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Add My StoryAuthor: Gordon Brown
Camp Long, Wonju, S. Korea – Nov. 23, 1963 – Around 5 AM I was awakened by the Officer of the Day to get up for my duties that day as Head Count in the Officer’s Mess. They told me that our Commander-in-Chief, JFK had been shot. Yes, it was Saturday morning in Korea and we woke up to the news as most Americans were going about their business on that fatal Friday afternoon in the states. I can still see the look of shock and bewilderment on the faces of the Camp’s officers as they listened to the news from Dallas, Texas being piped into the Mess Hall PA system over the Armed Forces Korean Network.
The Korean Military Advisory Group were advisers to the First Army of Korea. We had 4 full bird Colonels and many lesser officers from KMAG and 8th Army Security eating there. Everyone wondered what would happen next as the military around the world went on full alert. Back in Boston, I had voted for JFK in my first Presidential Election before enlisting in the Army. I’d served in Georgia under him during the Cuban Missile Crisis. And now, as a member of the Ordinance Adviser’s Office, was chosen to be part of the 105 Howitzer Firing detail for the 21 gun farewell salute to our CIC.
A few weeks later, someone noticed a strange “misprint” in our pocket size 8th Army Calendars which had been printed the year before. Friday the 22nd of November, the date that JFK was assassinated, was printed in red, not Thanksgiving Day, Thursday the 28th. Thanksgiving Day was printed black like the other “ordinary” days of the month. I gave my only copy of this oddity to the JFK library many years ago and have not seen one since. Just a coincidence?
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