, and that he was furthermore on that trip without his aide. [As mentioned earlier, LeMay’s biographer also wrote inaccurately, in his 2009 biography of LeMay, that the Air Force Chief of Staff was hunting in Michigan when JFK was assassinated. Did LeMay lie to his family (or others) about where he was that day? And if so, why? ] A “special air mission,” tail number 24197 (according to the Chuck Holmes Andrews Lobook), took off at 2:46 PM local (the takeoff site was not specified in the log) and was directed to go to Toronto to pick up LeMay; while enroute it was dirverted to Wairton (BK sic Wiarton), Canada, vice Toronto, for reasons unknown. The C-140 aircraft that was sent to Canada to pick up LeMay then departed Wairton (Wiarton) at 4:04 PM local time (in Canada), and landed at National Airport, just outside Washington, D.C. at 5:12 PM. The Chuck Holmes Logbook records that LeMay’s aide and driver were scheduled to meet the aircraft at National Airport, so whatever urgent message Colonel Dorman had for LeMay was surely delivered about 5:15 or 5:20 PM, local time. Another unanswered question is this: If LeMay needed a special air mission to pick him up, just how did he get to Toronto in the first place? Why did he not have an official aircraft with him in Canada? Did LeMay secretly leave the U.S. for Canada while hiding behind a cover story that he was “hunting in Michigan?” Everything about LeMay’s trip to Canada, and about his return to the U.S. that day, seems most peculiar.

BK: For more on LeMay in Michigan see Appendix 11.

[12:30]

TB 4 – Patch 5

TB4 - 5

[12:35]

1-     Go ahead…Go ahead Liberty.

2-     (You want 18 upper [sideband], I have “970” on 90?)

3-     (You have “970” on 90.)

4-     (He’s “off” at 2115, copy that, he’s “off” at 2115, estimating 2330, relay to Alpha Juliet Two).

5-     For Andrews. (He was “off” ah, OK, he was “off” at 2115, estimating Andrews 2330, Alpha Juliet Two) 24)

DH: 24 -…“Liberty” was the WHCA codename for the Collins Radio facility in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (which had just recently gone on-line in 1962), whose job it was to facilitate air-ground communications between Air Force One and other stations, and to record all such conversations. “Liberty” is therefore the source of the Air Force One conversations in this transcript. The tail number “970” in this conversation refers to SAM 86970, more commonly known as “Air Force Two” on November 22, 1963. SAM 86970 was the aircraft assigned to President Johnson for the Texas trip. Having his own aircraft allowed Johnson to arrive at each of JFK’s destinations before the President, ensure that the local welcoming party was ready to meet and great the President, and to be present on the ground in his home state of Texas when President Kennedy deplaned at each destination. Air Force Two’s takeoff time from Dallas is confirmed in this message as “2115” [Zulu Time], or 3:15 local time in Dallas. (This concurs with the takeoff time two Secret Service agents recorded in after action reports.) Its prospective ETA at Andrews AFB was stated as 2330 [Zulu time], or 1830 hours local time, or 6:30 PM EST. (This was a highly accurate ETA, for the Chuck Holmes Logbook records that the actual landing time was 1830 hours). This segment about Air Force Two’s ATD Dallas and ETA Andrews is not on the LBJ Library tapes.

6- That’s an affirmative (and we’re going to copy his, ah, ah, passenger list on teletype [?and/] send it to you.

7-     What does he want on eighteen.

8-     But I can’t right now I’m too busy.

9-     Okay.

[13:36]

TB 4 – Patch 6

TB4 – 6

[14:12]

1 - Give us a call when you get through.

2 - Also have Liberty come up on five.

3 - Nab – N-A-B-

4 -Okay sir.

5 - Air Force One. Copy sir…
6 - Liberty.

7 - Roger Liberty. Loud and clear.
8 - (Static)

9 - Roger, Roger, okay, Take …. Correction. Take this and relay it for me and then I want to patch it.

10 - Liberty. Air Force One?
11 - Air Force One. This is Andrews.
12 - Air Force One, Andrews, go ahead sir.
13 - Okay, you can set up Command Post? Bring up to two, three zero, zero zulo.
14 - This is Andrews. Roger copy. We’ll rely that.
15 - Okay and pick up the weather warning from the Air Force Command Post and see if there’s anything to it please, we’ve got…..unless it’s important.

16 - Roger. Stand by One.
17 - …..bring up to nine zero….
18 - Air Force Command Post. Major Benson.

19 - Right. Can I have weather please? 
20 - Just a minute.
21 - Weather on.
22 - Right Sir, I have Air Force One. He’s real busy and he wants to know how severe this weather warning is, if it was severe?
23 - It’s for tornadoes. That’s pretty severe.
24 - Okay. Hold on.
25 - Right. 

26 - Air Force One. Air Force One. Andrews. 

27 - Air Force One, Air Force One, Andrews. Do you copy sir?
28 - Do you read six, seven. Six, seven?
29 - Read…Loud and clear.
30 - Air Force One. Andrews. Loud and clear.
31 - I have the weather on and weather is pretty important sir. Will you give them a call sir?
32 - Air Force One, go ahead now please.
33 - All right. Break in weather. 

34 - Be advised. Be advised that the severe weather area is for tornadoes, tornadoes is the severity. Radar reports tops in the area at the present time from forty seven to Fifty one thousand. Over. 

35 - Roger, What area was that? I didn’t get it before.
36 - This is for an area forty miles west of Greenwood, Mississippi to twenty miles west of Glanville, Arkansas, and one hundred twenty miles east of both of these locations. It is on your flight path. Over.
37 - That is twenty miles east of both of those locations, is that correct?
38 - Right. If you draw a line from Greenwood to Glanville, and a hundred twenty miles east of that line.
39 - Okay.
40 - Your temperature at landing at Andrews six two, sixty two degrees.
41 - Roger that. Thank you. Over.

[1844]

TB 4 – Patch 7

TB4 – 7

Reel 2 Side One

[1915]

1 - Stand by One.
2 - Air Force Once, this is Crown, come in.
3 - This is Dagger on Air Force One, to Crown.

4 -  Roger, Roger. I have Freedom pardon…I have Witness standing by for a patch.
5 - We’ll have Witness in one minute. Could we go ahead with traffic for Behn now.
6 - Roger. You have someone calling Behn. Is that a Roger?

7 - This is Dagger calling Behn. 
8 - Stand by.
9 - Dagger.
10 - Duplex is on, go ahead.
11 - Dagger to Duplex
12 - …. is from Volunteer and Victoria relative to activities tonight. 

13 - Go ahead Dagger, this is Duplex. You are aware that we will go to Crown for meeting?
14 - That is affirmative.

15 - Go ahead

16 - Crown, Crown.

17 - Air Force One go ahead sir.
18 - Volunteer will reside at Valley for an indefinite time. I repeat Volunteer will reside at Valley for an indefinite time. Victoria requests that Venus go to Valley with agents.
19 - Will you say again? Will you say again? Venus will go to Valley with agents?

20 - That is a Roger. Venus will go to Valley with agents.
21 - Victoria will go to Valley after first going to Crown. Over.
22 - Victoria will go to Valley after first going to Crown. Okay. 

23 - That’s affirmative.
24 - Do you also understand that for residential purposes Volunteer will reside at Valley?
25 - That is affirmative. That is affirmative.
26 - Alright. That is all the traffic I have. ….you will get.
27 - Okay, okay.

28    - Do you have anything more for us now?

29    - hat’s a negative.

30    - Okay.

TB 4 – Patch 8

TB4 - 8

Reel 2 Side One

[2305]

1 - Andrews to Crown.

2 - Will you give me a patch into Crown please?
3 - Roger, Standby One.
4 - White House.
5 - Roger. Standby for Air Force One.
6 - Roger.

7 - Air Force One. Andrews. Crown.
8 - Crown, Air Force One. This is a message from Wing to Slugger. Slugger is to meet aircraft as soon as possible. If he cannot do this, he is to see Wing as soon as possible, as soon as possible. Go ahead.
9 - Roger. Roger. Wing to Slugger. Meet aircraft as soon as possible, if this is impossible, see Wing as soon as possible, go ahead.
10 - That is correct. Or contact him anyway feasible. 

