View from the Sniper's Nest

Dealey Plaza - View from the Sniper's Nest

Embedded w/ Snipers

[BK Notes: This is a slightly revised article I wrote five years ago]

http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2014/02/view-from-snipers-nest.html

By William Kelly

     The Sniper's Perspective of Dealey Plaza  

“In a free society, counter-espionage is based on the practice most useful for hunting rabbits. Rather than look for the rabbit, one posts oneself in a spot where the rabbit is likely to pass and come to you."
       - Alexander Hamilton (as attributed by Allen Dulles)

The lead Humvee in the convoy suddenly comes to a halt as it slips under a tree on the edge of town, an empty tin can, hanging from a branch by a thin thread, dangles in the breeze.

To the untrained eye it is an empty tin can hanging from a tree, but to the trained eye it’s a sure sign of danger – a makeshift wind gauge - a sniper’s wind gauge, indicating a Level 2 or Level 3 sniper is operating in the area and probably had you in their sights as you are in the sniper’s kill zone.

When Uncle Sam contacted me for a special mission recently, I answered the call and spent a few weeks in the field helping to train American soldiers, including expert snipers, from whom I learned some things that can be applied to a better understanding of the mechanics of what happened at Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963.

Before trying to figure out who the Sixth Floor Sniper was and why he did the things he did, a few things must be understood about the nature of the sniper profession.

Not a new idea, the historical development of the sniper as a key surgeon in the course of battle has only been perfected in the last half of the twentieth century.

During the Revolutionary War, at the Battle of Brandywine, near Philadelphia, a British sniper from Scotland – Patrick Ferguson  had General George Washington in his sights, but decided not to shoot him in the back as he thought it ungentlemanly to do so, thus sparing the life of the man who would win the revolution and be the first president of the American republic.

[For more on Patrick Ferguson see Washington at Brandywine – the Sniper that Didn’t Shoot: http://jfkcountercoup2.blogspot.com/2017/02/washington-at-brandywine-sniper-that.html ]

At Saratoga, a few months later, an American sniper with a Kentucky long rifle shot and killed a British general, decisively altering the outcome of not only that battle but the war.

On eighteen and nineteenth century war ships, the marines were issued long barrel rifles and placed in high mast crow’s nests from where they would shoot select targets during battles, so friendly forces were forced to wear identifying marks on their hats so not to be accidentally hit by the marine marksmen.

As European gunsmiths refined the rifle and ammo, the abilities of marksmen increased, though applying the weapon for assassination purposes didn’t become effective until World War II, and increased steadily through the Korean War and Vietnam, when the sniper came into his own.

Snipers played pivotal roles on the Russian front during World War II, where Russian women were said to be the best snipers. The snipers refined their abilities in Korea, but it wasn’t until Vietnam (1965-1973) when the Level One sniper came into his own, specially recruited, trained, equipped and sent into the field on specific missions.

Historically the assassination of Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich in 1942 was carried out as a military style ambush of his motorcade and car as they made a sharp turn on a Prague street. The Chech partisans who conducted the operation were led by two Britishc 
 trained commandos who were parachuted back into their homeland to carry out the attack, as depicted in the movie Operation Anthropoid.

[For more on Heydrich’s assassination - https://www.private-prague-guide.com/article/assassination-of-reinhard-heydrich/  /   https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/assassination-butcher-prague-reinhard-heydrich.html ]

The British SOE – Special Operations Exercutive – had a plan to have a sniper and his spotter kill Hitler as he walked from his rural home to a tea house, as he was known to do almost daily. But the tide of war had changed, Hitler was making bad decisions and they decided to let him continue to do so. The German military brass however, had other ideas and tried to kill him with explosives that failed on July 20, 1944, an assassination and coup attempt that the CIA “studied in detail” to use against Castro. A study they have since lost.

