Blast shook San Antonio days before JFK assassination

[Vince Palamara]

I had a guy excitedly write me and say this was why the military intelligence branch was pre-occupied before Dallas. Maybe; maybe not...but interesting. I had never heard of this before:

 

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article26517574.html

Blast shook San Antonio days before JFK assassination

SAN ANTONIO

-A massive explosion of military munitions shook San Antonio in late 1963, generating a mushroom cloud, breaking windows up to 30 miles away and briefly raising concerns about nuclear fallout.

The huge blast in southwestern Bexar County, which surprisingly injured no one seriously, was overshadowed by news nine days later when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, one day after visiting the Alamo City.

Official accounts indicate that 123,000 pounds of explosives accidentally detonated as three workers took material to a fortified bunker at Medina Base, then an Atomic Energy Commission site, now known as the Lackland Training Annex.

Read more here: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article26517574.html#storylink=cpy

 

 

[Roy Wieselquist]

 

Vince,

Good golly, this is quite a find, fills out the scenario of cataclysmic incompetence in the Lone Star Republic Nov. 1963.

San Antonio, 11,13,63--eight days before JFK and LBJ were there on their big Texas swing, an EIGHTH of a million pounds of explosives in a special igloo go kerblooie.

Towering mushroom cloud, windows break 30 miles away.  Our fine military/weapons/complex "at work".

Three grunts, two in the igloo when the chain reaction starts (starting with a "popping noise like a shotgun blast"), and one at the nearby "straddle-carrier" (is that fancy military talk for a "trailer-bed" or a "truck"?)-------ESCAPE UNHARMED.  No doubt they adhered to the always practical Aristotelean philosophy of get-the-hell-out-of-there-ism.  One felt that he was blown 50 yards by the blast, and that's because he was moving quickly in the right direction, going with the flow.

No bigshots, no officers in sight helping with the dirty dangerous job, or at least overseeing it.  What do they get the big bucks and shiny boffo uniforms for?  But ain't that the 1963 Texas and US military way?  Both together=double whammy.  Three grunts, all alone, doing it all.

It's a shame some bigshot like William KING Harvey wasn't there giving his expertise.  Maybe he woulda pulled out his fancy shooting-iron and spooked that bomb into submission.

And what if the mighty cigar-chomping Curtis LeMay had been there to boss around the operation like he did at the Bethesda autopsy?  News reports say, "He must have vaporized.  Nothing of The General's body was found.  Except, perhaps, some of his fruit salad discovered a mile away by some boys playing hooky from school."

The igloos are still visible from a highway.  And a 25 foot deep, 60 foot wide crater.  One of the survivors says of the igloos, "No telling what's in them."  You betcha.

Oh I wish there was record of some Kennedy bon mots about this one-more-time-again Texan stewardship of the nation's wealth (blood, sweat and tears). Like he did that same day in big bad Houston at the new space center (that he gave as a sop to Lyndon and those other back-shootin crooks), something like, "Never has there been such a payroll -- er, excuse me -- payload."

Vince, PS:  You are feeding us old dogs very well; some of us are getting fat

Edited September 19, 2018 by Roy Wieselquist

[Steve Thomas]

https://newspaperarchive.com/san-antonio-light-nov-13-1963-p-1/

 

"The blast shattered 48 windows at Roosevelt Elementary School, 3823 Fortuna, officials at Edgewood School District re- ported. Fortunately, the 500 youngsters attending the school were on the grounds at the time the windows shattered inward into the building."

 

 

Steve Thomas

Edited April 23, 2021 by Steve Thomas

[Vince Palamara]

17 hours ago, Roy Wieselquist said:

 

Vince,

Good golly, this is quite a find, fills out the scenario of cataclysmic incompetence in the Lone Star Republic Nov. 1963.

San Antonio, 11,13,63--eight days before JFK and LBJ were there on their big Texas swing, an EIGHTH of a million pounds of explosives in a special igloo go kerblooie.

Towering mushroom cloud, windows break 30 miles away.  Our fine military/weapons/complex "at work".

Three grunts, two in the igloo when the chain reaction starts (starting with a "popping noise like a shotgun blast"), and one at the nearby "straddle-carrier" (is that fancy military talk for a "trailer-bed" or a "truck"?)-------ESCAPE UNHARMED.  No doubt they adhered to the always practical Aristotelean philosophy of get-the-hell-out-of-there-ism.  One felt that he was blown 50 yards by the blast, and that's because he was moving quickly in the right direction, going with the flow.