11 - Roger. Roger, Crown understands. Anything further? Go ahead.
12 - This weather is…- Roger. Roger. 25)

DH 25) - “Wing” was the WHCA codename for President Kennedy’s Air Force Aide, USAF Gen. Godfrey McHugh. “Slugger” was the WHCA codename for Air Force photographer Captain Cecil Stoughton. Wing’s urgent need to talk to Slugger is most interesting. Cecil Stoughton took the famous series of photographs of Lyndon B. Johnson being sworn in as President of the United States aboard Air Force One on the tarmac in Dallas, at Love Field. History informs us that he stayed behind in Dallas to develop the film and to ensure that some of those photos were released to the media. At the beginning of his conversation, Wing seems unaware that Slugger stayed in Dallas, for he asks Crown to tell Stoughton to “meet the aircraft” (Air Force One) when it lands at Andrews. By the end of the conversation, Air Force One has become aware that Stoughton remained in Dallas, and Crown is so informed. One of the swearing-in photos --- a rather infamous one whose original negative has now gone missing from the LBJ Library --- is the “wink” photo, showing a smiling Congressman Al Thomas (of Houston) winking at LBJ immediately after the swearing-in was completed. I am speculating here, but I wonder if Wing’s message for Slugger was to order him NOT to publish that particular photograph? Congressman Thomas flew to Andrews on Air Force One, and may have discussed being photographed during “the wink” with the new President. If so, this could explain Wing’s urgent desire to speak to Slugger. (The Air Force photographer officially worked for the Air Force aide, just as Robert Knudsen, the Navy photographer at the White House, officially worked for the Navy aide.] Author Robert Trask, in his book Pictures of the Pain, revealed that the LBJ Library told him it could not locate the negative of that particular image; the Library did have all of the other negatives from the swearing-in ceremony. Fortunately, the LBJ Library sent David Lifton a print of the infamous photo, ad he published it in Best Evidence. It ahs been widely reproduced in other books since that time. Cecil Stoughton expressed surprise, hostility, and defensiveness when Lifton asked him about the photo prior to its publication in Best Evidence; in my view, this makes it highly likely that “the wink” was probably the subject of Wing’s urgent message for Slugger. Negatives do not disappear on their own --- Stoughton’s defensive reaction about the photography, prior to its publication by Lifton, suggests that he may have removed the original negative from the collection, on Wing’s orders. Trask reported in his book, Pictures of the Pain, that the LBJ Library possessed a print of that photo, but not the original negative. This in itself suggests a botched cover-up, something all too familiar to students of the JFK assassination.

TB4 – Patch 9

TB4 – 9

[24:30]

1- Liberty, no one is on….go ahead

2- Forcast for Andrews ground temperature

3- Roger, We’ll get it as soon as possible here.

4- Okay.

5- I have traffic for Crown.
6- …..land.
7- Air Force One. Air Force One, this is Crown, come in.
8 - Request Victoria … repeat … cance l … for commercial telephones. That is Volunteer and Victoria’s commercial telephones at Valley should be temporarily discontinued and security lines should be put in ,… get ……land…. personnel on that…..do you understand? Over. 

9- That’s a Roger Roger, cancel commercial lines at Valley, at Valley, and install blocker circuits, blocker circuits. Is that a Roger?
10 - That’s a Roger.
11- Roger, will Do.

(13:13) [2548]
Reel 2, Side One

[2600]

TB 4 – Patch 10

TB4 – 10

1 - Air Force?
2 - Air Force One. Andrews, go ahead.
3 - Give me Crown please?
4 - Roger eight one…go ahead.
5 - Winger?
6 - Stand by for Air Force One….Roger, Crown.
7 - Air Force One, Andrews, give Crown a call.
8 - Roger, Air Force One. We would like a patch with Winner, and ah, the patch is coming from Warrior. Go ahead. 

9 - Roger, Roger, standby.
10 - Crown, Crown, this is Warrior, how do you read me? Over. 

11 - Warrior from Crown, you are loud and clear. I am putting Winner on now to you. Roger.

12 - Crown?

13 - Hold on please.

14 - Air Force One stand by please.

15 - AF One from Crown, I now have…

16 - Crown. This is Warrior, I want Winner, I want Winner, over.
17 - Warrior, Warrior, from Crown, go ahead. Winner, Winner is on the line.
18 - Winner, Winner. This is Warrior. Do you read me, over? 

19 - I hear you. Over. 
20 - Winner, Winner, this is Warrior. Will you please advise press that normal press coverage including live TV will be allowed at the base. Volunteer, repeat, Volunteer will make statement on arrival, will make statement on arrival.

21 - Did you read that? Over. 26)

DH: 26) – “Warrior” was the WHCA codename for Assistant White House Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff. Killduff was in charge of public relations for the Texas trip because Press Secretary Pierre Salinger was enroute Tokyo (on SAM 86972, with several Cabinet members) on November 22, 1963, to help pave the way for JFK’s intended visit to Japan. “Winner” was the WHCA codename for White House staffer Andrew Hatcher.

22 - I read you clearly.
23 - Will you listen to my question? Is Mrs. Kennedy aboard Air Force One?
24 - Warrior. That is a Roger. That is a Roger. Over.
25 - Alright, the other thing is I am setting up a press section on the south lawn about 50 yards from the position of Helicopter Number One. Would that meet Mrs. Kennedy’s and the President’s approval?

26 - Winner, they are not returning to the house, they are not returning to the house, for your own information. They are going someplace else. I don’t want to go in on the radio on this one. So there will be an arrival there, but it will be Volunteer. It will be Volunteer. Over.

27 - Thank you. I will hold that information. And we can say something after you arrive. Hold it just a second. Let me look through my list of questions. Is it true that the body of President Kennedy will go to Bethesda Naval Hospital?
28 - That is a Roger, that is a Roger, but we are not saying that yet. Over.
29 - Well we’ve already said it. I should have checked it with you before doing it. But I don’t think it makes much difference. It takes a lot…It takes a lot off of us by doing it. I was in error. Over. 

30 - So far as the there is no objection on the south lawn.

31 - Should it be live?

32 - There is no objection to that.
33 - (Unintelligible) lies, lies…Okay. Is there anything else?
34 - Will you repeat that?
35 - Is there anything else that I should know?

36 - Wait a minute. You are breaking. But let me think about this just a second will you?
37 - Yes, the power on this aircraft………We lost ….bell…..somewhere along the line, we don’t have AP aboard. But I have given them the statement Volunteer that he will make at the airport. Over. 

38 - I understand you. Okay, over and out.
39 - Don’t go out on me yet. Are you still there Winner?
40 - Yes I am here.
41- I think we are going to tell the press that on arrival, hold on just a minute, wait a minute, I have Clifton here, he is trying to give me something, hold it, over……

 (background conversation, muffled). 

42 - (muffled conversation).

43 - Winner, Winner, this is Warrior, the…..you can announce that on arrival, on arrival, he will meet with….at the White House……

(static – ten seconds)

44 -……later he will meet with the leadership, with the leadership. Did you read that? Over.
45 - Yes I did read that. 

46 - Wait a minute. You are breaking badly. I cannot read. …
47 - Yes, yes. I understand, I will announce.
48 - Very good Winner. Now wait a minute, there is something else I am getting from Clifton I want to relay to you. Hold on.

49 - I can’t hear you at all.

50 - I can’t hear you at all Mac. Repeat.

51 - Repeat complete statement.

52 - I cannot read you. Will you repeat? Will you repeat your complete statement, your entire statement? 

53 - My entire statement I will repeat. They said that on arrival at the house, the president will meet with McNamara and Bundy. And also if Rusk is in town he will meet with Rusk but I think he is in the Far East so it will probably be Ball. And after, a half hour after that meeting is over, we will meet with Congressional leadership at at,… now wait a minute, I’m getting a time on that, that’s eight o’clock, he will meet with leadership…. at eight o’clock, at eight o’clock. Did you read that? Over.
54 - I read it. Now is that bipartisan leadership or Democratic leadership?

55 - That is wholly bipartisan, wholly bipartisan.
56 - I understand you.
57 - Hold on for some other information. Do you mind holding Andy? 

58 - No go right ahead.
59 - I have no more at this time. I hope you will be available so I can reach you if I get more information as it, as it develops? Over.
60 - Yes, over and out.

[3530]

TB4 – Patch 11

TB4 – 11

LBJ Library Reel 2, Side One

[3540]

1 - Air Force.
2 - Air Force One. This is Crown.
3 - This is Warrior to Crown, Crown, are you reading. Over.
4 - This is Crown, loud and clear.

5- Hold on for transmission from Witness. From Witness.
6 - Roger, Roger, would also like to confirm at this time, would also like to confirm at this time, the request from AF One…

7 - This is Watchman. Over.
8 - This is Crown. Go ahead …
9 - Can you put Mister Bundy on?

10 - You were broken. You were broken, say again. 
11 - Crown, this is Watchman. Please put Mister Bundy on the line. Over.
12 - Roger, Roger, standby.
13 - You’re party on this end is on. Go ahead and transmit to him.

14 - This is Watchman….
15 - ……Mac…..second and secretary MacNamara at six thirty at the White House. If Mr. Rusk is in town…..Mr. Rusk…..we do not, we do not, negative, we do not want the acting secretary. Over.
16 - Correct. Will you tell him that the acting cabinet will be at the airport to greet him. He can bring MacNamara and me in his chopper to the White House. Over.

17 - That is correct. That is all right. We can do that. Take another message. Over.
18 - Yea.
19 - Secondly. I talked to Jerry Behn about a White House staff meeting. There will be No, negative, no White House staff meeting tonight, that will be tomorrow. 

20 - Correct. I have it. Let me repeat your message. Over.
21 - Okay.
22 - First that the President would like to meet with the Secretary and me at the White House on return from Andrews. Second that there will be no other meeting this evening. There will be a White Staff meeting tomorrow. Is that correct? Over.
23 - No that is not correct. He wants to meet with the leadership about seven-thirty, the leadership at seven-thirty. Over.
24 - Does he wish us to arrange that?
25 - He wants you to arrange that. Two meetings tonight. MacNamarea and Bundy, and the leadership.
26 - Does he mean only the Democratic leadership only? Over.
27 - Bipartisan leadership; and I’ll give you some names. Over. 

28 - Right Over.
29 - Speaker of the House. [John McCormak]
30 - Yea.
31 - Carl Albert.
32 - Carl Albert.
33 - Hal Boggs.
34 - Yea.
35 - Charles Halleck
36 - Wait a moment. Say that one again.
37 - Leslie Arends
38 - Arends. Yea.
39 - (From) the Senate. Are you listening? Over. 