Then there are the failed attempts to kill Charles deGaul and Fidel Castro. DeGaul was the target of the elusive assassin known as the Jackel – (See movie “Day of the Jackel”), who was hired by the OAS – disgruntled French military officers who were against deGaul’s policy of freeing the French colony of Algeria. Like the attack on Hydrich the OAS attack on deGaul was at a sharp curve in the road that forced the target vehicle to slow down – such was the case at Dealey Plaza.

DeGaul escaped however – as the French Intelligence report to the CIA indicated the French car deGaul used did not stop when damaged – and his Michelin tires continued to function after being shot out.

While working with the OP FOR – Opposition Force on various scenarios – I watched as they huddled around a Sand Table – one of the oldest instruments of war ever devised and still used today. If Alexander the Great came back and watched them as I did – he would recognize the Sand Table, as he used one too. The Sand Table is a simple sand box that can be configured to whatever is needed – hills, towns and roads can be situated on a sand table with simple rocks and twigs. The Op For team leader, face painted black, AK47 swung over his shoulder – put his finger in the sand and made a swerving trail, to indicate the road. At the point of the curve he said, is where they plant an IED – Improvised Explosive Device, and that’s where they attack the expected convoy.

Much like Dealey Plaza.

A mob hired professional sniper was responsible for killing mobster Bugsy Siegel, a rare mafia killing of that type, civil rights activist Medgar Evers was killed by a KKK racist Bryan DeBeckwith, and the Texas Tower murder was a US Army veteran.

Traditionally snipers have been measured by the ultimate yardstick – confirmed kills, as well as the longest shot, most difficult shot and high target value. 

As for confirmed kills, there is Simo Hayha on top, and no one else really close. Although relatively unknown outside of his native Finland, where he is a national hero, you can thank Hayha for popularizing the Olympic sport that combines cross country skiing and accurate shooting, as that’s the way he attacked and killed over seven hundred invading Germans in 1939.

A lone wolf with no military chain of command, Hayha used his intimate knowledge of the terrain to attack and evade the Germans, who kept track and confirmed his kills and sent Level 1 sniper teams and eventually a hole brigade to stop him.

Following Hayha, there’s a Fyodor Okhlopkova, a World War II Russian sniper with 423 kills, and Francis Pegahmagabow, a Canadian native American Indian scout and sniper credited with 378 kills during World War I.

A World War II German, Matthaus Hetzenauer comes in at number four with 345 kills, while his Russian front antagonists Lyudmila Pavlichenko (309 kills) a women, is fifth on the all time snipers list.

Vasikly Zaytsev, who shared Lee Harvey Oswald's nickname – “the Rabbit,” (242 kills) is sixth, and probably one of the best known snipers thanks to the movie “Enemy at the Gate,” which depicted the personal battle between the best German and Russian snipers during World War II. Zaytsev went on to instruct snipers at a special school he established and his students were known as "little rabbits" and accounted for another 3,000 confirmed kills. 

Red Chinese sniper Zhang Tyaofang (214 kills) fought in Korea, is number seven.

The Americans don’t rank until number 8 with Chris Kyle, a US Navy SEAL whose 160 confirmed kills during the Iraq war just outrank Australian Billy Sing, whose 150 kills during World War I and American Adelbert F. Waldron II, whose 109 kills in Vietnam round out the top ten snipers of all time.

Two other American Marines deserve notice however, as Chuck Mawhinney (103 kills) and Carlos Hathcock (93 kills) in Vietnam are almost celebrities, as the USMC has an award named after Hathcock, while Mawhinney is known for being humble about his achievements, as not even his wife, family or friends knew of his Vietnam exploits until they were revealed in a book over twenty years later. 

