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PAGE 8—The Georgia Bulletin, November 22, 1973
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TEN YEARS LATER-
Remembering the Assasination
BY STEVE LANDREGAN
(NC News Service)
“Were you there?”
The question was asked of
me hundreds of times in the
years following the
assassination of President
John F. Kennedy. Anywhere
in the world, as soon as the
names Parkland Hospital and
Dallas, Tex.,- were mentioned
the question was the
same . . .“Were you there?”
The answer was also the
same .. .“Yes, but I would
prefer not to discuss it.”
Ten years have not
dimmed the memory of Nov.
22, 1963. It is just as painful,
just as incredible now as it
was then.
Since that time I have
never written about the
assassination except to
prepare a deposition for the
Warren Commission. I have
only spoken about it to
hospital and medical groups
considering the problems
faced by a hospital in such
extreme circumstances.
With my return to
journalism in 1966 the
questions became fewer and I
thought the wounds had
healed over. I was wrong. The
rereading of my personal
papers to prepare this article
proved a traumatic
experience.
My family and I were both
admirers and supporters of
John F. Kennedy. We looked
forward in great anticipation
to his visit to Dallas.
It was not his first visit to
Dallas, but an earlier one,
made to visit dying House
Speaker Sam Rayburn, was
made without announcement
and without fanfare. The
1963 visit, on the other hand,
was a political one with a
great deal of advance
publicity.
Ironically, I was the one
member of the family who
did not expect to have a look
at the President during his
visit since I would be
working. My parents had
taken our five children, aged
4 to 11, to Dallas’ Love Field
to watch the arrival of the
presidential plane. My wife
was among the ladies from St.
Pius X Church who had been
asked to help serve the
luncheon in the President’s
honor at the Trade Mart.
The children saw the
President arrive, but my wife
and hundreds of others
gathered at the Trade Mart
were never to see him.
Parkland Memorial
Hospital where I served as an
assistant administrator is a
large teaching hospital
affiliated with Southwestern
Medical School of the
University of Texas. It is a
charity hospital operated by
the Dallas County Hospital
District to serve the medically
indigent. It also is the largest
emergency hospital in Texas
and at the time of the
assassination treated about
350 emergency patients every
24 hours.
During lunch in the
hospital cafeteria that day,
members of the
administrative staff discussed
the President’s visit. When
someone speculated that “if
anything should happen to
the President they would
probably bring him here,” he
was quickly rebuffed with a
“don’t even talk about it!”
Minutes afterward the
hospital switchboard received
a call on our direct line from
the police dispatcher advising
the hospital that a gunshot
victim was en route to the
emergency room.
That call seemed routine.
The next one was not. The
(Steve Landregan, editor of the TEXAS CATHOLIC and columnist for the Know Your Faith Series, was
assistant administrator of Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas at the time of the assassination of President
John F. Kennedy. When the dying president was taken to Parkland, Landregan was involved in handling a
myriad of details surrounding the president’s admission and death. He was interviewed by the Warren
Commission and has an 18 page deposition published in Volume XXIII of the Commission's Report.)
gunshot victim was the
President.
Seconds later the
presidential motorcade swung
into the emergency drive.
I was in the front lobby at
that moment and my first
hint of the tragedy was when
I overheard someone say,
“The President just went by.”
Someone else replied, “Oh
God! He’s been hurt and
they’re bringing him here.”
The most vivid impression
I have of the next few
minutes is the sight of Mrs.
Jacqueline Kennedy. As I
rushed into the emergency
room I saw her, her rose
colored skirt and her legs
covered with blood.
My experience at Parkland
had taught me that women in
such situations are either
hysterical or in shocked
silence. Mrs. Kennedy
certainly was the latter
condition. She sat calmly on
a metal folding chair outside
Trauma Room No. 1. Twice
she got up to enter the room
where her husband was and
returned in a few moments to
her chair.
In the incredible confusion
that seemed to surround the
assassination everywhere else,
Parkland was an island of
relative calm. The reason I
believe is simply that the
emergency room personnel
live with crisis. They are
trained to react quickly,
coolly and correctly under
the pressure of life and death
situations. When the
President and Governor John
Connally, who had been
seriously wounded, were
brought in their reaction was
instinctive.
The events of Nov. 22,
1963, and the next two days
moved so rapidly that in
retrospect they are blurred,
like scenes from the window
of a fast moving train.
Everything is seen, but the
memory presents come events
far more vividly than others.
