One of the basic working hypothesis we have adapted
for this analysis is that there was more than one gunman shooting at the
President in Dealey Plaza that day, and the shot that hit JFK in the head
killing him was not a "lucky shot" taken by the Third Class sniper in the Sixth Floor window of the TSBD but rather, a precision shot taken by a First Class sniper from a different
location with a first class weapon.
This is the case for a number of good reasons –
including the fact that almost every ear witness at the scene heard a very
distinct difference in the time between the first and second shot and the
second and third shots – the last two of which came practically on top of each
other – too close to have been fired by the same weapon.
In addition, first class snipers say that the fatal
head shot was not fired at a moving target by the third class sniper in the
sixth floor window with a third class weapon but was taken by a first class
sniper either in front of or behind the target, as it approached or went
away from the shooter.
And finally, as former Federal Attorney John Orr
demonstrated in his report to the Attorney General, the fatal head shot was
taken from a location other than the Sixth Floor of the Texas Book Depository
with a different type of weapon, and a different type of bullet - a shot taken by a first class sniper.
Today there are many thousands of well trained and
equipped first class snipers, most in the major armies of the world. But in 1963
there were only a few hundred. Someone once suggested that a list of the first
class snipers in 1963 be compiled and you could solve the JFK assassination by
finding which one was in Dallas that day.
You can't learn to be a first class sniper by reading books. It is a craft - a "craft of intelligence" as Allen Dulles put it, that must be learned from a craftsman who knows how to do it. And shooting accurately is not the most important part of the curriculum - getting into position without being identified, concealment, timing and extracting oneself after the shot is taken. "One shot one kill," is the motto of the first class sniper, and that's all they need.
You can't learn to be a first class sniper by reading books. It is a craft - a "craft of intelligence" as Allen Dulles put it, that must be learned from a craftsman who knows how to do it. And shooting accurately is not the most important part of the curriculum - getting into position without being identified, concealment, timing and extracting oneself after the shot is taken. "One shot one kill," is the motto of the first class sniper, and that's all they need.
In the movie “American Sniper” Chris Kyle chases and
eventually kills a terrorist and former Olympic champion shooter.
At Fort Dix, N.J., where they have been training
soldiers for over a hundred years, the weapons Range manager for many years was the
father of U.S. Olympic champion shooter Matt Emmonds, who missed a second gold
medal because of a hick up – and was consoled by a Czech women's gold medal champion
who he later married, and whose father is an Olympic team shooting coach.
You can’t be a first class sniper by reading books –
it’s a master – apprentice job and you must be trained by a first class sniper,
so those who train the first class snipers are a key to finding the Dealey
Plaza sniper(s). This analysis focuses on those who were capable of training first
class snipers 1960-1963.
The Canadian Sniper School, which served as the
basis for US sniper schools, a part of the Canadian Weapons School, is in
Frederickton, Canada, and is where many U.S. military sniper trainers are
themselves trained by professionals.
In the U.S. military, the Army, Rangers, Navy SEALS
and USMC all have first class sniper schools, but in 1963 it was more limited. The
primary Army sniper schools are at Forts Benning, Bragg and Knox, while the
USMC sniper schools are at Camps Lejeune and Pendleton, with the best sent to
the Special Weapons Training Battalion Training Command at Quantico, Virginia,
aka “The Farm.”
Another pertinent character in the JFK assassination story - Charles Ford, originally from Atlantic City, attended Princeton, joined the OSS and went on a mission to China with J. Walton Moore - who became the head of the Dallas Domestic Contacts division, while Ford became the head of the CIA Training Division at Quantico. Ford only left the Training Division for a one year tour with the Operations Division to serve at JMWAVE and work closely with the Attorney General RFK. He was also given custody of an early Secret Service copy of the Zapruder film, as the record attests "for training purposes only." John Newman writes about Ford in his books, and he discovered that one of the two transcripts of Ford's Church Committee testimony is missing.
While there were many improvements in science and technology - the basic foundations of the CIA's training programs were based on the British model, as outlined by OSS Colonel William Donovan in the OSS manuals produced under his direction.
This same manual was used by the CIA trainers at JMWAVE.
