I was in the eighth grade when Kennedy was shot, but I still remember how confusing everything was when it happened.

Years later, I worked with a guy whose father (a marine who served as a rifleman in Korea) lived in Dallas and said he was at the bottom of the grassy knoll with his wife the day JFK was shot.

A few minutes before the Kennedy caravan came to the first of the two turns leading to the Depository, his father turned and saw three men in dark suits, white shirts with ties, and sunglasses up the hill behind him and his wife.

Him suddenly looking behind him seems perfectly reasonable to me and him doing that has always reminded me of a soldier always wanting to maintain situational awareness.

He said he remembered seeing them very well, that two were wearing hats and the other was not. The one who had no hat was pulling a rifle case out of the trunk of a car at the top of the hill. He said he thought they were Secret Service and commented to his wife that the Secret service had better get on a move if they planned to be in place when Kennedy came by.

He turned back to the street in front of him and his wife after seeing the guy toss the case back into the trunk and move over beside the other two guys. He said all three "looked like soldiers on a mission" to him and he distinctly remembered thinking just that as he turned away from them back to the street.

As he saw the motorcycles and Kennedy's limo make the right hand turn toward the left hand turn in front of the Depository, he looked back again and saw two of the men intently watching the corner as the third one seemed to be checking out his weapon. Then one of the other two pointed toward the motorcade and the Kennedy car which was just turning in front of the Depository building. His father turned back toward where the guy was pointing and, as he thought how tough it must be to post guards all along the parade route with so many people to watch, he heard the first shot, which he was 100% certain came from the front far side of the Depository Building, where he said he later learned was where Oswald was said to be posted.

Then he distinctly heard two other shots from behind where he and his wife were standing, back up the grassy hill (What the Warren Commission called the Grassy Knoll) behind him. He was acting on instinct as he pushed his wife to the ground, and when he managed to look back, the three guys were already leaving.

The one with the rifle was putting it into the trunk, which was still open and then he shut the lid and scrambled to get the back door open, because the other two were already in the car and it was moving away.

His son said his father always claimed he was a Marine Rifleman with combat experience and did not make mistakes about what direction gun shots were coming from. The son also said that his father said he called the police department that afternoon and spoke with a guy he knew on the force, who said they were off the case but that he would have "Someone from the Government" call him.

When the call came a few days later, he told the guy, who really never clearly identified himself, what he had seen, and ended the call with the impression that the guy didn't seem much interested in what the father had seen. The government guy ended the call, telling him someone else would be in touch, "If they needed to follow up on his story." He said, no one ever called. I always wanted to meet this guy, but never did, and then my work friend and I went in different directions, and I lost any chance of that happening.

I ran across my friend several years after hearing this story and he said his father and mother had both passed away and I guess the witness story died with them. The son had to be somewhere around 9 or 10 years old when this happened, so I assume he was repeating what his father had told him.

All I can say for certain is I believe it is possible Oswald could have made the shots. I have been at the window in the Depository and as a trained (Army) rifleman (M1 and M16), I believe I could have made it. Maybe Oswald would have failed doing it twice in a row, but he could have made the shots they credit to him once. However, if I believe my friend, who had no reason to make up the story from his father, some other rifleman was there that day.

Boy this was long. Sorry.

This post was edited on 11/23/23 at 7:01 pm