There was the request to
call a priest and a
remembered reply from
someone at the rectory of
Holy Trinity Church that
“He’s on his way.” One of my
clearer memories is that of
Father Oscar Huber, C.M., as
I met him at the guarded
entrance to the emergency
room a few hurried words we,
had during the walk to
Trauma Room No. 1 where
he anointed the President.
I can still see emergency
room supervisor Doris Nelson
as she stepped out of the
Trauma Room caught my eye
and mouthed the words “he’s
dead,” across the corridor.
It’s strange the things that
stick with you from a time of
great stress. I vividly recall
running across the green
outside the hospital beside a
White House aide as we led
the members of the press
corps to a make-shift press
room.
I remember being coatless
during much of the time on
Nov. 22. I had given my coat
to a Secret Service agent. He
had used his to cover the
President’s face as he was
wheeled into the hospital. We
wanted to cover the agent’s
blood spattered shirt as we
moved through the hospital
to the administrator’s office
to reach a direct outside
telephone. The switchboard
was so swamped with cedis
from all over the world that it
was impossible to get an
outside line.
But most of all I remember
Mrs. Kennedy. My mind
keeps returning to her
calmness amid the confusion
of other members of the
presidential party, her
steadfast refusal of offers to
help clean off the blood that
covered her skirt and legs.
As nearly as I can recall she
accepted only a glass of water
during her ordeal.
When we pushed the casket
with the President’s body out
toward the waiting hearse, his
widow insisted upon walking
unaided beside the casket
with her hand resting firmly
upon it.
After they had gone I
recall a conversation between
members of the press corps
who reminisced about the
dead president’s off hand
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remark during his campaign
that no amount of security
could protect a president
from a single sniper.
determined to assassinate
him.
Things were far from quiet
when the presidential party
had departed for their sad
journey back to Washington.
We still had Gov. John
Connally in surgery in serious
condition.
His wife, “Miss Nellie,”
endeared herself to all the
members of the hospital staff
during the governor’s
recovery. For days she
refused to leave her husband’s
side except for a bite to eat
or a few hours sleep. Her
gentleness and devotion
deeply affected everyone
with whom she came in
contact.
There was much concern
over the continued safety of
Gov. Connally. The
possibility of a larger
conspiracy still had not been
ruled out - so extraordinary
security measures were taken.
Among them was the
construction of a concave
steel screen which was placed
in front of the windows of his
room. The screen was
designed to deflect any
bullets fired through the
window.
On Sunday, Nov. 24,
things had quieted down a bit
when the shooting of Lee
Harvey Oswald returned the
hospital to crisis status. In
order to be prepared for any
eventuality the administrator
placed the hospital on alert
(NC PHOTO)
FIRST CATHOLIC PRESIDENT -- John Fitzgerald
Kennedy, first Catholic President of the United States,
meets the newly crowned Pope Paul July, 1963, in
Vatican City. The pope praised Kennedy for his peace
efforts and his work in the areas of race relations and
space exploration.
during the transfer of Oswald
from city to county jail Nov.
24.
Oswald’s arrival, his
emergency surgery and death
could only be described as
nightmarish repetitions of the
events of Nov. 22. Only this
time the alleged assassin
himself was the victim of an
assassin’s bullet.
I will always recall Oswald
as he was brought into the
emergency room dressed in
black and with the pallor of
death. Hospital personnel
were careful to place him in a
trauma room other than the
one in which President
Kennedy had died.
Many of the same medical
personnel who had worked in
vain to save the President and
had saved the critically
wounded governor now
fought for the life of their
accused killer, but to no avail.
Once again the eyes of the
world were turned in disbelief
on the same classroom-
turned-press room where the
death of the President was
announced to hear the
announcement of Oswald’s
death.
In looking back on the
unbelievable events of those
November days ten years ago,
I am continually struck by
the response and performance
of the doctors and other
personnel of Parkland
Hospital who responded with
such calm competence in the
face of such indescribable
pressures.
I recall the concluding
sentence of a memorandum
to the hospital staff from
Parkland Administrator C.J.
Price. It states my own
feeling perfectly. He wrote:
“Our pride is not that we
were swept up in the
whirlwind of tragic history,
but that when we were, we
were not found wanting.”
every dau is
“AOUENl!
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"daily bread."
Missionaries DO COME with help, but even more in
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In an Advent spirt of "preparing the way for the Lord," I enclose my Advent
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Remember the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in your Will.
Salvation and Service are the work of
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Most Rev, Edward T. O’Meara
National Director
Dept. C, 366 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10001
Send your gift to:
OR
To your local Diocesan
Director the Rev. Joseph A.
Sanches, 756 West Peachtree
N.W., Atlanta, Georgia
30308.