Alumnus remembers November 22, 1963
REMEMBERING THE DAY Nov 22, 1963
My first and only view of John F. Kennedy was January 20, 1961; a precious millisecond glimpse as we, the Corps of Cadets of the U.S.Coast Guard Academy, marched by the White House reviewing stand with an “Eyes Left” to honor the newly inaugurated President. There he was, bareheaded without the top hat that tradition had dictated for his predecessors, despite the 18 inches of snow of the night before which caused us to stomp around for toe-warmth in our Capitol Hill “holding pattern” while he delivered the inspirational “Ask not…” speech, with all its inflection, that we did not hear for days after.
But we read his published words on the long train ride back to New London, proudly reflecting that we were part of his injection of relative youth and vibrancy into everyone’s lives. We were more than ready to fulfill “...what you can do for your country..” after our June 1963 graduation and commissioning.
Newly commissioned, we went off to our first shipboard assignments, feeling close to the President because of his pride in Navy heritage; but closer to home, because of the wire service photos of him and family sailing a boat borrowed from our CGA yacht squadron, in the Summer waters of Vineyard Sound off Hyannisport.
As I remember the day, my New Bedford-based Coast Guard cutter was taking advantage of a break between Ocean Station patrols off Greenland to run some tests on our literally shaky air search radar antenna; in those same waters, but more to the southeast of Cape Cod, south of the uninhabited Elizabeth Islands. I was Officer of the Deck, standing on the bridge next to the Captain in his sea chair, when the Duty Radioman rushed up the ladder from the radioroom half a deck below, holding a piece of paper on which he’d typed the words he’d just transcribed from the Morse Code dit-dahs that had just come across the airwaves. He announced the news that the President had been shot.
We tuned the bridge’s RDF’s to commercial radio stations in Boston where the details of Dallas then reverberated throughout the ship on the 1MC circuit. We set the course to homeport. As the ship entered Quicks Hole and out of Vineyard Sound, we manned the rail to starboard, and all saluted in the direction of Hyannisport.
The Captain called his wife, who’d previously scheduled a wardroom dinner that evening, via phone-patch. They discussed “..what to do?” Rightfully, the dinner went on as scheduled. The Captain proposed a toast “to The President of the United States!” We stood, looked each other in the eyes, and muffled a few sobs.
RADM Rudy K. Peschel, USCG (ret), ‘63