40 - I have…Will you take from me what I have? Then we can go on.
41 - I’ll listen to you. Over.
42 - I have Speaker Carl Albert, Hale Boggs, and Leslie Arends. Over.
43 - This is Watchman. That is correct, and I will now continue with the Senate. Over.
44 - Mansfield.
45 - Right.
46 - Humphrey
47 - Yea.
48 - And Dirksen
49 - Hang on, hold it. Wait a moment. I have the first three, over. 

50 - Repeat over.
51- This is Watchman. Out.
52 - Hello, sir? Standby please. (radio operator)
53 - Yea.
54 - Watchman, Andrews. We’re still standing by for orders to carry out, sir.
55 - Crown, this is Angel. Crown, this is Angel. Out.
56 - Crown, Angel?
57 - This is Angel.
58 - Crown, Angel. 

59 - Listen Angel, Would you? I broke down with Mister Bundy. Would you check his Senate list for me? Over
60 - I have Mansfield, Humphrey, Smathers. Over.
61- This is Watchman. In addition to Mansfield, Humphrey, Smatters, we want Dirksen.

62 - Yea
63 - Kuchel and [Bourke] Hickenlooper [R. Iowa]. Over.
64 - Dirksen, Kuchel, Hickenlooper. Over.
65 - That is correct. For about seven thirty. Over.
66 - Seven thirty at the White House? Over.
67 - Seven thirty in the Cabinet Room. Over.
68 - Tell the Vice President the Cabinet Room is under rearrangement, but the Oval Room will be ready. Over. 

69 - The Oval Room it will be, you mean the Fish Room?
70 - I mean, both the Fish Room, and the President’s Study and we will try to have the Cabinet Room. But that’s a detail, we can work that out. Over. 

71- This is Watchman. [Gen. Clifton (emphasizing)] HE DOES NOT WANT TO GO IN THE MANSION OR IN THE OVAL ROOM OR THE PRESIDENT’S STUDY OR THE PRESIDENT’S OFFICE. (Loud and with emphasis)
72 - Correct. [Bundy].
73 - IF THE CABINET ROOM ISN’T READY PUT IT IN THE FISH ROOM. OVER.
74 - I have you. I understand. Always in the West Wing. Over.
75 - I have nothing further. Over.
76 - This is Watchman, now please brief Duplex about the changes, so we don’t confuse it. Duplex is Jerry Behn. Over.
77 - Alright I will.
78 - See you in a little while. Over.
79 - Okay. 

[4109]

TB 4 – Patch 12

TB4 – 12

LBJ Tape Reel 2, Side One

[4118]
1- Air Force One
2- This is Warrior to Crown, Crown
3- Are you reading? Over.
4- Warrior, Warrior. This is Crown. Loud and clear. 

5- Hold for Witness. This is Watchman. Over.
6- Standby One I have another patch.
7- I have Air Force One Andrews, please.
8- Air Force One. Come in on another line down please.
9- Andrews. Andrews sideband, will you give me Crown please?

10- Give you who sir? 
11- Andrews?
12- Who did you want to give a call?
13- Crown. White House. 

14- White House. (Male voice)
15- Roger. Stand by for Air Force One.
16- Roger.
17- Air Force One White House on.
18- How do you read? Over.
19- Air Force One this is Crown, you are loud and clear, go ahead
20 - White House, White House, will you give me another patch to Winner, Another patch to Winner.
21 - Roger, Standby.
22 - We are still standing by for Crown. 

23 - Andrews, Andrews, this is Air Force One. Do I have that patch with Crown. Over.
24 - Andrews, Air Force One. We are still standing by for Winner through Crown.
25 - Will you repeat?
26 - We are still standing by for Winner. We are still standing by for Winner. 

27 - That’s a Roger.
28 - Air Force One, Andrews.
29 - Crown, Crown. This is Warrior. Over.
30 - Warrior, Stand by. Winner is still in another patch, Winner is still in another patch.
31 - Crown.
32 - Will you repeat?
33 - Roger. We are still standing by for Winner. We are still standing by for Winner.
34 - That’s a Roger.
35 - One Andrews.
36 - Crown, Crown, this is Warrior. Over.
37 - Warrior, Andrews. Winner is still in another patch. Winner is still in another patch. I have another message for radio operator on Air Force One.
38 - Crown, Crown. Who is Winner on a patch with? Over.

39 - Standby One.
40 - Hello Andrews?
41- Yea?
42- Will you break in for me?
43- Yes.
44- Warrior? Crown.
45- Crown, give him another call? 

46- Warrior, Warrior, this is Crown.
47- Go ahead Crown.
48- Warrior, this is Crown. We are having some difficulty in locating ah, Winner. Would you stand by please?
49- That’s a Roger Crown, this is Warrior.
50- Air Force One? Andrews? Hello?
51- Is this Air Force One?
52- Can you give me a quick check on that?

53- I was just up there….
54- How about bringing that thirteen through Liberty on the nose, and come back with it?
55- Roger Stand by. 

TB 4 – Patch 13

TB4 – 13

[4433]

1- Volunteer wants a patch to Mrs. Rose Kennedy as soon as possible.

2- While I am working on that will you get Confirmation

3- While you are checking on that I will work on Mrs. Kennedy for Volunteer.

4- That is affirmative, confirmation on your request.

5- That is affirmative.

6- That is correct.

7- Stand by for your party.

8- Advise you to stand by for your party.

9- I have a patch to Crown and I don’t want it broken.

10- You are standing by.

[4700]

End of LBJ Tape Reel 2, Side 1
LBJ Tape Reel 2, Side 2

(30:06) [4740]

1- Now….
2- Roger, Roger.
3- Hello? (Women’s voice)
4- Just a moment, Mrs. Kennedy.
5- Just one moment now please.
6- ….are you up?
7- Hello? (Mrs Kennedy)

8 - Just one moment now please.

9 - Standby One now please. 

10 - One, Air Force One, Air Force One, from Crown, come in.

11 - Crown, this is Air Force One, do you read us? Over.

12 - I’m reading you loud and clear.

13 -  Are you ready for Volunteer? Go ahead. 

14 - Yes, we are ready, can you put her on and I’ll turn you over to him, over.

15 - Roger, Roger, she is coming now.
16 - Air Force One from Crown. Mrs. Kennedy on, go ahead please.
17 - Hello, Mrs. Kennedy? Hello Mrs. Kennedy, we are talking from the airplane, can you hear me all right? Over.
18 - Hello?
19 - Yes, Mrs. Kennedy, I have….could hear you.
20 - Mrs. Kennedy?
21 - Yes, Yes Mr. President, Yes?
22- I wish to God there was something I could do. And I want to tell you that we are grieving with you.
23- Yes, well thank you very much. Thank you very much. I know, I know that you loved Jack and that he loved you.
24- (Lady Bird) Mrs. Kennedy….we…..together….We……son…..
25- Thank you Lady Bird, thank you very much. Goodbye.
26- …. In our prayers ….all of you.
27- All right. Thank you very much. Goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye. (Phone hangs up).
28- Crown, Crown, this is Warrior. I think that’s it.

29-It’s over. Is that a Roger? Over.
30 - That’s a Roger, Warrior. Mrs. Kennedy has hung up. Go ahead.

31-Now can you give me that patch to Walter Jenkins.

32- Stand by One.

TB 4 – Patch 14

TB4 14

LBJ Library Tape Reel 2 Side One
[5000]

1 - Crown, now will you get me that patch to Walter Jenkins in President Johnson’s office? Over.
2- Roger, Standby One.
3- And Crown, get somebody to come up on the Charlie set please?
4- Liberty to Air Force One, are you on Nine? 

5- Roger, I still have…standing by for Warrior. 
6- Okay, bring him up on Nine, please. Crown, give Air Force One a call now.

7- Air Force One, Air Force One, this is Crown, come in.
8- Air Force One, Andrews, Crown is on, go ahead.
9- Air Force One, Andrews, Crown is on, give them a call please.

10- Crown, this is Warrior, do you read me? Over.
11- Roger Warrior, this is Crown, standby for Winner. Go ahead. 

12 - That’s a Roger, you are loud and clear.
13- Warrior, Warrior, Winner is on, go ahead. 

14 - Winner, this is Warrior, do you read me? Over.
15 - I read you.
16 - Winner, that first meeting will be Bundy and McNamara only. The President will meet with Rusk, U.S. Senators….probably going to be a different, be a different ah event….ah.
17 - I read you.
18 - Did you read that Winner?
19 - Yes, Yes.
20 - Crown, Crown, this is Warrior, do you read me? Over.

21 - Yes I do Warrior, I read you.
22 - ….aboard….I need Crown back again. I need Crown back again. Over.
23 - Yes, over and out. And I’ll….

24 - Crown

25 - Liberty?
26 - Crown?
27 - Yes?
28 - Roger, give Air Force One a call please. 
29 - Roger. Air Force One, Air Force One, this is Crown, come in. Air Force One, this is crown, come in. 

30- Air Force One do you read me, come in?

31 - Crown, Crown, this is Warrior, do you read me? Over.
32 - Warrior, this is Crown, ah Roger, you are at Five Five, go ahead.
33 - Will you get me a patch with Mister Walter Jenkins….ah,…at President Johnson’s office. Over.
34 - Roger, Warrior, standby. 

