William Kelly Posted September 24, 2006 Share Posted September 24, 2006 According to Bill Gulley, former Director of the White House Military Office, wrote in "Breaking Cover" (with Mary Ellen Reese, Simon & Schuster, N.Y. 1980) that, "Lyndon Johnson had appointed Jim Cross pilot of Air Force One and also made him director of the Military Office. The choice didn't please everybody - Joe Califano, the President's advisor, in particular - but Johnson didn't care. He thought a lot of Cross. After Cross came in, Johnson started to reorganize and streamline the office. Under Kennedy, and before, there had been four militlary assistants - generals and admirals - one from each service, each with equal status. Which made an attractive rat's nest. Johson restructured it so Cross was in charge and had aides from each of the other services under him....Cross was a guy who wouldn't lay all his cards out; he'd tell you what he wanted you to know and no more....As I also later learned, Cross himself didn't really know what the job was....I asked Cross how he had come to know Johnson and how he'd gotten his job. He told me 'I was given a mission one time to fly VIce President Johnson, and I flew him from then on. I'm not from Texas,....I'm from Alabama....." "When Johnson came into office, the Kennedy Military Office had an Army major general, Chester Clifton, a brigadier genreal of the Air Force, Godfrey McHugh; and a Navy captain, Tazewell Shepherd, who was the son-in-law of Senator John Sparkman....it was really a social outfit....Johnson wouldn't talk to the generals and captains and made it clear he wanted to lower the military's presence at the White House. He drastically cut their staffs and at the same time stopped including them in White House social functions....His whole point was to make them unhppay, make them want to leave, and yet not fire someone Kennedy had appointed. In the course of events, Clifton, McHugh and Shepherd asked if they could leave, and Johnson brought in the guy who had flown him while he was Vice President, Major Jim Cross. Little by little, Lyndon Johnson was building his own team." "Basically the Military Office makes it possible for the President to do the things he needs or wants to.....whether they're covert or for all the world to see. It's no exageration to say it's the President's Aladdin's Lamp; there's nothing that can't be done, and there's a bottomless pit of money, ingenuity and resources to do it with...." "The Military Office is the critical link between the White House and the Pentagon in case an unexpected missle attack is launched on the country....Gulley had briefed each incoming President on the contents of the 'football,' the legendary black briefcase containing, among other things, the President's retaliatory options...and revealed to them just hou inadequate these procedures are." "Through its vast and technically sophisticated White House Communications Agency, the Military Office handled the secret bugging of the Oval Office and Cabinet Room in Lyndon Johnson's White House and installed taps on his telephones and those of his staff members...." "There's a lot of romantic bullxxxx about the Secret Service. And they're still living off their finest hour - the Kennedy assassination when they protected Lyndon Johnson and Jacqueline Kennedy, who weren't the targets anyway, while the president got killed...The truth is that the Secret Service is the worst, most inefficient, badly run, highly political outfit in the United States government....It was apparent to me as soon as I got to the White House in 1966 that the Secret Service had a Seven Days in May mentality. They literally seemed to think the military was going to take over the White House at any moment - which didn't encourage us to trust them. And our mistrust was well placed." "...Johnson had recording devices everywhere, secretly committing to tape thousands of conversations....one that made the Nixon system look like the shabby job it was. Johnson had it installed by the White House Communcations Agency, which is under the Military Office..." ON JANUARY 2, 1968, JAMES U. CROSS, ARMED FORCES AIDE TO THE PRESIDENT, RESPONDED TO VINCE SALANDRIA'S REQUST FOR INFORMATION ON THE TRANSCRIPTS OF THE TAPED CONVERSATIONS FROM AIR FORCE ONE ON 11/22/63. "I have been asked to respond to your letter, addressed to the White House Communicaitons Agency, concerning a tape recording to Air Force One, November 22, 1963." "Logs and tapes of the radio transmissions of military aircraft, including those of Air Force One, are kept for official use only. These tapes are not releaseable, nor are they obtainable from commercial sources. I am sorry my response cannot be more favorable." - James U. Cross THE FINAL REPORT OF THE ASSASSINATION RECORDS REVIEW BOARD NOTES: "The WHCA did not identify any assassination records...The Review Board then requested that WHCA certify, under penalty of perjury, that it had no other records from the 1963-64 time period nor any records relating to their disposition. The WHCA submitted its Final Declaration of Compliance dated April 22, 1998." DOUG HORNE, MILITARY INVESTIGATOR FOR THE ARRB SAID: "...The White House Communicaitons Agency was a big disapointment. They didn't seem to have a clue or any interest, and it was run by Air Force people. They're located in the Old Executive Office Building