Forty five years ago this morning, it was a cold, windy morning on the shore of the Great Lakes. I was in the process of going through my recruit training at the Naval Recruit Training Center, Great Lakes, Illinois. Today, was just another day in the training cycle, earlier in the day I was detached to regimental headquarters to stuff and mail Christmas letters to all the parents that had sons assigned to the training center.

In the office where we were working a radio played, the regular scheduled program was interrupted by a voice that was obvious nervous and upset. The news announcement, President John F. Kennedy had just been shot in Dallas, Texas.

Before the announcement was completed, a Petty Officer came in and ordered all of us back to our barracks on the double. Our Company Commander was at the barracks when I arrived, First Class Petty Officer Cameron. We mustered in the break room and he provided what little information that was available. We were now, under full military alert and the base would be locked down, no one in and no one out. This did not really apply to us since we were "boots", we never got to leave the base but all of the senior personnel that had families in the area were quarantined to the base.

Our training was suspended, a television was brought into the break room and the "smoking lamp" was lighted indefinitely. We remained in our barracks, marching in formation to the mess hall three times a day to get meals. We remained in this status for six days until a normal routine was once again established. During this time, we would see the assassin arrested, Lee Harvey Oswald and a few days later, on live television we would see Jack Ruby gun down Oswald while he was surrounded by police officers. Although the Warren Commission issued a finding on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, many still believe that there is a story that is not being told. Perhaps, some day we will know what actually happened, forty five years ago today.