Another pertinent character in the JFK assassination story - Charles Ford, originally from Atlantic City, attended Princeton, joined the OSS and went on a mission to China with J. Walton Moore - who became the head of the Dallas Domestic Contacts division, while Ford became the head of the CIA Training Division at Quantico. Ford only left the Training Division for a one year tour with the Operations Division to serve at JMWAVE and work closely with the Attorney General RFK. He was also given custody of an early Secret Service copy of the Zapruder film, as the record attests "for training purposes only." John Newman writes about Ford in his books, and he discovered that one of the two transcripts of Ford's Church Committee testimony is missing.
While there were many improvements in science and technology - the basic foundations of the CIA's training programs were based on the British model, as outlined by OSS Colonel William Donovan in the OSS manuals produced under his direction.
This same manual was used by the CIA trainers at JMWAVE.
OSS
Manual – Link to – https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP89-01258R000100010010-5.pdf–
The best
and most renown sniper to come out of Vietnam was Carlos Hathcock, who was sent
to Quantico to train snipers and later trained police SWAT team snipers.
Craig
Roberts, a USMC trained sniper and 26-year police veteran, is a specialist in
sniper and counter-sniper tactics, and the author of the book Kill Zone, a professional sniper’s perspective of the JFK
assassination, which confirms the beliefs of the Army snipers I knew that the
head shot that killed JFK was not taken from the Sixth Floor of the Texas
School Book Depository but by a First Class Sniper from another location.
According
to Craig Roberts (Kill Zone – p.
89-90), “Hathcock is likewise skeptical of Oswald's alleged shooting feat.
Hathcock is a former senior instructor at the U. S. Marine Corps
Sniper Instruction School at Quantico, Virginia. He has been described as
the most famous American military sniper in history. In Vietnam he
was credited with 93 confirmed kills,…and history’s single kill-shot of 2,500
meters, recipient of the Silver Star and nominated for the Congressional Medal
of Honor.”
Carlos Hathcock
Roberts
asked Hathcock about the marksmanship feat attributed to Oswald by the Warren
Commission and Hathcock answered that he did not believe Oswald could have done
what the Commission said he did.
According
to Roberts, Hathcock said: "Let me tell you what we did at Quantico.
We reconstructed the whole thing: the angle, the range, the moving target, the
time limit, the obstacles, everything. I don't know how many times we tried it,
but we couldn't duplicate what the Warren Commission said Oswald did".
Though classified a third class sniper with a third class weapon, the sniper in the end window of the Sixth Floor of the Texas School Book Depository was certainly a military man, as Arnold Rowlands saw him. Rowlands was one of those witnesses on the street who saw the man with a rifle standing back from the window next to another man (in a brown sports coat). The man with a rifle, Rowlands said, stood in a "Port Arms" position, with the rifle held diagonally across the chest. Port Arms is a military drill position one does not assume unless ordered to do so. And I believe the Sixth Floor Sniper, whoever he was, was a military man operating under orders who knew he was part of the deception plan that would allow him and the other men in on this operation - including the first class sniper and his spotter - to escape without being identified.
Along with Carlos Hathcock, Robert Rohrer started the first USMC sniper school designed to train sniper instructors - as Rohrer relates: “We essentially ran two classes end-on that summer of 1977,…the first six weeks was designed to make snipers out of our fledgling shooters….while the second six weeks was designed to make them sniper instructors. The snipers were certified to go back to their various Divisions to start Division Scout Sniper Schools, and thus could feed their finest graduates back to our school in Quantico to make Scout Sniper Instructors out of ‘em….”
Though classified a third class sniper with a third class weapon, the sniper in the end window of the Sixth Floor of the Texas School Book Depository was certainly a military man, as Arnold Rowlands saw him. Rowlands was one of those witnesses on the street who saw the man with a rifle standing back from the window next to another man (in a brown sports coat). The man with a rifle, Rowlands said, stood in a "Port Arms" position, with the rifle held diagonally across the chest. Port Arms is a military drill position one does not assume unless ordered to do so. And I believe the Sixth Floor Sniper, whoever he was, was a military man operating under orders who knew he was part of the deception plan that would allow him and the other men in on this operation - including the first class sniper and his spotter - to escape without being identified.
Along with Carlos Hathcock, Robert Rohrer started the first USMC sniper school designed to train sniper instructors - as Rohrer relates: “We essentially ran two classes end-on that summer of 1977,…the first six weeks was designed to make snipers out of our fledgling shooters….while the second six weeks was designed to make them sniper instructors. The snipers were certified to go back to their various Divisions to start Division Scout Sniper Schools, and thus could feed their finest graduates back to our school in Quantico to make Scout Sniper Instructors out of ‘em….”