across from the White House, and that was a frustraiting experience, let me tell you." "....Among our biggest disapointments...was we could not find the original Air Force One audio tapes of the radio conversations from the aircraft in flight on November 22nd, to other locations. Among the other locations, as many of you know one of those was on the plane that (Dean) Rusk, Orville Freeman and Pierre Salinger were on on their way from Hawaii to Japan, and the White House Situation Room (WHSR)." "The tapes we have now of those conversations are incredibly intriguing, but the tapes we have now emante from the LBJ library, and there's a statement at the beginning of the tape that they're edited, and the person making this statment is someone in the I think in the Army Signal Corps. So the question was, can we find the original, unedited tapes?" Bill Kelly bkjfk3@yahoo.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Kelly Posted September 25, 2007 Author Share Posted September 25, 2007 According to Bill Gulley, former Director of the White House Military Office, wrote in "Breaking Cover" (with Mary Ellen Reese, Simon & Schuster, N.Y. 1980) that, "Lyndon Johnson had appointed Jim Cross pilot of Air Force One and also made him director of the Military Office. The choice didn't please everybody - Joe Califano, the President's advisor, in particular - but Johnson didn't care. He thought a lot of Cross. After Cross came in, Johnson started to reorganize and streamline the office. Under Kennedy, and before, there had been four militlary assistants - generals and admirals - one from each service, each with equal status. Which made an attractive rat's nest. Johson restructured it so Cross was in charge and had aides from each of the other services under him....Cross was a guy who wouldn't lay all his cards out; he'd tell you what he wanted you to know and no more....As I also later learned, Cross himself didn't really know what the job was....I asked Cross how he had come to know Johnson and how he'd gotten his job. He told me 'I was given a mission one time to fly VIce President Johnson, and I flew him from then on. I'm not from Texas,....I'm from Alabama....." "When Johnson came into office, the Kennedy Military Office had an Army major general, Chester Clifton, a brigadier genreal of the Air Force, Godfrey McHugh; and a Navy captain, Tazewell Shepherd, who was the son-in-law of Senator John Sparkman....it was really a social outfit....Johnson wouldn't talk to the generals and captains and made it clear he wanted to lower the military's presence at the White House. He drastically cut their staffs and at the same time stopped including them in White House social functions....His whole point was to make them unhppay, make them want to leave, and yet not fire someone Kennedy had appointed. In the course of events, Clifton, McHugh and Shepherd asked if they could leave, and Johnson brought in the guy who had flown him while he was Vice President, Major Jim Cross. Little by little, Lyndon Johnson was building his own team." "Basically the Military Office makes it possible for the President to do the things he needs or wants to.....whether they're covert or for all the world to see. It's no exageration to say it's the President's Aladdin's Lamp; there's nothing that can't be done, and there's a bottomless pit of money, ingenuity and resources to do it with...." "The Military Office is the critical link between the White House and the Pentagon in case an unexpected missle attack is launched on the country....Gulley had briefed each incoming President on the contents of the 'football,' the legendary black briefcase containing, among other things, the President's retaliatory options...and revealed to them just hou inadequate these procedures are." "Through its vast and technically sophisticated White House Communications Agency, the Military Office handled the secret bugging of the Oval Office and Cabinet Room in Lyndon Johnson's White House and installed taps on his telephones and those of his staff members...." "There's a lot of romantic bullxxxx about the Secret Service. And they're still living off their finest hour - the Kennedy assassination when they protected Lyndon Johnson and Jacqueline Kennedy, who weren't the targets anyway, while the president got killed...The truth is that the Secret Service is the worst, most inefficient, badly run, highly political outfit in the United States government....It was apparent to me as soon as I got to the White House in 1966 that the Secret Service had a Seven Days in May mentality. They literally seemed to think the military was going to take over the White House at any moment - which didn't encourage us to trust them. And our mistrust was well placed." "...Johnson had recording devices everywhere, secretly committing to tape thousands of conversations....one that made the Nixon system look like the shabby job it was. Johnson had it installed by the White House Communcations Agency, which is under the Military Office..." ON JANUARY 2, 1968, JAMES U. CROSS, ARMED FORCES AIDE TO THE PRESIDENT, RESPONDED TO VINCE SALANDRIA'S REQUST FOR INFORMATION ON THE TRANSCRIPTS OF THE TAPED CONVERSATIONS FROM AIR FORCE ONE ON 11/22/63. "I have been asked to respond to your letter, addressed to the White House Communicaitons Agency, concerning a tape recording to Air Force One, November 