PTSD: Special agent who was in JFK motorcade still haunted

There is an answer to a question veterans say when asked "When were you in Vietnam?" The answer says it all, "Last night."

The following is a great story on a part of our history few people think about. The men and women there the day President Kennedy was assassinated on a Dallas street. I encourage you to read it. The only problem I have with it is when the reporter says "PTSD they are just now..." as if no one ever talked about it before. Fascinating how little reporters know about a topic before they open their mouths.

Agent Suffering From PTSD After JFK Assassination Honored In Tulsa
NEWS ON 6
ALLISON HARRIS
Posted: Nov 20, 2014

TULSA, Oklahoma - Nearly 51 years since the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the special agent who was in the motorcade with the president is still haunted.

It's a day that has stayed with Clint Hill for decades as he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, something he's now helping other service members deal with.

Thursday, he was honored in Tulsa.

November 22, 1963 is still difficult for Hill to talk about; he's been dealing with pain ever since, but now he's helping other service members deal with similar issues.

More than 50 years later, Hill still gets emotional when recalling what Jacqueline Kennedy said to him moments after John F. Kennedy was shot.

"Oh Jack. Oh Jack, what have they done? I have his brains in my hand. I love you, Jack. That's all she said," Hill recalled.

Hill is the special agent in the iconic video, jumping into the president's limousine to shield him.

"I saw the president. He grabbed at his throat, he moved to his left. It was very unusual activity. I knew something had happened. Something was wrong," Hill said.

He remembers every detail of that day.
read more here

President Kennedy WWII Veteran and President

There have been a lot of radio programs asking where people were when President Kennedy was assassinated. I know where I was. It was a wonderful day with a real treat for a four year old. My Mom and I were in the living room and I was coloring on the wall. I wasn't in trouble. She was suggesting colors to use next. I was 4 so not much of an artist but she figured the wallpaper would be replaced soon so that didn't matter much. It would all be covered up and replaced.

The TV was on and there was the car carrying President Kennedy when I turned my head as my Mom screamed. He had just been shot. At the time no one knew who decided the President needed to die and not many remember now what he did to try to save lives in WWII.

John F. Kennedy "Despite having a bad back, Kennedy was able to join the U.S. Navy through the help of Captain Alan Kirk, the Director, Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) who had been the Naval Attache in London when Joseph Kennedy was the Ambassador."

"Kennedy was later awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his heroics in the rescue of the crew of PT 109, as well as the Purple Heart Medal for injuries sustained in the accident on the night of 1 August 1943. An official account of the entire incident was written by intelligence officers in August 1943 and subsequently declassified in 1959. As President, Kennedy met once again with his rescuers and was toasted by members of the Japanese destroyer crew."

John F. Kennedy was President when he was killed right before our eyes but he was also a hero.

There is something else that has been forgotten in the story of Kennedy and that was what was happening when hate was alive and well in Dallas.

Marking Kennedy Assassination, Dallas Still On 'Eggshells'
NPR
by WADE GOODWYN
November 21, 2013

"Dallas native Lawrence Wright, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, was a sophomore at Woodrow Wilson High School when Kennedy came to town in 1963.

"On the morning of Nov. 22, I went out to get the newspaper, and there was on our doorstep this flier and it said, 'Wanted for Treason.' And it had pictures of President Kennedy, full-face and profile," Wright says.

The day Kennedy arrived at Love Field airport, the front page of the Dallas Morning News was bordered in black. The right-wing radicals and John Birchers who dominated the city despised Kennedy."  read more here