As Bob Rohrer writes at his blog: “The
word had been out that the individuals giving the indoctrination (us) were
simply ‘team shooters’ who were ‘pushing’ competitive marksmanship. What they
hadn’t figured on was that we were combat veterans with appropriate
decorations and awarded for combat skills. The youngsters were more impressed
than the Basic School Company Officers had envisioned. Carlos’ skills were well
documented, and I had done my time as a combat Rifle Company Commander with
lots of time in the dirt. We gave ‘em what
I would have considered to be an impressive lecture from combat
experienced veterans.”
“The possibilities of, and the
ability to impose our will on the enemy with a minimum amount of exposure
seemed to have made its mark.”
The snipers are trained not only how to shoot - and how to escape - but "the ability to impose our will on the enemy with minimum amount of exposure..."
“Modern
Sniper Classes are now the rule of the day, and even the Basic School
instructional staff seemed to be properly impressed, subsequent combat
experiences have made our point…”
At the Canadian
Sniper School at Frederickton – “We
learned a new lexicon of terminology that was added a bit at a time to our
slowly expanded Marine Corps sniping influence. We had such terms as
‘Sniper-Hide’ (we had just called ‘em positions), ‘Gillie Suits’ – (we were
using plain old camouflage with appropriate twigs – don’t laugh since Carlos
‘offed’ at least 93 of the offending blighters using such archaic methods, good
shooting positions, and ‘sans’ the more modern terminology). Gillie Suits had
been used by Scottish Game Keepers to fend off poachers, but the name stuck and
has since become one of the well recognized terms utilized in modern sniping
training….”
Some U.S. Army Reserve soldiers were trained as
snipers and in their civilian jobs as policeman were assigned to the special
teams that later became known as SWAT teams, some of whom were trained by
Hathcock.
Most of the Dallas Special Services unit policeman
also served in the U.S Army Reserves, some with the 488th Army
Intelligence unit created and led by Colonel Jack Crichton, of who was originally
from Shriveport, Louisiana.
Also from Shriveport, U. S. Marine Captain Carl
Jenkins (USMC-R) helped establish the first US Marine Corp Reserve unit in
Louisiana, and like U.S. Army Ranger Captains Bradley Ayers and Edward
Roderick, was cross posted to the CIA to help train the anti-Castro Cubans.
Jenkins helped train the brigade that went ashore at the Bay of Pigs and later
fought in what Taylor Branch and George Crile III called “the secret war”
against Cuba (1960-1964).
Unlike the USMC and US Army sniper schools, the
Cubans were trained by a Joint Task Force that included Marines, Army Rangers
and the CIA and was coordinated out of the Task Force W at CIA HQ at Langley,
and the Pentagon.
Of all the Cubans assembled in Guatemala to go
ashore at the Bay of Pigs, the best were selected and given special training,
including Watergate burglar Rolando Martinez and paramilitary commando Felix
Rodriguez – who went on to capture and execute Che Guevara.
At some point in the proceedings, Lansdale's plan to train commandos and send them in to engage in guerrilla war was replaced with the full fledged invasion, and Lansdale's man - Napoleon Valeriano was replaced as head of training at the Guatemala training camp.
At some point in the proceedings, Lansdale's plan to train commandos and send them in to engage in guerrilla war was replaced with the full fledged invasion, and Lansdale's man - Napoleon Valeriano was replaced as head of training at the Guatemala training camp.
In p. IV of the Official CIA History of the Bay of Pigs – it is explained how two basic changes in the plans doomed the invasion - changing the tactics from infiltration of small commando units to engage in guerrilla warfare from the mountains to a full fledged invasion. And the site changed from Trinidad to the Bay of Pigs.
The CIA's Official History reads: “From April plans for the
infiltration into Cuba of small teams of agency trained specialists in
communications, sabotage, and paramilitary operations to provide training and
guidance to anti-Castro dissidents,….November’s plan called for an amphibious
landing.”
Another
key change in strategic plans – not relayed to the President – changed the
planned landing site from Trinidad to the Bahia de Cochinos – which would
become more famous as the Bay of Pigs.
At
Trinidad – the infiltrated commandos could easily work their way into the
nearby mountains to establish bases of operation – much like Castro himself did
– and an airstrip for supplies –
American
ornithologist James Bond just happened to be at the Bahia de Conchinos a few
months before the Bay of Pigs invasion – and noted the recent construction of
roads to the swamp, which made Castro’s counter-attack much easier.