No bigshots, no officers in sight helping with the dirty dangerous job, or at least overseeing it.  What do they get the big bucks and shiny boffo uniforms for?  But ain't that the 1963 Texas and US military way?  Both together=double whammy.  Three grunts, all alone, doing it all.

It's a shame some bigshot like William KING Harvey wasn't there giving his expertise.  Maybe he woulda pulled out his fancy shooting-iron and spooked that bomb into submission.

And what if the mighty cigar-chomping Curtis LeMay had been there to boss around the operation like he did at the Bethesda autopsy?  News reports say, "He must have vaporized.  Nothing of The General's body was found.  Except, perhaps, some of his fruit salad discovered a mile away by some boys playing hooky from school."

The igloos are still visible from a highway.  And a 25 foot deep, 60 foot wide crater.  One of the survivors says of the igloos, "No telling what's in them."  You betcha.

Oh I wish there was record of some Kennedy bon mots about this one-more-time-again Texan stewardship of the nation's wealth (blood, sweat and tears). Like he did that same day in big bad Houston at the new space center (that he gave as a sop to Lyndon and those other back-shootin crooks), something like, "Never has there been such a payroll -- er, excuse me -- payload."

Vince, PS:  You are feeding us old dogs very well; some of us are getting fat

Thanks! :) :)

[Roy Wieselquist]

Does anyone remember reports of a car parked along Stemmons that was loaded with explosives?  I think near Cobb Stadium (atop which a rifleman was spotted BTW).  This car-bomb was a last-ditch weapon in case Kennedy left Dealey Plaza alive, supposedly.  Speculation:  What if the explosives for this car came from the storage facility outside Alamo City above.  And when they cadged the bomb from Medina Base, they had to move materials around, and that was the cause of the igloo and the two "Straddle-carriers" going boom.  Possible?

Edited September 30, 2018 by Roy Wieselquist

[Joe Bauer]

If a car-bomb was actually used to take out JFK it would have also taken out Jackie K, the Connallys, Kellerman and Greer.   And in a horribly gruesome way.

All of America was rocked by JFK's murder even without seeing the graphic gruesomeness of it until the Zapruder film was released.

If Jackie had been killed along with her husband, I think there would have been civil unrest to the point of mass demonstrations, questioning and doubting of federal government authority, competence and possible corruption and demanding answers immediately.

A car bomb would indicate a conspiracy much more so than single shots into JFK.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Joe Bauer

[Joe Bauer]

The down playing government cover up of this massive blast sounds so similar to the Roswell one.

Nothing to see here folks.

You can just forget about it now and move on...okay?

[Roy Wieselquist]

Since I referred to JFK's humor in Houston that same day that he was in San Antone, 11-21-63, I ran across a youtube from Vince Palamara with that e (2) JFK's humor, Houston, 11/21/63- Kennedy Detail- Clint Hill+ - YouTube  xact excerpt.

Here's an attempt at a transcript:

"Next month, when the United States of America fires the largest booster in the history of the world into space, and for the first time gives us the lead --- fires the largest payroll -- uh, payLOAD -- into space, giving us the lead --  It WILL be the largest payROLL, too.  (extended laughter and applause from those greedy, grasping, incompetent ************)

"And, uh, who should know that better than Houston? (crinkly grin amid short, somewhat embarrassed laughter) -- 'n' let's put a little bit of it right in here.  (pats breast pocket, meaning donations for the 1964 campaign)

"But in any case, the United States next month will have a leadership in space which it wouldn't have...(unintelligible)"

 

By the way, the articles given by Vince and Steve above say the resulting crater outside San Antonio was (and still is?) 25 feet deep, 60 feet in diameter.  By the photo with men (5'-6' tall) standing at the rim, that crater is at least 50' deep and over 100' in diameter.  Those military Texans can't even make a simple measurement.

Kennedy gave in to Lyndon and the other Texans SO much, gave them everything they wanted.  But still, it wasn't good enough.  They still hated him with a murderous passion.  Why?

Edited October 1, 2018 by Roy Wieselquist