Top Twelve Snipers of All Time - Based on Confirmed Kills 

1- Simo Hayha – 705 kills (505 w/ rifle) Finnland 1939 WWII

2- Fyodor Okhlopkov – 423 kills – Russian WWII

3- Francis Pegahmagabow – 378 kills - Canadian WWI

4- Matthaus Hetzenauer – 345 kills – German WWII

5- Lyudmila Pavlichenko – 309 kills - Ukraine WWII

6- Vasikly Zaytsev – the rabbit - German 242 kills WWII

7- Zhang TYaofang – 214 kills Chinese - Korea

8- Chris Kyle – 160 kills – US Navy SEAL – Iraq War

9-  Billy Sing – 150 + Australian during WWI

10- Adelbert F. Waldron III – 109 kills US Navy/Army 1968 Vietnam

11- Chuck Mawhinney – 103 kills USMC 1968

12- Carlos Hathcock – 93 kills USMC 1968

Longest Shot

As for the longest shot, the long standing record once held by Canadian Corporal Rob Furlong – 2,430 meter (1.51 miles) was eclipsed by Craig Harrison, of the Royal Marines at 2,475 meters.

Carlos Hathcock is said to have taken the most difficult shot ever, killing an enemy sniper by shooting him through his scope as he was aiming at Hathcock.

Adelbert Waldron once shot an enemy sniper in a tree from a moving boat, and an American in Iraq made a successful shot through a brick wall. 

When “in the field” in combat situations, officers remove their insignia so as not to reveal their rank, and enlisted men are ordered not to salute officers so as not to reveal their true rank to possible snipers. Offices like Captain, Majors and Colonels – Colonels are the highest ranking officer in the battlefield – are considered HTPs - High Priority Targets by snipers.

THREE LEVELS OF SNIPER TRAINING

According to the snipers, the Sixth Floor sniper, whoever he was - was a Level Three sniper who is officially credited with making the most difficult shot of all time at the highest priority target, and that's why they don't believe it. 

Before the Dealey Plaza analysis begins however, for starters, you must understand that there are three categories of snipers - Level One, Level Two and Level Three. 

From the Sniper’s Manual (Based on the Canadian Army TTP – Training, Techniques and Procedures.

Level One – the Specially Trained Sniper

The most dangerous sniper is the one who is individually selected, trained and equipped with an accurate sniper rifle outfitted with a modern scope, night vision device and thermal imager, an expert trained to select key personnel HPTs as their target and can shoot them in the head accurately at great ranges (1,000+ meters).

These snipers are accompanied by a spotter-security aide and are skilled in avoiding detection. This sniper is the most difficult to effectively counter.

The Level One sniper doesn't take multiple shots at a target when one shot is all that’s needed. As they say, “One shot one kill,” is their motto.

This level sniper is portrayed in the Hollywood movies “The Shooter" and “American Sniper” – the story of Chris Kyle, both of which exemplify the training, discipline, pride and professionalism exhibited by expert snipers at this level.

Level Two Snipers

Level Two Snipers are trained marksmen, often found in the national armies of the world and commonly utilized in urban combat, equipped with a standard issue weapon and with fair-to-good field craft skills, he is difficult to detect. He may be deployed alone or in teams, often taking the lead as the Point man, observer as well as sniper, as the sniper is depicted in the movie “Saving Private Ryan.”

The Level Three Sniper

The Level Three sniper is the armed irregular, with little or no formal military training, who may or may not wear a distinguishing uniform, and may or may not carry his general issue weapon openly. He will go to great lengths to avoid identification as a sniper, and may even leave his cheap, but often effective weapon behind in the course of his escape – as the Sixth Floor Sniper did.

The inexpensive mail order  Italian Army issue 6.5 mm Manlicher Carcano with cheap Japanese scope and custom US Air Force pistol holster sling (Where did Oswald get the sling?) 

On the Fiftieth anniversary of the assassination, the gunsmith at Kline’s in Chicago who placed the scope on Oswald’s rifle was interviewed and quoted in a news article saying that if Oswald used that rifle and scope he was “very lucky,” and the snipers agree. 

The Sixth Floor Sniper would be classified a Level Three Sniper by his weapon – the Mannlicher Carcano, a standard issue Italian weapon, and if Oswald, by his limited US Marine Corps training.

