11/22/63 Aircraft Radio Transmissions

[David Von Pein]

http://JFK-Archives.blogspot.com/2011/12/aircraft-radio-transmissions-11-22-63.html

[mainframetech]

On Jan 31, 7:32 am, David Von Pein <davevonp...@aol.com> wrote:
> http://JFK-Archives.blogspot.com/2011/12/aircraft-radio-transmissions...

Hmm. That would cause a lot of hits on the ol' website. Are you
compensated based on hit frequency?

Chris

[David Von Pein]

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=18715&st=15&p=245293&#entry245293

[David Von Pein]

http://JFK-Archives.blogspot.com/2011/12/aircraft-radio-transmissions-11-22-63.html#Air-Force-One-Tapes-CNN-Video

The above CNN video is totally misleading, with the commentators
giving the CNN audience the impression that there was possibly
something sinister, devious, or conspiratorial about the decision to
take President Kennedy's body to Bethesda Naval Hospital instead of
Walter Reed Hospital on the night of the President's assassination.

It's true that on the Air Force radio tapes (the 2-hour version
released by NARA in January 2012), Dr. George Burkley does say that
the body will be going to Walter Reed. But that was obviously not a
finalized decision at the time Burkley made that statement aboard Air
Force One on 11/22/63.

And much more important is the fact that we know exactly WHO it was
who made the final decision to have the autopsy at Bethesda -- it was
Jackie Kennedy herself. And the Warren Commission testimony of Ken
O'Donnell confirms that fact for history (at 7 H 454-455):

KENNETH P. O'DONNELL -- "We arrived at Andrews and meanwhile the
Attorney General had been notified, the decision had been made that he
would go to Bethesda."

ARLEN SPECTER -- "Who made that decision, by the way?"

MR. O'DONNELL -- "Mrs. Kennedy."

MR. SPECTER -- "That the autopsy should be performed?"

MR. O'DONNELL -- "I don't think she knew anything about an autopsy.
The question is where the body went. We didn't tell her there was to
be an autopsy. And the choice was Walter Reed or Bethesda. He being a
Navy man, she picked Bethesda."

MR. SPECTER -- "She chose Bethesda, as between Bethesda and Walter
Reed?"

MR. O'DONNELL -- "She did."

http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh7/html/WC_Vol7_0231b.htm

-------------------

So when Rice University historian Douglas Brinkley recently appeared
on CNN and told the unaware audience that we are still "missing" any
kind of an explanation for why JFK's autopsy was performed at Bethesda
instead of Walter Reed, he simply didn't know what he was talking
about. Because the above excerpt taken from Kenny O'Donnell's 1964
Warren Commission testimony put that question to rest 48 years ago.

It would be nice if the talking heads (like Douglas Brinkley) would do
at least a small amount of homework and research before appearing on
live television, in front of millions of people, and saying incorrect
and uninformed things that can only add to the suspicions of the
American public and lead them to the inaccurate notion that something
sinister and underhanded just might have been going on with respect to
the selection of Bethesda as the site for JFK's autopsy.

When, in reality, the truth is something quite non-sinister and
innocent: the President's widow selected the location of the autopsy
herself. And anyone who wants to doubt that fact is going to have to
call one of JFK's best friends, Kenneth P. O'Donnell, an outright
liar. And I doubt if there are even many hardcore conspiracy theorists
who have a desire to do that.

In addition, JFK's personal physician, Admiral George Burkley, whose
voice we hear on the newly-released expanded version of the Air Force
One tape saying that JFK's body was going to go to Walter Reed, told
the HSCA in an affidavit that it was, indeed, Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy
who had made the final decision to have JFK's body taken to Bethesda:

"I had ordered the United States Naval Hospital to be prepared
for performing an autopsy on the body of John F. Kennedy, President of
the United States, the permission having been granted by Mrs. Kennedy
while enroute. It was to be a complete autopsy with no limitations and
no curtailment in time necessary for completion." -- George G.
Burkley; November 28, 1978

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/burkaff.htm

Burkley, by the way, also said this in that same affidavit:

"I saw President Kennedy's wounds at Parkland Hospital and
during the autopsy at the Bethesda Naval Hospital. There was no
difference in the nature of the wounds I saw at Parkland Hospital and
those I observed at the autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital." -- George
Burkley; 11/28/78

-------------------

In addition, I want to also emphasize something else that's very
relevant to the previously-linked CNN video feature Rice University's
Douglas Brinkley:

Brinkley and the other talking heads in that CNN clip seem to be of
the opinion that prior to late January 2012, when the National
Archives released a new expanded 2.5-hour version of the Air Force One
radio transmissions, nobody in the world had ever heard any audio
clips from the AF1 tapes that even suggested that President Kennedy's
body was going to be taken to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington.

But that's simply wrong. The previously-available condensed versions
of the Air Force One radio tapes contain multiple references to the
body being taken to Walter Reed for the post-mortem examination. JFK's
military aide, General Chester V. Clifton, can be heard giving
instructions to Washington regarding the location of the autopsy.
Clifton can be heard on the tape saying this:

"This is General Clifton. .... We do not want a helicopter for
Bethesda Medical Center. We do want an ambulance and a ground return
from Andrews to Walter Reed; and we want the regular post-mortem that
has to be done by law under guard performed at Walter Reed." --
Chester V. Clifton; Aboard Air Force One; 11/22/63

And, to emphasize again, the above quote from General Clifton is not a
"new" discovery at all (contrary to what the commentators and analysts
at CNN seem to believe). The audio clip that contains General
Clifton's "Walter Reed" quote has been available for years. And I've
had that audio clip on my websites for quite some time prior to
January 2012.

You can hear Clifton make the above statement regarding "Walter Reed"
at the very beginning of the video labelled "Part 2" on the webpage
below:

http://DVP-Potpourri.blogspot.com/2010/09/aircraft-radio-transmissions-11-22-63.html