22, 1963." "Logs and tapes of the radio transmissions of military aircraft, including those of Air Force One, are kept for official use only. These tapes are not releaseable, nor are they obtainable from commercial sources. I am sorry my response cannot be more favorable." - James U. Cross THE FINAL REPORT OF THE ASSASSINATION RECORDS REVIEW BOARD NOTES: "The WHCA did not identify any assassination records...The Review Board then requested that WHCA certify, under penalty of perjury, that it had no other records from the 1963-64 time period nor any records relating to their disposition. The WHCA submitted its Final Declaration of Compliance dated April 22, 1998." DOUG HORNE, MILITARY INVESTIGATOR FOR THE ARRB SAID: "...The White House Communicaitons Agency was a big disapointment. They didn't seem to have a clue or any interest, and it was run by Air Force people. They're located in the Old Executive Office Building across from the White House, and that was a frustraiting experience, let me tell you." "....Among our biggest disapointments...was we could not find the original Air Force One audio tapes of the radio conversations from the aircraft in flight on November 22nd, to other locations. Among the other locations, as many of you know one of those was on the plane that (Dean) Rusk, Orville Freeman and Pierre Salinger were on on their way from Hawaii to Japan, and the White House Situation Room (WHSR)." "The tapes we have now of those conversations are incredibly intriguing, but the tapes we have now emante from the LBJ library, and there's a statement at the beginning of the tape that they're edited, and the person making this statment is someone in the I think in the Army Signal Corps. So the question was, can we find the original, unedited tapes?" Bill Kelly bkjfk3@yahoo.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Kelly Posted September 26, 2007 Author Share Posted September 26, 2007 According to Bill Gulley, former Director of the White House Military Office, wrote in "Breaking Cover" (with Mary Ellen Reese, Simon & Schuster, N.Y. 1980) that, Does anyone else find it suspicious that LBJ would replace the President's four military assistants - generals and admirals, with the pilot of AF1/2, from Alabama - where the dead American Bay of Pigs pilots came from and where BushII spent some of his Texas Air National Guard days with the Alabama Air National Guard, who was also responsible for responding to requests for the AF1 radio communicaitons tapes that remain missing? BK "Lyndon Johnson had appointed Jim Cross pilot of Air Force One and also made him director of the Military Office. The choice didn't please everybody - Joe Califano, the President's advisor, in particular - but Johnson didn't care. He thought a lot of Cross. After Cross came in, Johnson started to reorganize and streamline the office. Under Kennedy, and before, there had been four militlary assistants - generals and admirals - one from each service, each with equal status. Which made an attractive rat's nest. Johson restructured it so Cross was in charge and had aides from each of the other services under him....Cross was a guy who wouldn't lay all his cards out; he'd tell you what he wanted you to know and no more....As I also later learned, Cross himself didn't really know what the job was....I asked Cross how he had come to know Johnson and how he'd gotten his job. He told me 'I was given a mission one time to fly VIce President Johnson, and I flew him from then on. I'm not from Texas,....I'm from Alabama....." "When Johnson came into office, the Kennedy Military Office had an Army major general, Chester Clifton, a brigadier genreal of the Air Force, Godfrey McHugh; and a Navy captain, Tazewell Shepherd, who was the son-in-law of Senator John Sparkman....it was really a social outfit....Johnson wouldn't talk to the generals and captains and made it clear he wanted to lower the military's presence at the White House. He drastically cut their staffs and at the same time stopped including them in White House social functions....His whole point was to make them unhppay, make them want to leave, and yet not fire someone Kennedy had appointed. In the course of events, Clifton, McHugh and Shepherd asked if they could leave, and Johnson brought in the guy who had flown him while he was Vice President, Major Jim Cross. Little by little, Lyndon Johnson was building his own team." "Basically the Military Office makes it possible for the President to do the things he needs or wants to.....whether they're covert or for all the world to see. It's no exageration to say it's the President's Aladdin's Lamp; there's nothing that can't be done, and there's a bottomless pit of money, ingenuity and resources to do it with...." "The Military Office is the critical link between the White House and the Pentagon in case an unexpected missle attack is launched on the country....Gulley had briefed each incoming President on the contents of the 'football,' the legendary black briefcase containing, among other things, the President's retaliatory options...and revealed to them just hou inadequate these procedures are." "Through its vast and technically sophisticated White House Communications Agency, the Military Office handled the secret bugging of the Oval Office and Cabinet Room in Lyndon Johnson's White House and installed taps on his telephones and