           Winchester Model 70 - Circa 1963 

As explained to me, a Level One sniper wouldn’t use the Mannlicher-Carcano as a weapon and wouldn’t need or take more than one shot. In 1963, a Level One sniper would probably use a state of the art custom weapon and scope, or a prized Winchester Model 70, top of the line models.

          Remington Model 700 - Circa 1963 

Since the weapon and MO – modus operandi – identifies the Sixth Floor Sniper as a Level Three Sniper, Level One snipers say the Sixth Floor Sniper didn’t take the fatal head shot that killed President Kennedy.

The first class snipers said that while the Sixth Floor Sniper may have shot JFK in the back and wounded Governor Connally – he most certainly didn’t take the fatal head shot. That  shot was taken by a first class sniper – “one shot one kill” who always shoots for the head and always his it.

There are also indications that the bullet that struck JFK in the head was a different type of bullet than those fired from the Mannlicher Carcano, and that shot was probably taken by a Level One sniper with a different style of weapon, different type of bullet from a different location.

From the Sixth Floor sniper’s nest, the best shot was when the target was approaching the window on Houston Street, as it slowed down for the turn onto Elm Street, and from then on the shots get harder, as the target moves from left to right on a downward slope and interference by a tree.

The U.S. Army Sniper’s Manual says under "Engaging Moving Targets" that: “Engaging moving targets not only requires the Sniper to determine the target distance and wind effects on the round, but must also consider the lateral and speed angle of the target, the rounds time of flight, and the placement of a proper level to compensate for both. These added variables increase the chance of a miss. Therefore, the Sniper should engage a moving target when it is the only option.” [www.cybersniper.com]

To calculate leads, you take the Time of Flight (in seconds) x (times) target speed (in feet per seconds) which equals = lead (in feet) x (times) .3048 = meters x 1000 = mil. lead divided by range.

Of course familiarity with the weapon and practice shooting at moving targets increases the ability and skill of the shooter, but if Oswald was the Sixth Floor Sniper there is no indication that he ever shot that rifle before, didn’t practice or even purchase ammo for it.

As Lee Harvey Oswald’s brother Robert, who was a US Marine marksman, hunter and familiar with his shooting abilities is often portrayed as someone who believes his brother killed the President. But he also wrote in his book that, “If Lee did not spend a considerable amount of time practicing with that rifle in the weeks and months before the assassination, then I would say that Lee did not fire the shots that killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally.” (p. 208, “Lee – A Portrait of Lee Harvey Oswald by his Brother, Coward-McCann, Inc., NY, 1967) 

And according to the Warren Commission the rifle and the scope remained in the heavy wool blanket in the Paine's garage until the morning of the assassination, and there is no evidence Oswald ever shot that rifle or even purchased bullets for it. 

All of the snipers agree that whoever fired those shots with that rifle from the Sixth Floor window, he did not use the scope, which was not properly aligned and not necessary at that distance, where the manual sight would be sufficient.

While the Sixth Floor sniper didn’t take the best shot from that location, as the nearly stationary target came towards him on Houston Street, the head shot on Elm Street was most likely taken by a Level One Sniper from either in front or behind so there was no lateral movement as the target came towards or was going away from him.

From what the Level One snipers tell me, the purpose of the Sixth Floor Sniper was to provide diversion and deception, put ballistic evidence incriminating Oswald into the car while the Level One sniper did what such snipers are trained to do – kill the high priority target (HPT) with one shot to the head.

They say the Sixth Floor Sniper, whoever he was, was a Level Three sniper and his standard issue weapon, while capable of firing three shots in the allotted time and get three hits on target, he was incapable of taking the fatal head shot from that position with that weapon. 

Not a “lucky” shot, it couldn’t happen. So there must have been a Level One sniper who took the fatal head shot from another location, using a different type of weapon and ammo, and stationed in front of or behind the target

Integral aspects of the Level One sniper attack, the diversion and deception not only ensures the escape of the sniper and his spotter, but also protects the actual sponsors, as one of the reasons for using a sniper to commit an assassination is permit the escape of the shooter and to protect the sponsor. Leaving the rifle behind also implicated Oswald – Ozzie Rabbit – the Patsy.