35 - Kill this call! Kill this call! I think we are overlapping on another call. Over.
36 - Roger. 

TB4 – Patch 15

TB4 - 15

1- This is Warrior. I mean Crown. This is Warrior on Air Force One. Go ahead.
2- Roger, Roger. On your request for Jenkins, he is on route to Andrews, on route to your destination. Go ahead.
3- That’s a Roger Crown. I will pass that word on.

TB 4 – Patch 16

TB4 – 16

LBJ Library Tape Reel 2 Side Two
[54:04]

        

1- Air Force One, Volunteer would like a patch to the Governor Connally…that’s Governor Connally of Texas. Mrs. Connally, the Governor’s wife. Go ahead.

2 - Volunteer would like a patch with Mrs. Connally, Governor Conally’s wife. Is that a Roger?
3 - That is a Roger.
4 - Roger, Roger, standby one.

5- Roger, we have Dallas on the line and are trying to contact her now. Standby please.

6 - Standing by.

7- Crown, come in.

8 -….so far….

9- Roger, Roger that’s right, Standby One.

10 - Crown to Air Force One

11 - Air Force One from Crown. The Connally residence in Dallas is on the line, on the line, and Mrs. Connally is available to speak with Mister Johnson if he can get to the phone patch. Go ahead.
12- Roger, he wants specifically to speak with her. Go ahead. 

13- Roger, standby just a moment. AF One, AF One from Crown, will you put Volunteer on please? Mrs. Connally is on the line, standing by for his call.
14- Standby One.
15- Can you hear me?
16- …..reasuring….the surgeon….speaking about John….is so reassuring…how about it…..(static)
17- I can’t hear you too well.

18-…Can you hear me? (Volunteer/LBJ)
19- Yes.
20- (LBJ) I know that everything is going to be all right, isn’t it?
21- (Nellie Connally) Yes, it’s going to be all right.
22- God bless you darlin’.
23- The same to you.
24- …for me….
25- Good luck.
26- Goodbye.
27- Goodbye.
28- Goodbye.
29- Air Force One, Andrews, Go ahead. Crown
30- Roger, we have an echo. Is that you or down the line?
31- I believe it is down the line, sir. Call….
32- Air Force One.
33- Air Force One. Crown. Go ahead.

34- Roger. That about completes it for now.
35- If you could standby Air Force One, we have a couple of people down the line who would like to talk to you, if you could standby.

TB 4 Patch 17

TB4 – 17

LBJ Library Tape Reel 2 Side One

1- Roger, go ahead.
2- Command Post.
3- Air Force One, go ahead Command Post.
4- Air Force Command Post.
5- Go ahead Command Post, Air Force One.
6- 3-7-3 (departing at) … 2-1-4-1 Zulu.
7- Roger, do you copy?
8- ….this information passed to…
9- ….(Ah, roger, and ah,) who does this information go to? Go ahead.

10- Say again?
11- (Roger)…Who is this information passed to, go ahead?

12- Air Force One, Air Force One. [This is] (Air Force Command Post over.)

13- (Command Post, Air Force One) I read you loud and clear. I understand Three, Three (“373”) departed at Two One Four One (2141). Who do you wish to notify about this? Go ahead.
14- Ah, it is very clear sir that the time of departure is… (the one) …. with the president cars on board. 27)

DH: 27) – The Presidential limousine (a stretched, customized Lincoln Continental) and the large Secret Service follow-up car (a Cadillac convertible touring car with running boards, informally designated the “Queen Mary”), were being flown back to Andrews AFB on a C-130 cargo aircraft. The same aircraft was used to transport them earlier in the Texas trip, from stop to stop. After arrival at Andrews AFB, they were driven to the White House garage, and inspected by both the Secret Service, and the FBI.

1- Roger, will pass that …know where that goes now.
2- Thank you.
3- Okay, will you call Command Post and request two, scratch that, four air police meet the airplane? We want two in the front of the airplane and two in the rear. Go ahead.
4- Air Force One. You are requesting four staff cars, two staff cars with air police, two in front and two in the rear. Is that correct?
5- We don’t want cars, we want air police. We want security people, we want four of them. Two at each door of the airplane. Go ahead.
6- Air Force One, Andrews. Roger. Will abide. SAM.
7- Roger, thank you.

TB 4 – Patch 18

TB4 – 18

[59:00]

1- A F One, A F One from Crown, come in. 

2- Crown, Air Force one, go ahead.
3- Roger, Roger, stand by for a patch from Tanker, Tanker

4- Roger.

5 - A F One, A F One, Tanker on the line. Go ahead Tanker.
6- Hello Andrews, hello Andrews, may I speak with Watchman or Tiger, Watchman or Tiger? Over. 28)

DH: 28– “Tiger” was the WHCA codename for Colonel James Swindal, the pilot of SAM 26000 [aka “Angel” and Air Force One when the President is on board.

7       - Watchman on another line. Stand by for Tanker.

8 - Standing by for Tiger.

 9 - Tiger, how do you read?\

10 -  Five by Five, Tiger, Five by Five. I have been informed from Dallas that it was desired that the aircraft be parked at an isolated spot when you arrive here. However, Watchman had a long discussion with ah, Behn, and nothing about that was mentioned. And the present plan on the ground here is to spot you at the regular place, unless Watchman says now that this is not desired. Over. 

11 - I believe that we would park at the regular place, Tiger. Where did you get that information down at Dallas? Over.

12 - It was from the U.S. A F Command Post agent there. And I understand from him that you had told him to do this. Over.
13 - We told him to look into that. We were going to discuss it in flight. Go ahead with the regular plan and park in the regular place. Ask to get in touch with you and pass on instructions to him. We need steps to the right front of the aircraft. The press box will be on the left front of the aircraft, and President Johnson will deplane at the front of the aircraft. And we need a fork lift at the rear of the aircraft, will deplane on the right side. Over.
14 - Understand. Tiger. Understand those instructions, and they have all been carried out. We will continue with the plan to spot you in the regular place. There will be a ramp left front, a ramp right front, a fork lift left rear, press area left front. Over.
15 - Keep in touch. Roger and out.

[01:01:30]

TB 4 – Patch 19

TB4 – 19

LBJ Tape: Reel 2 Side Two - Patch 5
[01:01:30]

1- Crown, patch …call anybody you want.
2- Roger.
3- A F One, A F One, from Crown.
4- Crown, A F One. Go ahead.
5- Roger, Roger. Could you pass this to Wing. Pass this to Wing, that on his message to Slugger, Slugger was still in Dallas, still in Dallas, and has been advised to contact Wing as soon as he possibly can.
6- Roger, Air Force One, copy. Will pass.
7- Roger, Roger. Crown out for now. Do you have anything further A F One?
8- Roger, Standby One, we have another patch for Warrior.

[01:02:25]

TB 4 – Patch 20

TB4 – 20

1 - Crown? Give Air Force One a call.
2 - Air Force One, Crown, go ahead.
3 - Okay, I need Capitol Four, Three, Two, Nine, One, extension Four, Nine Three.
4 - Four, Three, Two, Nine, One, extension Four, Nine Three.
5 - Roger, Roger. Understand. Anyone particular there?
6 - Roger, anyone at that number.
7 - Roger, Roger, standby.
8 - A. F. One, A. F.

9 ……..from Crown, was that extension Four, Nine Three?
10 - That is affirmative. Congressman Thomas’ office.
11 - Say again the Congressman’s name, as they say they have no such extension.
12- Congressman Thomas. Hotel, Oscar, Biker, Alpha, Sierra.
13 - Roger, Roger, standby, Congressman Thomas’ office on the line.
14 - Roger, this is the airplane. The congressman is requesting that you place his door key under, ah….the doormat of his ah… residence. Go ahead.
15 - (Women’s voice) Okay. Hello?
16 - Hello? Did you hear me? Are you there?
17 - There will be someone at the residence.
18 - I understand the house will be open and there will be someone at the residence. Is that correct?
19 - Hello. This is Crown. I understand that the residence will be occupied and there will be someone at the residence.
20 - Okay, fine Crown. Thank you very much.
21 - Roger, Crown out.

TB 4 – Patch 21

TB4 – 21

1 - Andrews, will you check on the ground temperatures when you get a moment?
2 - Roger.
3 - The last …was if Volunteer was aboard? Go ahead.
4 - Just a moment.
5 - Andrews, the temperature, the present temperature is 64 degrees.
6 - Okay.
7 - Crown. What will the temperature be at Zulu time.
8 - Zulu?
9 - Make it 62.
10 - 63?
11 - 62.
12- 62. Got it.

TB 4 – Patch 22

TB4 – 22

[01:04:50]
1 - Will have to rescind …...
2 - ...Yes, yes, we’re not going to be able to rescind…we only get them on one circuit now.
3 - Oh, I see. We’ll just notify the people.
4 - All right, thank you very much….
5 - This is Liberty. Roger.
6 - Air Force One, Andrews.
7 - Air Force One. Go ahead.
8 - Roger, Present temperature is 64 degrees. 2300 forecast, Six two degrees.
9 - Roger. Thank you.

