SS Varsity car - radio freq. Baker and Charlie

[Jean Ceulemans]

 

 

 

 

Edited October 19, 2023 by Jean Ceulemans

[Jean Ceulemans]

@Cory Santos @Vince Palamara

Questions from Cory  Santos :

Why is the white follow up car back driver side door open?

What in the heck is sticking out of the white follow up car?   Looks like a scene from They Live.  Zoom in.   

Last, what is covered up on the stairs by what appears to be a white rag?

Vince, why did the agent get out of the car?   What do you say about SA Johns?

Edited October 14, 2023 by Jean Ceulemans

[Vince Palamara]

Because it was a closed sedan and it was thought that it would be faster to get out of the vehicle in case of trouble with the car door already somewhat ajar. The closed sedan presidential follow-up car had agent Don Lawton in a similar situation in Fort Worth that same morning:

VP Secret Service follow-up car earlier in the motorcade:

 

[Vince Palamara]

Johns was one of the good guys- he believed a shot came from the grassy knoll and was adamant that he was never by the knoll. He was on Elm Street very briefly until he hitched a ride in a press car.

I am always weary of photo interpretation(s). Woody Taylor could be wearing one of those keychain squiggly things one wears on their wrist.

[Cory Santos]

1 hour ago, Vince Palamara said:

Johns was one of the good guys- he believed a shot came from the grassy knoll and was adamant that he was never by the knoll. He was on Elm Street very briefly until he hitched a ride in a press car.

I am always weary of photo interpretation(s). Woody Taylor could be wearing one of those keychain squiggly things one wears on their wrist.

Vince any other photos of this hand held radio?

Any info on it?

[Jean Ceulemans]

2 hours ago, Cory Santos said:

Vince any other photos of this hand held radio?

Any info on it?

There is a whole range of frequencies the SS use, e.g. for communication with Queen Mary (Charlie) and the V-P Follow-up Car (Baker). 

I'm pretty sure other frequencies were  also in use that day

Part of an article by Caro just as an example for Baker/Charlie :

Lying on the floor with Youngblood on top of him, Lyndon Johnson felt the car beneath him leap forward as Jacks floored the gas pedal, and he felt the car speeding—“terrifically fast,” Lady Bird later said, “faster and faster”; “I remember the way that car . . . zoomed,” Johnson recalled—and then the brakes were slammed on, and the tires screamed almost in his ear as the car took a right turn much too fast, squealing up the ramp to an expressway, and hurtled forward again. “Stay with them, and keep close!” Youngblood was shouting above him. The shortwave radio was still strapped to Youngblood’s shoulder, so that it was almost in Johnson’s ear. The radio had been set to the Secret Service’s Baker frequency, which kept Youngblood in touch with the Vice-Presidential follow-up car, but now Johnson heard the agent’s voice above him say, “I am switching to Charlie”—the frequency that would connect him with the Queen Mary, ahead of him. For a moment there was, from the radio, only crackling, and then Johnson heard someone say, “He’s hit! Hurry, he’s hit!,” and then “Let’s get out of here!”—and then a lot of almost unintelligible shouting, out of which one word emerged clearly: “hospital.”

Edited October 14, 2023 by Jean Ceulemans

[Ron Bulman]

2 hours ago, Jean Ceulemans said:

There is a whole range of frequencies the SS use, e.g. for communication with Queen Mary (Charlie) and the V-P Follow-up Car (Baker). 

I'm pretty sure other frequencies were  also in use that day

Part of an article by Caro just as an example for Baker/Charlie :

Lying on the floor with Youngblood on top of him, Lyndon Johnson felt the car beneath him leap forward as Jacks floored the gas pedal, and he felt the car speeding—“terrifically fast,” Lady Bird later said, “faster and faster”; “I remember the way that car . . . zoomed,” Johnson recalled—and then the brakes were slammed on, and the tires screamed almost in his ear as the car took a right turn much too fast, squealing up the ramp to an expressway, and hurtled forward again. “Stay with them, and keep close!” Youngblood was shouting above him. The shortwave radio was still strapped to Youngblood’s shoulder, so that it was almost in Johnson’s ear. The radio had been set to the Secret Service’s Baker frequency, which kept Youngblood in touch with the Vice-Presidential follow-up car, but now Johnson heard the agent’s voice above him say, “I am switching to Charlie”—the frequency that would connect him with the Queen Mary, ahead of him. For a moment there was, from the radio, only crackling, and then Johnson heard someone say, “He’s hit! Hurry, he’s hit!,” and then “Let’s get out of here!”—and then a lot of almost unintelligible shouting, out of which one word emerged clearly: “hospital.”