The diversion and deceptions were needed because there would be very limited suspects if a Level One sniper killed the President with only one shot, incriminating those few military and intelligence agencies capable of putting a Level One sniper in the field and taking out the highest priority target in the world, without getting caught. The Level Three sniper firing openly at the same time diverted attention from the Level One sniper, expanded the suspect pool in general and incriminated Oswald in particular.

In the Marines Oswald’s nickname was “Ozzie Rabbit,” which they said was based on a cartoon character popular at that time, and like Alice goes Through the Looking Glass and into the Rabbit’s Hole to begin her adventure, those who devised the Dealey Plaza operation incorporated Oswald, not as the real assassin or the Sixth Floor sniper, but as the patsy and rabbit that would be set loose to set a false trail and keep the official investigators from the real perpetrators of the crime.

In his book, “A Sniper Looks at Dealey Plaza,” Craig Roberts concurs saying, “I analyzed the scene as a sniper,….(and concluded)…it would take a minimum of two people shooting. There was little hope that I alone, even if equipped with precision equipment, would be able to duplicate the feat described by the Warren Commission,” so neither could Lee Harvey Oswald, or any Level Three sniper.

As has been pointed out, Amos Heacock, the celebrated Marine sniper and Vietnam veteran who went on to train snipers at Quantaco, Virginia, attempted to duplicate the feat attributed to Oswald, shooting the moving target in the head from the allotted distance, and he couldn't do it. 

“I would have never put anyone in the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD) with so many locations that were much more advantageous,” Roberts said, “unless I needed a diversion. If I did, it would be a good place for red herrings to be observed by witnesses.”

As seen from the street below, the Sixth Floor Sniper, according to all witnesses who saw him, wore a white shirt (Oswald wore brown), and according to one witness (Amos Eunis) who got a clear view of him, the sniper in the window had a very distinctive bald spot on the top of his head, not a physical characteristic shared by Oswald. Like Oswald, the Sixth Floor Sniper probably had good reason to be there, possibly worked in the building or as a subcontractor or delivery person familiar with the area, or a policeman, someone who it wouldn’t seem suspicious for him to be there.

Nor did he leave immediately, as the Warren Commission Report has Oswald running down four flights of stairs to get to the Second Floor lunchroom in time to be seen there by Dallas Police officer Marion Baker ninety seconds after the last shot. The Sixth Floor Sniper took his time, did not run, and instead, as the photo evidence proves, he moved boxes around, putting one on the window sill that was mistakenly believed to have been used as a gun rest. He was still in the window nearly four to five minutes after the shooting when seen by a secretary from across the street. If not a TSBD employee or contractor, the Sixth Floor Sniper was possibly a police or sheriff’s officer who just stayed nearby and blended in with the other investigators when they began a search of the building. 

The sniper’s analysis is that the Sixth Floor, Level Three sniper’s job was to divert and deceive, not to kill, and he did not take the fatal head shot, which was taken by a Level One sniper from a location in front of or behind the target, with a different style weapon and type of bullet, one that shattered on impact.

This sniper’s analysis is supported by the 1998 report by U.S. Federal Attorney John Orr that indicates the bullet that hit JFK in the head was a different type of bullet than CE399 and other bullets fired from the Mannlicher Carcano rifle found in the TSBD. Orr’s report convinced the Department of Justice, the FBI, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) to conduct further tests of CE567, bullet fragments from the limo, no mean feat.

[For more on Orr’s report - http://jfkcountercoup2.blogspot.com/2012/03/re-wc-ce-567-bullet-fragment-found.html]

The ear witnesses to the assassination are all in agreement in that the spacing of the three shots they heard were different in that the time between the first and second shots was longer than that of the second and third shot, which were almost on top of each other and could not have been fired by the same person with the same rifle. 