TB 4 – Patch 23

TB4 – 23

1- Air Force one. Will you give me the Command Post please?
2- Roger, sir.
3- Air Force Command Post…
4- Sideband…Air Force One for a patch.
5- Roger, Stand by for Air Force One.
6- Air Force One, Command Post. Go ahead….
7 - Roger Command Post, Air Force One, we checked Crown Royal at 2242, and are descending…remains 2305, go ahead.
8 - Roger. Air Force One. Command Post…
9 - (women’s voice) … (unintelligible)
10- Standby…ah, he’s on the television set right now.
11- (women’s voice) It’s very important.
12- Who’s calling please?
13- …. in Dallas.
14- Can you standby? Over.
15- This is Air Force One. Warrior is unable to speak with you at the present time, and asks you if you will please call the White House in about 30 minutes.
16- Roger. Out.
17- Roger. 

[01:06:58]

TB 4 – Patch 24

TB4 -24

Reel 2, Side 2
[01:07:10]

1- Andrews, this is Air Force One.
2- Air Force One. Go ahead.
3- Can you give me Air Force Command Post please?
4- SAM Command Post. Captain Benson.
5- Roger, sideband on Air Force Once for a patch.
6- Okay, go ahead.
7- Roger, Air Force One, Andrews, SAM Command Post on, go ahead.
8- Roger. Do you have an ET on the C130 with the vehicles?
9- Negative, sir. Haven’t heard a thing.
10- Ah, okay, right, thank you.
11- We will check it out.

TB 4 – Patch 25

TB4 – 25

1- Air Force Command Post…sir.
2- Sideband from Air Force One coming in.
3- White House (operator)
4- Standby for Air Force One.
5- Roger.
6- Go ahead Andrews.
7- Command Post, Air Force One landed Andrews at Two Three Zero Zero. 29)

DH 29) - This equates to 2300 Zulu time, or 1800 hours local (in military time), or 6:00 PM, EST.

1- Roger…2300
2- Loud and clear.
3- Andrews, make it ah….Zero Four please.
4- Air Force One, Andrews, arrived on the block at Zero Four. 29)

DH: 29 Time “on the blocks,” when chocks had been placed around the aircraft’s tires, was 2304 Zulu time, or 1804 hours local (in military time), or 6:04 PM EST. “Block time” was equated with actual time of arrival, or end of mission. Zulu time {or Greenwich Mean Time GMT} is five hours ahead of Easter Standard Time, when Daylight Savings Time is not in effect

5-     Good day sir.
6- Thank you. 

[DL: Air Force One arrived at Andrews at (approx) 6 P.M. EST - this was a nationally televised event. The Dallas coffin was then offloaded and carried the few yards to a naval ambulance. Jacqueline Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Air Force aide McHugh got into that ambulance. Driving that ambulance was Greer, Burkley was in the front seat, and so was Kellerman…]

[01:08:30]

END OF TAPE

T–1 = 5 Patches – LBJ Tape

T-2 = 2 Patches – Clifton Tape

T-3 = 22 Patches – Combined Tapes

TB3=17 Patches – Combined Tapes

TB4=24Patches – Combined Tapes

Total 70 Patches Combined Tapes

FOOTNOTES – APPENENDEXS

1- Codes, Characters Persona & codenames

2- a. Maj. Gen. Clifton bio – b. Lifton comments re: Interview w/ Clifton.

3- News reports on discovery of Clifton Tapes – AP & Boston Globe

4- Chronology

5- White House Situation Room

6- Radiomen After Action Reports

7- Oliver Hallett

8- Maj. Harold Patterson

9- Col. Carl G. Hornbuckle

10- Col. Dorman

11- LeMay in Michigan

12- Other

[1] – Codes, characters Persona & codenames.

In the order of their appearance of the Air Force One Radio Tapes

86972 – Eight, Six, Nine, Seven Two tail number for the Cabinet on way to Japan.

Andrews – Andrews Air Force Base – Maryland, a few miles SE of Washington DC

26000 – Two, Six Thousand – Air Force One when the President is not aboard.

Air Force One – Presidential aircraft when the President is aboard, aka “Angel”

Frequency – the frequency number that they agree to use in order to communicate.

One-Five – 15 – is the frequency number they use to communicate with Andrews.

Honolulu – Hawaii, Hickam AFB, where 86972 stops to refuel on way to Japan.

Command Post – SAC Command Post – (probably Ofutt AFB, Nebraska)

Zulu – Military time – G.  Mean Time – 24 hour time rather than 12 hour AM/PM

ETA – Estimated Time of Arrival

Weather Officer –frequently interrupt patches to obtain weather conditions

Airman Gilmore – Radio operator at Andrews, coordinates many of the patches.

Patch – Radio operators acting as middle-men for two people at two different locations who need to have a conversation, sometimes a radio to ground land line telephone or radio to radio. I have broken the radio transmission tapes into groups of conversations that I have numbered and labeled “Patches.” There are 70 patches altogether.

On the block – Upon arrival at destination, blocks are placed at the base of the wheels of the airplane when it comes to a stop to keep it from moving, and that time is registered and regarded as the official time of arrival.  

Dallas – Texas, Love Field, destination of Air Force One from Carswell AFB Ft.Worth.

Larry – Radio operator, possibly at Liberty relay station.

Situation Rom – White House basement crisis nerve center.

Liberty – Liberty Radio Relay Station at Collins Radio HQ, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

CINPAC – Pacific Command, Hawaii

Traffic – Messages, radio communications, telephone calls, etc.

White House – aka Crown
Wayside –President’s Press Secretary Pierre Salinger aboard the Cabinet Plane.

Crown – White House

Oliver Hallett – Situation Room radio operator

Connally – Texas governor John Connally, wounded at Dealey Plaza 

Bromley Smith – State Department officer in the Situation Room at the White House.

Tickers – AP Associated Press UPI United Press International wire service teletypes.

Secretary of State – Dean Rusk, senior passenter aboard 86972 Cabinet Plane

Parkland Hospital – Dallas, where JFK and Connally as well as LBJ taken

Dallas Trade Mart – Original destination where JFK was to deliver speech.

Andy – Hatcher, assistant Press Secretary at White House.

Cedar Rapids – Collins Radio Liberty Radio Relay Station – Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Mr. Ball – Undersecretary of State George Ball

Murray Jackson – State Dept. Washington DC

Colonel Toomy – Pilot of AF1 26000.

Colonel Holland/Ireland?

Kilduff – Andrew Kilduff, Asst. Press Secretary in Dallas, Delayed the announcement the President was dead until LBJ aboard AF1.

Stranger – Major Harold R. Patterson US Signal Corp, WHCA

McGeorge Bundy – National Security Advisor – at Situation Room in White House

SAC Command Post – Strategic Air Command HQ, Omaha, Nebraska

SAM Command – Strategic Air Mission Command Post, Andrews AFB, DC

Hic Cup – Hickam AFB Hawaii

Duplex – Secret Service Agent Jerry Behn

Volunteer – Vice President/President LBJ

Jerry – Newport Jerry? Radio operator.

Lace –Mrs. Kennedy – First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

Col. Hornbuckel – Andrews Opeations officer – (See: Andrews Log)

Congressman Thomas

Congressman Thornbury

Congressman Brooks –

General Heaton – Surgeon General of the Army

Airman Stanz – Radio Operator

Walter Reed Hosptial – US Army hospital in Washington DC
Dr. Burkley – JFK’s personal physician aboard AF1

Bethesda Medical Center – Naval hospital where autopsy is performed.

Captain Shephard – President’s Naval Aide in Washington DC

Jerry Behn – Secret Serivice Chief at White House

General Clifton – President’s Military Aide.

Watchman – Gen. Clifton
Tillerman – Unidentified
Secretary of Defense – Robert MacNamara in Washington DC

Sorrensen – JFK Cabinet Member Ted Sorrensen on AF1

Kellerman – Secret Service Agent responsible for security for Texas trip.

Bob Burke – (Secret Service?)

Dr, John Walsh – Mrs. Kennedy’s personal physician in DC

Colonel Dorman – Col. George S. Dorman, Gen. LeMay’s aide in DC.

General LeMay – Chief of Staff of the Air Force (aka Grandson)

C-140 – Type of Plane LeMay is in.
Dagger – Secret Service Agent Rufus Youngblood

Victoria – Mrs. LBJ

Valley – LBJ’s DC home.
Venus – LBJ’s daughter
Wing – Gen. Godfrey McHugh, USAF

Slugger – Capt. Cecil Stoughton, photographer

Warrior – Malcolm Kilduff

Winner – Andrew Hatcher
Witness – Capt. Tazewell Shepard USN

Speaker of the House – John McKormick

Carl Albert – Congressman

Hal Boggs

Charles Halleck

Leslie Arends

Manfield
Humphrey

Dirkson

Smathers

Kuchel

Hickenlooper

Fish Room – White House Conference Room

Mrs. Rose Kennedy – JFK’s mother in Massachusetts.

Walter Jenkins – LBJ’s aide in Washington DC.

Mrs. Connally – Governor Connally’s wife at Parkland Hospital in Dallas.

Tanker – Maj. Michael Cook (Andrews)

Tiger – Col. Swindel (AF1 Pilot)

Congressman Thomas –

Captain Benson – SAM Command Post

C-130 – Plane with vehicles

On the Block, 2304 Zulu GMT– 6:06 PM EST

[2a.] Gen. Clifton:Maj. Gen. Chester V. "Ted" Clifton Jr., 78

December 29, 1991 Maj. Gen. Chester V. "Ted" Clifton Jr., 78, senior military aide to President John F. Kennedy, died of lung ailments Monday in Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He joined President Kennedy's staff in 1961 and was in almost constant touch with him throughout his presidency. He was in the Dallas motorcade on Nov. 22, 1963, when the president was assassinated. He was aboard Air Force One when Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president and later served Mr. Johnson as a military aide.