The last part, Baker-Charlie, he's hit . . . may be true, is in fact supported somewhat in what I'm about to quote (LBJ was listening in).  But Youngblood did not jump over the seat and sit on LBJ per Joseph McBride's interview of Senator Ralph Yarborough on 6/4/1988.  Most here realize Yarborough was riding in the car with LBJ on 11/22/1963 on the back seat with Ladybird between them.  From Into The Nightmare, pg. 387.

Youngblood to the WC, after the first shot, "I turned around and hit the Vice president on the shoulder and hollered get down . . . Well, the Vice President (by then the president) says that I vaulted over."

"Yarborough scoffed at that story.  He said Youngblood never left the front seat."  Further in the interview. "You know that tale Johnson like to tell about Youngblood, the Secret Service man, jumping over the front seat when the shots were fired and shielding him with his body?  Well, that's as big a cock-and-bull tale as the time he told the Marines in Da Nang that his great-grandfather had fought at the Alamo.  . . .  Youngblood never jumped over the seat.  Johnson sat there stoically.  The only timed they moved was when we were going through the Tripple Overpass, and Youngblood leaned over the seat  -- he had a small radio receiver in his hand -- and Johnson leaned over, they were about six inches apart, and they listened to some transmission together on the radio."

[Jean Ceulemans]

20 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

The last part, Baker-Charlie, he's hit . . . may be true, is in fact supported somewhat in what I'm about to quote (LBJ was listening in).  But Youngblood did not jump over the seat and sit on LBJ per Joseph McBride's interview of Senator Ralph Yarborough on 6/4/1988.  Most here realize Yarborough was riding in the car with LBJ on 11/22/1963 on the back seat with Ladybird between them.  From Into The Nightmare, pg. 387.

Youngblood to the WC, after the first shot, "I turned around and hit the Vice president on the shoulder and hollered get down . . . Well, the Vice President (by then the president) says that I vaulted over."

"Yarborough scoffed at that story.  He said Youngblood never left the front seat."  Further in the interview. "You know that tale Johnson like to tell about Youngblood, the Secret Service man, jumping over the front seat when the shots were fired and shielding him with his body?  Well, that's as big a cock-and-bull tale as the time he told the Marines in Da Nang that his great-grandfather had fought at the Alamo.  . . .  Youngblood never jumped over the seat.  Johnson sat there stoically.  The only timed they moved was when we were going through the Tripple Overpass, and Youngblood leaned over the seat  -- he had a small radio receiver in his hand -- and Johnson leaned over, they were about six inches apart, and they listened to some transmission together on the radio."

Thanks, I did not know that.

JMB's  Into The Nightmare is on top of the books I still need to buy (I have some 50 by now) but ITN is hard to get here in Belgium, unless I would pay over 200 usd incl shipping, import fees and taxes.      

Edited October 15, 2023 by Jean Ceulemans

[Ron Bulman]

It's up to $48.50 in the US.  My copy in early 2014 was about $20.  I understand researchers in this subject are not in it for the money, but should be compensated. I also understand inflation, personally.  Why I've not bought a couple in the last several years. 

[Jean Ceulemans]

3 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

It's up to $48.50 in the US.  My copy in early 2014 was about $20.  I understand researchers in this subject are not in it for the money, but should be compensated. I also understand inflation, personally.  Why I've not bought a couple in the last several years. 

In Europe when a book is sold out (or even before that) one can buy books 2ndhand for 20% tot 50% of the regular retail price for a new book.

I have noticed in the US the prices often go up once it's no longer in print, why don't they print more ??   

Especially a book like ITN would still sell well I think ? Seen the 2ndhand prices I would think so.