Like the snipers, when a veteran deer hunter visited Dealey Plaza he was immediately drawn to the area behind the picket fence on the Grassy Knoll and said that’s where he would set up his deer stand.

But a Level One sniper could take that fatal head shot from hundreds of yards away, tucked back in a room yards from the window so that no one could see him. Level One snipers are the most difficult to detect and to counter.

According to the Canadian Army Sniper Manual, the best – and possibly only way to stop a sniper is for another sniper to kill him. The manual says: “The best way to stop the sniper is to kill the sniper. Let them escape and they will attack someone else, somewhere else.”

Counter-snipers are instructed to “Have a plan and rehears it. Do Not fixate on casualties! Kill the sniper, then attend to casualties.”

But no one returned fire at Dealey Plaza, though there were many guns and a number of agents and officers could have, but didn’t.

When under fire the response policy is to keep moving, get out of the Kill Zone as quickly as possible and move in a swerving S or Z pattern, identify the sniper’s location, return fire, maneuver, attack and kill them. “Do not fixate on casualties, kill the sniper!” says the Sniper’s Manual.'

Although Will Greer, the Secret Service driver was trained in these same procedures he inexplicably slowed down after the first shot and came to almost a complete stop precisely at the moment the head shot was taken. A Protestant Irishman from Northern Ireland, Agent Greer was an Orangeman who belonged to the secret order that fought the IRA and worked closely with the British MI5 and MI6 intelligence agencies.

Former British Naval Intelligence officer Ian Fleming, who ran his own behind the lines commando unit during WWIi, wrote the short story “The Living Daylights,” which has secret agent 007 assigned to kill a Soviet Russian sniper expected to try to shoot a defector running across the no-man’s land at the Berlin Wall. At first James Bond is surprised to see through his scope a beautiful women sniper, and he is reprimanded when he only wounds and doesn’t kill her.

The President’s security sometimes included counter-sniper snipers. Such precautions were taken a few weeks before Dallas when the President visited Tampa and traveled through the city in a similar motorcade, and over a dozen Tampa Sheriff’s deputies were deployed with rifles on roofs and overpasses along the motorcade route. But no such precautions were taken in Dallas.

It has been alleged (by Penn Jones), that a Dallas Deputy Sheriff named Weatherford was on the Records Building roof overlooking Dealey Plaza with a rifle at the time of the assassination, and there are published reports he returned fire. But Weatherford’s official statement reflects that he was on the Houston Street sidewalk with other deputies. Weatherford said that he was with Deputy Allan Sweatt, whose statement confirms Weatherford’s story that they ran to the Grassy Knoll before entering the back of the TSBD and searched the building.

Weatherford assisted in the search of the sixth floor when the shells and the rifle were discovered, but they failed to find Oswald’s clipboard and jacket, that weren’t found until a week later. Weatherford also participated in the search of the Paine’s house and garage when the backyard photos were found depicting Oswald holding the murder weapons and communist publications, which was part of the cover-story, a failed black propaganda operation that attempted to blame the assassination on Fidel Castro.

  

Fidel Castro with sniper rifle 

Just as the dangling tin can was a danger sign indicating there was a sniper operating in the area, there were similar signs of danger before JFK entered Dealey Plaza, but they went unheeded or were intentionally ignored. 

Of the Dealey Plaza danger signs, a few stand out, especially those who expressed foreknowledge of the assassination, the Walker shooting, the recorded Alpha 66 threat, the Stevenson incident and Umbrella Man.

While each of these danger signs should be reviewed in depth, the Umbrella Man was right there at Dealey Plaza, and he admits that his umbrella was intended to be a sign – a silent protest, a signal and message that President Kennedy would recognize and understand. Louie Steven Witt said the umbrella was a sign that referred to his father’s isolationist stand at the beginning of World War II, the image of Chamberlain’s umbrella at Munich that represented the failed policy of “appeasement” with the Nazis, which the Umbrella Man implied was JFK’s policy towards communists.