Born in Edmonton, Alberta, General Clifton grew up in Tacoma, Wash., and attended the University of Washington. He graduated from West Point in 1936 and later received a master's degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin. In World War II, he served in Italy in the Cassino and Anzio campaigns and in the invasion of southern France.

From Arlington National Cemetery Web Site -  a contemporary press report:

Chester V. Clifton, Jr., Senior military aide to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, died December 23, 1991, Walter Reed Army Hospital. He was 78 years old and died of pneumonia after intestinal operation, family member said.

Widely known as Ted, he joined Kennedy staff in 1961 and was officer responsible for the President's daily morning intelligence briefings on world events. He was in the motorcade in Dallas on November 22, 1963, when JFK was assassinated and made arrangements with the White House to deal with military and national security affairs after the assassination.

Remained as military aide to President Johnson until 1965, when he retired from the army, after 33 years of service.In December 1965, he was elected president of Thomas J. Deegan Company, a public relations and management consulting firm. He then formed Clifton-Raymond Associates in 1967, and next year established Clifton Counselors, a management consultant firm that dealt mainly with publishing affairs.

General Clifton was born in Edmonton, Alberta, and grew up in Puyallup Valley near Tacoma, Washington. Attended the University of Washington, and graduated from the United States Military Academy in USMA 1936 and received a master's degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin in 1948.

Before his military career, he worked as reporter for Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the New York Herald Tribune. In World War II he served in the Field Artillery and fought in Italy, France and Germany. After the war worked in public relations in the army's Headquarters in Washington, D.C. and later became an Assistant to General Omar N. Bradley. After attending the National War College in 1954, he served with the Army's European command in Paris.

He was promoted to Brigadier General in 1956 and returned to Washington, D.C. where became the chief of information for the Army.

He was co-author, with Cecil Stoughton, of "The Memories: J.F.K., 1961- 1963," published by W. W. Norton; and served as public relations consultant in development of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.

When he retired, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. Among his other medals are Legion of Merit, French Croix de Guerre and Italian Cross of Military Valor.

He lived in Washington, D.C., and is survived by his wife, Anne Bodine, and brother, John R. Clifton, of Napa, California. Sep 24, 1913-Dec 23, 1991.

The General's remains were cremated and were buried with full military honors in Section 30 of Arlington National Cemetery on May 28, 1992.

Maj. General Chester V. Clifton & JFK: "One of my favorite stories: the exchange was wonderful. I saw this word, 'Draconian,' and I must say, I wasn't familiar with it. It was in an intelligence report from the CIA. I had very carefully written in the margin, 'cruel, inhuman!' The President grabbed the report and was running through it, and when he came to that he stopped and said, 'Who put this in here?' I said, 'I did.' He said, 'That's the trouble with you military; now if you'd had a classic Harvard education, you would have known what the word meant.' So I said, 'Yes, Sir,' and later on -- oh, four or five days later -- again the same thing: we were up in the bedroom, he was going through the report, and there was some very technical military term, in the atomic energy field -- I think it was 'permissive link.' He said, 'Well, what's this mean?' I told him; he said, 'Right,' and I said, 'Mr. President, if you'd had a classic military education at West Point, you would have known what that word was.' He said, 'Touche,' and grinned. He was willing to give and take with great humor.

Bay of Pigs

At 5:15 one morning last week, President Kennedy's military aide, Brigadier General Chester Clifton, got an urgent telephone call. He told the caller to telephone the President at his weekend home in Middleburg, Va. Shortly afterward, in keeping with instructions he had given, the President was awakened and told that an invasion force of Cuban revolutionaries had landed as planned on the south coast of Cuba. So began John F. Kennedy's darkest and bitterest week as President. Soon after he took office in January, Kennedy was faced with making a command decision on Cuba....

Berlin Wall

….Early on the morning of August 13, thousands of frightened East Germans were fleeing across the flimsy boundary into free West Berlin. At 2 a.m. there were sirens, then the rumble of tanks on the East Berlin cobblestones. East German troops carrying rolls of barbed wire, concrete pillars, stone blocks, picks, and shovels leapt out of their trucks. Four hours later, millions of Berliners lived in a huge communist pen which over the next decade would be broadened and built into an automated armed fortress of steel and concrete —a fortress which stood as a monstrous rebuke to freedom. The wall would become the greatest public relations disaster of our age, with endless pictures of desperate men and women, rushing the barrier and being shot down, and then left to die on the concrete no man's land. Kennedy and other Presidents would use it as a stage to unmask the what Ronald Reagan called "the evil empire."

This wall was no symbol

When it happened we were all caught off guard — including Kennedy. He was on board his yacht, the Marlin, pushing off from the family dock in Hyannis Port, Massachussets, preparing for a well-deserved cruise with family and friends and a couple of bowls of fish chowder, his favorite dish. A military duty officer rushed down to the beach with the first flash. He walked into the surf in full uniform to deliver the grim news to Brig. Gen. Chester Clifton, the Presidents military aide who signaled the Marlin back to port. He handed the dispatch to Kennedy who read it in silence. "You go ahead," Kennedy told the family as he got into a golf cart with Clifton to ride back to his house.

Kennedy remained silent for several minutes. Then he blurted, "Why in hell didn't we know about it?" Clifton responded that out of more than 40 contingency plans he had read for Berlin he could not recall a single one that dealt with the possible construction of a barrier….. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,171352,00.html

[Jim Root notes: Senior Military Aid to Kennedy Chester Clifton, as I understand it, kept the Kennedy calander and was responsible for getting Kennedy to and from his daily appointments, he may have had a major imput on the motorcade route decission. This man was assigned by General Maxwell Taylor to this position and Clifton in the motorcade at the time of the assassination. I might also point out that upon graduation from West Point, Chester Clifton's first commanding officier was Edwin Walker. http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=5737

[2b.] David Lifton: MY INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL CHESTER CLIFTON - 7/15/1980

General Chester Clifton was the senior military aide aboard the flight. And his voice can be heard, repeatedly, on the AF-1 tapes (and in 1980, I had the "Johnson Library Version" of those tapes, first unearthed, as I recall, by JFK researcher Fred Newcomb in Los Angeles). I had studied that tape carefully, spending hours --wearing a headset--listening to every single sentence.

After the manuscript to BEST EVIDENCE has been submitted (April 1, 1980), and the publication process had begun, I arranged to interview General Chester Clifton in his office, in Washington, D.C. The date was July 15, 1980, and the interview was an "on-the-record" affair. I had the Air Force One tapes with me, and a recorder to play them on. I also had a second recorder to record our interview. Everything was above board. No hidden recorders. Everything done with full permission. Clifton knew my book would soon be published. I will have much more to say about it in a future writing.

When I interviewed Clifton (and again, this was six months prior to the appearance of BEST EVIDENCE in any bookstore) he had no idea of the evidence that I had ascertained re the sequence of arrivals of body and coffin at Bethesda. And one purpose of my interview was to push him hard on this question: Just what did he know?

I never was able to get Clifton to admit that he had direct knowledge of what happened at the back of Air Force One. For one thing, he wasn't back there. He was at the front of the plane, where the radios were located. As I pursued the matter--very much in the manner of "Columbo" interview ("Well, sir. . I really must ask you just one more question." etc), and when Clifton realized how much I did know, and that I had entire chapters of my forthcoming work devoted to the sequence of arrivals of the Dallas coffin and the President's body (and that the body had arrived at Bethesda 20 minutes before the coffin), General Clifton admitted, four times, that yes, prior to takeoff in Dallas, the President's body could have been taken off Air Force One through the rear starboard door, at the back of the plane. And that he would not have known about that.

One other thing: Clifton was no dummy, and he knew the centrality of the body as evidence, and the importance of the autopsy. In a letter I have a copy of, written by relative of Clifton, in which he describes what Clifton said to him after the publication of the Warren Report, this person writes that Clifton said "Did not believe the Warren Report."

One other matter, and this is a post-script to my post-script: In 1985, I was at Hofstra College and attending their public symposium on the Kennedy presidency. Up on stage were several former JFK administration officials. Clifton was sitting in the audience, several rows in front of me. Under discussion was foreign policy and Vietnam. During the Q an A that followed the panel discussion, he stood up, much older looking now, and almost with his finger shaking, he told them: "I remember that President Kennedy said he would never send troops to Asia" (or words to that effect. Clifton was quite explicit and his remarks were delivered with considerable emotion). This entire matter is probably recorded on film--certainly, it would be on the audio of that memorable event. 

[3] News stories re: Clifton Tapes.

Found: The secret Air Force One tapes that capture dramatic exchanges between White House staff after JFK's assassination 

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

15th November 2011

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2061941/Lost-John-F-Kennedy-assassination-tapes-aboard-Air-Force-One-sale-500-000.html

A long-lost version of the Air Force One recordings made in the immediate aftermath of President John F. Kennedy's assassination, with more than 30 minutes of additional material not in the official version in the government's archives, has been found and is for sale.