When
these changes – from commando – guerrilla infiltration to full fledged
amphibious invasion – both Jake Easterline and Col. Hawkins – attempted to
resign and warned the invasion would fail given those changes – but Bissell
persuaded them to stay and go down with the Dulles ship.
Like the U.S. Army Rangers – who take the lead and are
known as “Pathfinders,” these Cuban Pathfinders went ashore into Cuba in the
days and weeks before the invasion and were to pave the way for the main
invasion forces. Some Cuban Pathfinders were captured, some were killed, a few
like Rodriguez - the self-described “Shadow Warrior”– escaped and found their
way back home.
In the USA they were assigned to the CIA’s Operation
Mongoose, run out of the JMWAVE station.
JMWAVE was what the military calls a FOB - Forward Operating Base.
From there they ran maritime infiltration and hit and run missions against economic targets in Cuba, as described by Branch and Crile in their landmark August 1975 Harpers article “The Kennedy Vendetta.”
JMWAVE was what the military calls a FOB - Forward Operating Base.
From there they ran maritime infiltration and hit and run missions against economic targets in Cuba, as described by Branch and Crile in their landmark August 1975 Harpers article “The Kennedy Vendetta.”
Watergate burglar Martinez was a JMWAVE boat captain
who was interviewed by George Crile and
Taylor Branch for their Harpers article. Martinez told them that he made many
missions to Cuba, delivering high powered rifles with scopes that weren’t to be
used to “kill rabbits.”
Were these “officially sanctioned” Castro
assassination teams?
As Martinez put it, it‘s largely a question of semantics: “There was an
attempt by this country to overthrow Castro, and it was not to be by
elections,” Martinez said. “It was to be by war. The (news) papers now want to
say there were plots. Well, I can tell you there were plots. I took a lot of
weapons to Cuba. Some of them were very special weapons for special purposes –
Springfields with bolt actions, rifles only used by snipers. They were
not sent to shoot pigeons or kill rabbits. Everyone in the underground was
plotting to kill Castro, and the CIA was helping the underground. I was with
the underground, as well as with the CIA, so you could say I was involved in the
plots, too, but that is all so obvious.”
“Very special weapons for special purposes –
Springfields with bolt actions, rifles only used by snipers. They were not sent
to shoot pigeons or kill rabbits.”
These were first class snipers, taught by first
class sniper trainers with specially refined weapons only used by snipers.
Of all the plots to kill Castro, one was a plan that
stands out – Operation Pathfinder, a contingency plan to kill Castro with a high
powered rifle as he rode in an open jeep.
As Felix
Rodriguez explains in his book “Shadow
Warrior”: “I was given a weapon… a beautiful German bolt-action rifle with
a powerful telescopic sight, all neatly packed in a custom-made padded carrying
case… a box of ammo, twenty rounds. I was told that I wouldn't have to
sight the rifle, as it had already been zeroed in. Apparently the
resistance had obtained a building facing a location that Castro frequented at
the time....We were supposed to debark onto a Cuban boat near Varadero
Beach, an area I knew from my childhood. From there we would be taken to
rendezvous with members of the anti-Castro resistance…..We would be provided a
safe house, then move to the room where we'd be able to shoot Fidel….”
The whole operation was well planned. He was
selected because they knew he was from that area and knew it well. The plan was
complete with a safe-house, secure operational base room from where to shoot
Fidel where he frequented at the time, - given a beautiful German bolt action
rifle, pre-sighted, custom made padded carrying case. First class plan, first
class weapon, first class sniper who was trained by another first class sniper.
They were trained at JMWAVE – or sub-bases under the
control of JMWAVE.
At JMWAVE, a series of buildings on the South Campus
of the University of Miami, the CIA’s largest Forward Operating Base was
commanded by Ted Shackley, with the maritime operations run by Gordon Campbell
and the covert operations by David Morales.
JMWAVE came under the nominal control of Task Force
W – the CIA’s Cuban desk that was set up in the basement of the CIA’s new
headquarters at Langley, Virginia, and run by William Harvey, until after the
Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, when he was replaced by Desmond
FitzGerald. FitzGerald later said that while he assumed control of most of Harvey's operations, he didn't know about them all, and he didn't assume the role of case officer for John Rosselli, a job that Harvey kept.
