53 years and a day ago I was sitting in a Navy ECM class room when all of a sudden the world stopped turning .... Our CinC was shot down on a Dallas street, JFK was dead. My heart said no how could this be ... not my President! So many of his words kept running thru my head ... so many trips to sea following his orders, The Bay of Pigs, Staring down the USSR sailing around Cuba, so many nights on Air watch in the waters off GITMO. Who could take his place .... no one, certainly not LBJ. Everyone was told to standby as we went to DEFCON (to this day I can't remember that number) Were we at war? 21 sailors sat in silence waiting for someone to order them to man the guns. We must do something but what .... sit and wait. It was a hellish day I'll never forget. It seems that every generation gets its Pearl Harbor .... this was mine. May God bless and keep you Mr. President, you are sorely missed.