There are incidents and code names described on the newly discovered two-plus hour recording, which predates the shorter and newer recording currently housed in the National Archives outside Washington and the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Texas. 

The shorter recording was thought to be the only surviving version of the tape.

The asking price is $500,000 for the reel-to-reel tape, which is inside its original box with a typewritten label showing it was made by the White House Communications Agency for Army Gen Chester 'Ted' Clifton Jr.

It is titled 'Radio Traffic involving AF-1 in flight from Dallas, Texas to Andrews AFB on November 22, 1963.'

Nathan Raab, vice president of The Raab Collection, a Philadelphia historic documents dealer that put the tape up for sale Tuesday, said: 'As Americans have looked to the history of the Kennedy assassination in search of answers, somewhere in an attic there existed a tape made years before the only known surviving version, of the conversations on Air Force One on that fateful day.'

The recording is the highlight of the personal effects from the estate of Clifton, who was Kennedy's senior military aide and was in the Dallas motorcade when the president was assassinated.

Clifton, who died in 1991, had kept a collection of audio tapes, documents, photographs and video stemming from his years in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.

For sale: The asking price is $500,000 for the reel-to-reel tape, which is inside its original box with a typewritten label showing it was made by the White House Communications Agency for Army Gen Chester 'Ted' Clifton Jr

The Raab Collection, which is selling the tape and the rest of the archive, acquired the items at a public sale from Clifton's heirs after the death of Clifton's wife in 2009.

'At a time when there really wasn't what we consider today a chief of staff, Clifton carried on many of those functions,' Mr Raab said. 'He retires in 1965, this goes with him.'

The recording consists of in-flight radio calls between the aircraft, the White House Situation Room, Andrews Air Force Base, and a plane that was carrying Kennedy press secretary Pierre Salinger and six Cabinet members from Hawaii to Tokyo when the president was assassinated.

The Clifton tapes include additional debate about whether Kennedy's body would be brought to Bethesda Naval Hospital or Walter Reed Hospital for autopsy and if first lady Jackie Kennedy would accompany the fallen president, as well as expanded discussions about arranging for ambulances and limousines to meet the plane.

No references to Kennedy nemesis Air Force Gen Curtis LeMay occur in the shorter version, but the Clifton tape contains an urgent attempt by an aide to contact him. 

The aide, seeking to interrupt Air Force transmissions to reach LeMay, is heard saying the general 'is in a C140. Last three numbers are 497. His code name is Grandson. And I want to talk to him.'

The whereabouts of LeMay, whose enmity for the president makes him a central figure for Kennedy assassination researchers, have long been disputed. 

The newly discovered recording can finally end the speculation and pinpoint his location immediately after the president's murder, Mr Raab said.

Other conversations on the tape refer to 'Monument' and 'W.T.E.' - code names for people as yet unknown - and someone only called 'John.'

Parts of the audio are difficult to discern because several conversations from the different patches are going on simultaneously.

Mr Raab said their digital recording was made as a straightforward recording, not as a forensic analysis, and current or future technology may be able to tease out and enhance the conversations.

The edited recording in the National Archives and the LBJ Library, available to the public since 1971, begins with an announcer stating it has been 'edited and condensed' but not explaining how much was cut or by whom.

A more complete version of the Air Force One tapes were long sought but never found, adding fuel to decades-old suspicions that there is more to Kennedy's assassination than the official account naming Lee Harvey Oswald as the lone gunman.

The Assassination Records Review Board, created by an act of Congress in 1992 after the Oliver Stone film 'JFK' caused public uproar to re-examine Kennedy's killing, unsuccessfully sought the unedited Air Force One tapes for its probe. 

Its final report in 1998, the board said the LBJ Library version was filled with crude breaks and chopped conversations.

'That this tape even exists will change the way we view this great event in history,' Mr Raab said. 'It took decades to analyze the shorter, newer version and it will take years to do the same here.'

The Clifton tape has been professionally digitized and a copy is being donated by the Raab Collection to the National Archives and the John F. Kennedy Library so the public will have access to the material even if the original tape is sold to a private collector.

The wholly unedited 'raw' recording of the entirety of the trip, which also would have included periods of silence and static, has never been located. It would have been roughly 4 and a half hours long.

US Archives releases longer audio tape from Air Force One after Kennedy assassination

01/30/2012 – January 30

http://www.boston.com/Boston/politicalintelligence/2012/01/archives-releases-longer-tape-air-force-one-after-kennedy-assassination/icxEaGi6Ad72c8Xr3zq3PN/index.html?s_campaign=8315

By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- The Kennedy assassination was one of the most heart-wrenching and chaotic events in modern American history -- and one still replete with mysteries.

But now a little more light has been shed on one of them: What was edited out of the flight deck recording from Air Force One as it carried John F. Kennedy’s body and the new president, Lyndon B. Johnson, from Dallas to Washington.

The National Archives and Records Administration today released a newly discovered recording – running about 2 hours and 20 minutes -- that is nearly 40 minutes longer than the only version previously known to exist.

The more complete recording was discovered last year by the Raab Collection, a manuscript collector in Pennsylvania, after one of its agents purchased at auction a box of personal effects from the estate of General Chester Clifton, who was Kennedy’s military aide.

The whereabouts of the complete Air Force One radio transmissions from Nov. 22, 1963, still remain a mystery. But what makes this a historically significant find is that it is an earlier version of the raw transmissions than the one housed at the LBJ Library, which was more heavily edited and runs only about an hour and 40 minutes.

Clifton, who died in 1991, left the White House in 1965, while the LBJ Library version was made public in 1971.

“This is the earliest that likely exists,” said Nathan Raab, vice president of the Raab Collection in Ardmore, Pa.

The newly found tape, a copy of which was donated to the Archives, includes never-before-heard transmissions between the White House Situation Room and another plane taking Secretary of State Dean Rusk and other Cabinet members to Tokyo at the time of Kennedy’s shooting and was turned back. It also contains an urgent request to locate the head of the Air Force, General Curtis LeMay, whose whereabouts in the immediate aftermath of the assassination have remained an obsession for generations of conspiracy theorists.

Some of the newly discovered radio traffic is raw and uncensored, such as when Rusk and his party are informed of the shooting while flying over the Pacific.

“Kennedy apparently shot in head,” the male radio operator in the Situation Room reports. “He fell face down in back seat of his car, blood was on his head, Mrs. Kennedy cried ‘oh, no’ and tried to hold up his head.”

Also heard are more mundane things, such as the pilots of Air Force One discussing how to avoid tornados in Arkansas and Mississippi along the flight path from Dallas to Washington, D.C.

Raab said he was most intrigued by the portion involving LeMay. Kennedy and the hawkish Air Force chief were widely known to mistrust each other and all references to LeMay were deleted in the Johnson Library version of the recording.

In the longer version, one of LeMay’s aides, a Colonel Dorman, contacts the White House Situation Room seeking to reach the general, who he tells them is flying in a C-140 aircraft with the last three numbers 497 and whose code name is “Grandson.”

“And I want to talk to him,” the colonel says. Any delay, he adds, “would be too late.”

But he is told they will have to interrupt transmissions with Air Force One to do so. The Situation Room reports that they are using both frequencies available to communicate with the presidential aircraft.

Summarizing the portions of the tape not made public before, the National Archives cited “references to new code names and incidents; a private conversation between Jerry Behn, the head of the Secret Service, and an unidentified individual about the disposition of the president’s body; an urgent effort by an aide to Air Force Chief of Staff Curtis LeMay to reach [him]; and attempts to locate various members of Congress from the Texas delegation.”

Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero said the recording “provides additional documentation concerning the immediate response of the US Government on the day of President Kennedy’s assassination.”

The tape, added, Raab, “will allow the public a more complete view of the chaotic circumstances following the assassination of President Kennedy.”

But the recording only goes so far. Several hours of raw tape are still missing. The transmissions heard on Air Force One that day should cover more than four hours -- from before 2 p.m. Eastern time to after 6 p.m., when the new president and the casket bearing JFK arrived at Andrews Air Force Base in suburban Maryland.

“The raw tapes never resurfaced after 1965-66, and the very existence of the first Air Force One assassination tape [found among Clifton’s papers] was forgotten,” said the Raab Collection. “Over the years all the efforts to find the raw tapes or any other original version proved fruitless. They are no longer with the White House Communications Agency, where they were created.”

The Raab Collection is selling the original copy of the reel-to-reel recording for $500,000, along with other items found among Clifton’s estate, including an autographed photograph of President Kennedy. Bryan Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com

[4] – Chronology Love Field, Dallas – 86972 – 26000 – AF1 – Andrews – Chronology

12:30 PM – CST – Merriman Smith of UPI, riding in the press pool car four cars behind the Presidential limousine in the motorcade, heard the sound of gunfire and dictated the first bulletin to his local Dallas UPI bureau over the pool car’s radiotelephone. “Three shots were fired at President Kennedy’s motorcade in Downtown Dallas.”

12:34 PM – CST First UPI "A" wire transmission: Dallas, Nov. 22 (UPI) –Three shots were fired at President Kennedy’s motorcade today in downtown Dallas. JT1234PCS - 1234PCS means 12:34 Central Standard time. David Lifton: “The first transmission (above) was the result of Merriman Smith excitedly talking to someone at the UPI Dallas office, who then typed it onto the actual teletype machine, and then pressed "send".