The Cuban commandos being trained were handled by
case officers and their trainers, and were kept “compartmentalized” and out of the
main JMWAVE headquarters, were the “inside men” – Ted Shackley and Gordon
Campbell ran things from desks. Even Felix Rodriguez later said that he didn’t
know the location of the JMWAVE HQ until years later when he worked as a part
time security guard for the university of Miami and saw his case officer and
other CIA officials at the HQ.
Besides Carl Jenkins, the anti-Castro Cubans were
trained by two U.S. Army Rangers assigned to the CIA by US Marine General “Brut” Krulak, who had an
office just down the hall from the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon.
Krulak was responsible for military support of CIA covert operations,
especially those being run against Cuba.
U.S. Army Ranger Captains Edward Roderick and
Bradley Ayers took their orders from Krulak and were each assigned teams to
train in covert operational procedures, small boat maneuvering, infiltration
and exfiltration, explosives and sniper tactics.
Ayers taught small craft maneuvering and
infiltration and exfiltration at a remote Everglades swamp sub-bases, one
called Pirates’ Lair.
Roderick taught another team sniper tactics at a
remote base near Point Mary, off Key Largo. With Roderick at Point Mary were
USMC Capt. Carl Jenkins, and legendary CIA explosives expert John “I.F.”
Harper, along with strategic and financial support from John Rosselli, aka
“Colonel Rawlins.”
We know a lot of what went on there because of
Ranger Capt. Bradley Ayers, who wrote two books about his experiences, “The War That Never Was,” and “The Zenith Secret.”
After JFK was killed, the JMWAVE base was
deactivated – by Jake Esterline, the guy who engineered the Bay of Pigs, and
Ayers was given other assignments. Because Ayers didn’t sign a CIA secrecy
agreement he didn’t have to have his manuscripts reviewed and censored by the
CIA before being published, as did Victor Marchetti and David Atlee Phillips.
But the only publisher really interested in “The War
That Never Was” – Bobbs-Merrell – out of Indiana, included their attorney
William Harvey, who edited the manuscript and left out some key characters like
maritime operations chief Gordon Campbell.
Harvey, who started Task Force W after being herald
as the brains behind the Berlin Tunnel, ordered the Cuban Pathfinder commandos
into Cuba during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and was fired for doing
so by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. Harvey was the second CIA case
officer for mafia boss John Rosselli, who supported one of the Pathfinder
commando teams by giving them money and supplies.
Rosselli had William Harvey fill a U-Haul Trailer
full of weapons, guns, ammo and explosives and delivered to his Cuban commando
team – a cache of weapons that was assembled on the orders of Ted Shackley and
invitoried before being given to the Cubans.
Although Harvey was reassigned as CIA COS – Chief of
Station in Rome, Italy, where he was at the time of the assassination, he
traveled extensively, and in June 1963, met with Rosselli in Florida where they
went to dinner and got hotel rooms on Harvey’s CIA credit card – a tab that he
chalked off to “ZRRIFLE,” the CIA code for the Castro assassination plots.
After leaving the CIA Harvey returned to his home
state of Indiana and worked for Bobbs-Merrell, primarily a school book
publishing company that had an office and secretaries at the Texas School Book
Depository. Harvey edited Bradley Ayers book “The War That Never Was,” that I
recognized when reading it, included important information on the assassination
of President Kennedy.
In his book “The Zenith Secret,” not edited by
Harvey, Ayers describes how his US Army Ranger counterpart – Capt. Edward
Roderick, was assigned to train the commando team supported by Rosselli – aka “Colonel
Rawlins.”
While Ayers trained his team at remote Everglades bases like Pirate’s Lair, Roderick trained Rosselli’s team in sniper techniques and tactics at Point Mary, a remote area near Key Largo. And it is that team that we are interested in learning more about as they are the ones who were trained and practiced to kill Castro as part of the Pathfinder operation – the one that was “disapproved by higher authority” – that is JFK and RFK.
While Ayers trained his team at remote Everglades bases like Pirate’s Lair, Roderick trained Rosselli’s team in sniper techniques and tactics at Point Mary, a remote area near Key Largo. And it is that team that we are interested in learning more about as they are the ones who were trained and practiced to kill Castro as part of the Pathfinder operation – the one that was “disapproved by higher authority” – that is JFK and RFK.
And it
was the Pathfinder operation, I believe, that was redirected to JFK in Dallas,
as I hope to conclusively demonstrate.
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