Air Force 1 - White House HF Comms after JFK Assassination

[sardak]

The National Archives just released tapes of the White House Communications Agency radio communications between Air Force 1 and the White House after the assassination of President Kennedy.

The recordings are interesting from the perspectives of
- the general historical significance
- managing a *significant* national event by HF radio and phone patches
- the logistics of a sudden transfer of the Presidency
- more fodder for the conspiracy crowd

Those recorded include the AF1 crew, White House situation room, Air Force Command Post, President Johnson, cabinet members, White House staff and key military personnel, some on the ground, some in other aircraft. People and places are referred to by their code names and/or their real names. In some cases the code named person gets on the radio and uses his real name, or someone else gives both names in the same conversation. At one point a patch is being established with "Grandson" on flight SAM 497, who turns out to be General Curtis LeMay. LBJ calls JFK's mother Rose Kennedy to offer his condolences and another call is from Governor Connally's wife to LBJ to tell him the Governor's condition.

The conversations include who is on AF1 before it leaves Dallas, what logistics will be needed upon arrival at Andrews, including a forklift to unload the casket, who will be going where, and how they are getting there (helo or ground), who the President wants to talk to upon arrival in Washington, getting the Johnson's home phone disconnected from the commercial phone network, etc.

This is all being done on HF radio, either radio to radio or through phone patches. All the attendant problems and fun of comms are present - signal noise, lots of "can you hear me?" "hello, hello?" "read you 5 by 5," "over and out," not saying over which leads to the next item, persons trying to talk being told that they have to wait for the other party to finish speaking first, and discussions about frequencies, USB and LSB.

Information about the recordings is at the National Archives  http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/air-force-one-tape.html

The recordings can be downloaded from there or Wikimedia Commons, and an Internet search will find them in other formats and sites where they can be listened to online.

Mike

[jks19714]

I used to monitor the UHF WHCA network (Echo/Foxtrot) on 415.7 MHz years ago.  Lots of interesting unencrypted phone conversations while on the way in/out of Andrews. 

[Cindi]

Thanks for posting that. I recently saw a program where they had LBJ in a small room in Parkland Hospital and they did not even inform him JFK was dead until they could get a priest to give the dead president the last rites, even though JFK had already passed away. There was lots of tension between LBJ and the Kennedy staffers on the way back from Dallas to Washington. I remember seeing Oswald shot by Jack Ruby on live tv the Sunday after the assassination. I don't think there was a conspiracy, just one lone assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald:

[Cindi]

Interesting radio show with Craig Barnes and Russ Baker talking some about Lee Harvey Oswald and the Civil Air Patrol:

http://www.craig-barnes.com/media/baker.mp3

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Family of Secrets interview with Russ Baker:

Family Of Secrets Part 1

[spacecommand]

David Ferrie and Lee Harvey Oswald Photograph

Skip to around 1:50 in.