12:36 PM – CST Don Gardiner of ABC radio network cut into local programs with it.

12:39 PM CST UPI A8N DA URGENT 1st Add Shots, Dallas (A7N) XXX Downtown Dallas. No casualties were reported. The incident occurred near the country sheriff’s office on main street, just east of an underpass leading toward the Trade Mart where the President was to MA FLASH FLASH KENNEDY SERIOUSLY WOUNDED PERHAPS SERIOUSLY PERHAPS FATALLY BY ASSASSINS BULLET
JT 1239PCS

DSL: “The AP wire starts with its very first transmission at 12:40 CST (from AP photographer James W. Altgens who said he saw blood on the President’s head. Altgens said he heard two shots but thought someone was shooting fireworks until he saw the blood on the President. Altgents said he saw no one with a gun.”

12:40 PM CST BULLETIN Dallas. Nov. 22 (AP) President Kennedy was shot today just his motorcade left downtown Dallas. Mrs. Kennedy jumped up and grabbed Mr. Kennedy. She cried, “Oh, No!” The motorcade sped [on?] D 1240 PCS NM ƒ K

12:41 PM CST BULLETIN MATTER Dallas-FIRST ADD KENNEDY SHOT X X X SPED ON. MM 12:41 PCS A NM

DSL: “Then Smith commandeered a phone at Parkland, called New York UPI, and some of his next transmissions were sent from New York City.”

Dallas CST Andrews EST – Military Time – Andrews Log

1:00 PM CST (2:00 PM EST) – 1400 – JFK pronounced dead.

1:00 PM CST (2:00 PM EST) –1400 - Col. Hornbuckle Puts Andrews Wing on Alert

1:20 PM CST (2:20 PM EST) - 1420 Andrews ordered to pick up LeMay at Toronto

1:26 PM CST (2:26 PM EST) – 1426 – LBJ Leaves Parkland for AF1

1:46 PM CST (2:46 PM EST) - 1446  LeMay’s C-140 Departs Andrews for Toronto

1:46 PM CST (2:46 PM EST) – 1446 Cabinet Plane 86972 Turns Around

1:50 PM CST (2:50 PM EST) P/U for LeMay changed from Toronto to Wairton, CA.

2:00 PM CST (3:00 PM EST) - 1500 Flight Plan filed for AF1.

2:35 PM CST FIRST AP STORY NAMING OSWALD
(but not yet making definitive connection with JFK assn)

2:35 CST AP Dallas, Tex., Nov. 22 (AP) -- The Dallas Police Department today arrested a 24 year-old man, Lee H. Oswald, in connection with the slaying of a Dallas policeman shortly after President Kennedy was assassinated. He was also being interrogated to see if he had any connection with the slaying of the President. Oswald was pulled screaming and yelling from the Texas Theater in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas. 

2:43 CST - WFAA and WBAP radio named Oswald. WBAP's David Daniel interrupts for word from Dallas Police of the arrest of "a 24-year-old man, Lee H. Oswald" in connection with the shooting of Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit. He's being questioned to see if he has any connection with JFK assassination. "Oswald was pulled screaming and yelling" from the Texas Theater in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas. After a pistol is taken from him during a scuffle, he's quoted as saying, "It's all over now."

2:47 PM CST (3:47 PM EST) 1545 – 26000 departs Dallas as AF1 ETA Andrews 6:05

3:09 PM CST (4:09 PM EST) 1609 – 86972 Departs Hickam ETA Andrews 12:24

3:22 PM CST SECOND AP STORY NAMING OSWALD w/ more definite link between LHO & JFK slaying.

3:22 AP CST - 1st AP mention of LHO 

3:08 PM (CST) UPI’s completely false version of the theater arrest—but with no mention of Oswald (just a “suspect”) and with Tippit being located inside theater, shot there, and suspect being arrested there.
3:22 PM CST Second AP Story Naming Oswald with more definite link between LHO & JFK slaying. Dallas, Nov. 22 (AP) - A 24-year-old man who said two years ago he wanted Russian citizenship was questioned today to see whether he had any connection with the assassination of President Kennedy. He was identified as Lee Harvey Oswald of Forth Worth. He was pulled screaming and yelling from the Texas Theater in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas shortly after a Dallas policeman was shot to death. On Nov. 1, 1959, Oswald told the U.S. Embassy in Moscow he had applied for Soviet citizenship. He said he had been a tourist in Russia since October 13, that year. Oswald was reported to have a Russian wife. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram confirmed that the man held in Dallas was the same Oswald and said his mother was being taken to Dallas Police headquarters to see him. 

3:23 CST - NBC television network coverage mentioned Oswald's name

First AP Story Naming Oswald (2:35 PM CST)

3:25 PM CST (4:25 PM EST) 1625 – LeMay dep Wairton ETA Andrews 5:15 EST
3:46 PM CST First UPI mention of LHO now portrayed as JFK’s assassin, and linked to FPCC.

DSL: “This is designated UPI A 104/Bulletin. Although this dispatch is the first UPI mention of Oswald, it is not the first UPI mention of an arrest in the JFK case. This UPI dispatch is critical because it identifies LHO as “the prime suspect” in the JFK assassination and links him to the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Dallas, Nov. 22 (UPI)--Police today seized Lee H. Oswald, identified as chairman of a "Fair Play for Cuba Committee," as the prime suspect in the assassination of President Kennedy. (more) Police said Oswald, 24, was accused in the slaying of a Dallas policeman shortly after the shooting of the President. Police Capt. Pat Gannaway said the suspect was an employee in the building where a rifle was found. Gannaway said the suspect had visited Russia and was married to a Russian. This was not immediately confirmed. First UPI mention of LHO (3:46 PM CST) now portrayed as JFK's assassin, and linked to FPCC.

3:50 PM CST (4:50 PM EST) 1650 26000 AF1 requests Steps, Lift Truck.

4:00 PM CST (5:00 PM EST) 1700 – LeMay destination DCA not ADW/Andrews

4:00 PM CST (5:00 PM EST) 1700 – AF1 Requests Ramps & Press Fence

4:12 PM CST (5:12 PM EST) 1712 – LeMay lands at DCA

4::41 PM CST (5: 41 PM EST) 1740 – AF1 4 A.P. Cars, Ramp Confirmed.

5:04 PM CST (6:04 P.M. EST) 1800 – AF1 Lands at Andrews 2300 – 2304 Zulu (GMT)

5:30 PM CST (6:30 PM EST) 1830 – AF2 (LBJ’s Plane) Lands at Andrews

11:37 PM CST (12:37 AM EST) 0937 – Andrews Log: 86972 Cabinet Arrives Andrews

 [5] – Situation Room White House & Tazewell Shepard. According to historian Arthur Schlesinger, JFK figured that one reason the Bay of Pigs failed was that he got only secondhand updates on the situation. Mr. Schlesinger writes in his book "A Thousand Days" that Kennedy and national security adviser McGeorge Bundy wanted a place where they could get the same real-time info the Pentagon and the CIA got, and where the chief executive and his closest advisers could weigh this data in confidence and come to their own conclusions. In retrospect, lack of timely updates may have played a minor role in the Bay of Pigs fiasco. But in the weeks between the Bay of Pigs and May 15, Kennedy's naval aide Tazewell Shepard enlisted a bunch of Seabees and turned part of the West Wing basement "into a facility that some political scientists say changed the fundamental nature of the presidency," writes Michael Bohn, a former situation room director, in his 2003 book "Nerve Center."

[6] Radiomen and WHCA After Action Reports. See: Links to – [ m ]

[7] Oliver Hallett, the Navy officer attached to the WHSR who reads the wire service bulletins to Pierre Salinger, aboard the Cabinet Plane over the Pacific, had previously been assigned to the US Embassy in Moscow where he was a witness to the defection of Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald is arrested and identified as a suspect in the assassination before AF1 leaves the ground in Dallas.

[8] Maj. Harold Patterson. Lieutenant Patterson, son of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Patterson of Balltown road, has been with the signal corps since Nov. 1947. He was stationed a year in Korea, and in December 1948 was assigned to his present post in Japan.

[9] Col. Hornbuckle. Carl G. Hornbuckle (retired colonel), 74,born, Burnsdalle, N.C, son of Rev. and Mrs. J.P. Hornbuckle, was born July 18, 1923, in Burnsdalle, N.C., attended Linor Rhyne College, NYU, USC and the University of Hawaii where he received a master's degree in aeronautical engineering. He graduated from the Air War College in 1965, was a member of the 8th Air Force in England and flew missions in World War II, the Berlin airlift, the Korean Conflict and in Vietnam. He also flew missions in support of Operation Deep Freeze at the South Pole and was a member of the Special Air Mission at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C. He was a pilot for Air Force One where he flew under two presidents and was host to many VIPs. His last assignment was with U.S. forces at the Azores, Portugal, and retired after 31 years on Sept. 1, 1976. He received many awards including the DFC, LOM and the Silver Star.

[10] Col. Dorman “Col Dorman was the aide -de-camp to General LeMay, and my father. Your boy (David) Brinkley totally misinterpreted the message that was sent to AF 1 - and you obviously misinterpreted it also and fed his ignorance. I would like to know how I can obtain a copy of that portion of the tape, By the way, my mother was working at the White House at that time also - and Col Dorman was KIA in Vietnam 6 years later.”
- George Stanton Dorman, Jr, to Piers Morgan.