those of his staff members...." "There's a lot of romantic bullxxxx about the Secret Service. And they're still living off their finest hour - the Kennedy assassination when they protected Lyndon Johnson and Jacqueline Kennedy, who weren't the targets anyway, while the president got killed...The truth is that the Secret Service is the worst, most inefficient, badly run, highly political outfit in the United States government....It was apparent to me as soon as I got to the White House in 1966 that the Secret Service had a Seven Days in May mentality. They literally seemed to think the military was going to take over the White House at any moment - which didn't encourage us to trust them. And our mistrust was well placed." "...Johnson had recording devices everywhere, secretly committing to tape thousands of conversations....one that made the Nixon system look like the shabby job it was. Johnson had it installed by the White House Communcations Agency, which is under the Military Office..." ON JANUARY 2, 1968, JAMES U. CROSS, ARMED FORCES AIDE TO THE PRESIDENT, RESPONDED TO VINCE SALANDRIA'S REQUST FOR INFORMATION ON THE TRANSCRIPTS OF THE TAPED CONVERSATIONS FROM AIR FORCE ONE ON 11/22/63. "I have been asked to respond to your letter, addressed to the White House Communicaitons Agency, concerning a tape recording to Air Force One, November 22, 1963." "Logs and tapes of the radio transmissions of military aircraft, including those of Air Force One, are kept for official use only. These tapes are not releaseable, nor are they obtainable from commercial sources. I am sorry my response cannot be more favorable." - James U. Cross THE FINAL REPORT OF THE ASSASSINATION RECORDS REVIEW BOARD NOTES: "The WHCA did not identify any assassination records...The Review Board then requested that WHCA certify, under penalty of perjury, that it had no other records from the 1963-64 time period nor any records relating to their disposition. The WHCA submitted its Final Declaration of Compliance dated April 22, 1998." DOUG HORNE, MILITARY INVESTIGATOR FOR THE ARRB SAID: "...The White House Communicaitons Agency was a big disapointment. They didn't seem to have a clue or any interest, and it was run by Air Force people. They're located in the Old Executive Office Building across from the White House, and that was a frustraiting experience, let me tell you." "....Among our biggest disapointments...was we could not find the original Air Force One audio tapes of the radio conversations from the aircraft in flight on November 22nd, to other locations. Among the other locations, as many of you know one of those was on the plane that (Dean) Rusk, Orville Freeman and Pierre Salinger were on on their way from Hawaii to Japan, and the White House Situation Room (WHSR)." "The tapes we have now of those conversations are incredibly intriguing, but the tapes we have now emante from the LBJ library, and there's a statement at the beginning of the tape that they're edited, and the person making this statment is someone in the I think in the Army Signal Corps. So the question was, can we find the original, unedited tapes?" Bill Kelly bkjfk3@yahoo.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Richards Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 Bill, A bit more background on Cross. During the mid 1960's he was appointed as the executive director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission. During his time with the Air Force he was awarded the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster, Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, Air Force Outstanding Unit Award Ribbon with Oak Leaf Cluster and the Presidential Service Badge. Cross also served in the China theater from 1944 to 1946 which puts him in the company of some interesting folk. FWIW. James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Kelly Posted September 28, 2007 Author Share Posted September 28, 2007 Bill,A bit more background on Cross. During the mid 1960's he was appointed as the executive director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission. During his time with the Air Force he was awarded the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster, Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, Air Force Outstanding Unit Award Ribbon with Oak Leaf Cluster and the Presidential Service Badge. Cross also served in the China theater from 1944 to 1946 which puts him in the company of some interesting folk. FWIW. James Thank you James, I was wondering if anybody was paying attention since I posted that September a year ago. Now the military officer/advisor to the President, you would think, was a very powerful and important position, a position that is appionted by the President. JFK had a number of military advisors - some of whom did not jive with the Pentagon. The idea that LBJ would replace strategic commanders with his AF2 pilot goes beyond loyality, and is more like Bush appointing his personal attorney chief justice of the Supreme Court. That's just the wrong peg for the hole. Is Cross still alive? BK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Richards Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 Bill, Cross is still alive. He gave a speech recently at Fort Hood. James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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