Louie Steven Witt was a Dallas insurance office worker who claimed to be the Umbrella Man. He told the HSCA that the umbrella was a visual protest of JFK’s father’s policies of appeasement of Hitler at Munich when he was ambassador to the UK (1938-39), with the umbrella being a reference to Nevelle Chamberlain.'

Witt told the HSCA that it was someone in his insurance office cafateria - the Rio Grande National Insurance Co., told him that the Kennedys were sore about the umbrella being used as protest sign. “I was going to use the umbrella to heckle the president’s motorcade….I just knew it was a sore sport with the Kennedys. I just knew the vague generalities of it. It had something to do with something that happened years ago with the father Joe Kennedy when he was the Ambassador to England.”

                                                    The Umbrella Man at Dealey Plaza

Who planted the seed in Witt’s mind to heckle the president? Perhaps it was someone who also shared an office in the Rio Grande building, - which included the Army Intelligence, Secret Service and the Emigration and Naturalization Service, who all shared the same cafeteria where Witt said he learned of the Kennedy’s distaste for umbrellas. Was it someone in cafeteria from Army Intelligence or the Secret Service who told Witt of the meaning of appeasement and symbol of the umbrella? 

It is a building that Oswald visited a number of times. Witt’s references to Chamberlain’s umbrella and appeasement at Munich are echoed exactly by General LeMay at the White House a year earlier.

                                                   Chamberlain - Appeasement at Munich '

At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, on October 19, 1962, President Kennedy met in the Oval Office with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, when Air Force Chief Gen. Curtis LeMay was recorded as saying, “…I don’t see any other solution for it [other than direct military action].….This is almost as bad as the appeasement at Munich.(Pause)...”   

Sheldon Stern wrote that,“The general had gone well beyond merely giving advice or even disagreeing with his Commander-in-chief. He had taken his generation’s ultimate metaphor for shortsightedness and cowardice, the 1938 appeasement of Hitler at Munich, and flung it in the President’s face. President Kennedy, in a remarkable display of sang froid, refused to take the bait; he said absolutely nothing.”

A few minutes later JFK did reply to LeMay’s remark that, “…In other words, you’re in a pretty bad fix at the present time.”

“What did you say?” Kennedy asked.

“You’re in a pretty bad fix,” LeMay repeated.

And in a response JFK told LeMay that, “You’re in it with me.”

And the pretty bad fix that JFK and LeMay were in together then was not about Munich but Cuba.

Then, as JFK entered Dealey Plaza and slipped into the sniper’s Kill Zone, the Umbrella Man's sign may have been the last thing Kennedy saw before his head was shattered by a bullet fired by a Level One sniper who was not Lee Harvey Oswald. 

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COMMENTS 

Robert Truitt (USMC) said...

Bill,

I was looking for something on the internet to get me/keep me interested in JFK's murder. I read JFK Facts at least daily and I listen to Black Ops Radio weekly. But Bill you hit another homerun with this article, Dealey Plaza - View from the Sniper's; Klein's Gunsmith says, "If LHO did it he was very, very lucky." I thought that I had read almost every one of your articles but apparently I haven't. I'm going to have to read all of these articles. I like baseball and I like a pitcher's duel, but I like when you come to bat as it seems that your either on base or hitting a three-run homer. Please continue your great work. Bob Truitt

Clinton Mercheson said...

Mr. Kelly,

I have always enjoyed your editorial articles, as they are well composed, and of coarse, they always hit the nail right on the head.

With regard to the afore mentioned article, I would agree with the assessment of the Kill Box, or Kill Zone (as we used to call it), by those snipers whom you had interviewed. One of the few schools the Army had that I did not have opportunity to attend, was the Sniper School. However, having read the FM Manual on the subject (including the newest revision), I no doubt agree with their assessments…..

Alan Ford: 
Well written as usual, Mr. Kelly, thanks for sharing these informative insights.

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