Southwest visit after action report
Without any question or doubt, it is a profound joy to share these experiences with you. I am in absolute awe of what God has allowed me to witness and recount and there is no way possible I could have conceived it or ever believed myself worthy of it.
To be gifted such unimaginable graces is not merely to want to share it but to feel a moral obligation to do so. If I ramble on, uncontrollable, you will forgive me.
A look back to a week ago
Let's start with a recap of last weekend because that sets the scene.
With a friend in tow, I celebrated a First Saturday Mass (the 4th of 5) at the Cathedral of Saint Matthew in Washington DC
On November 25th, 1963, John Kennedy's flag draped coffin stood before the altar there at a Requiem Mass.
A floor marker commemorates the spot today.
After that Mass, his body was taken to Arlington Cemetery where a graceful and dignified Jacqueline Kennedy lit ''the eternal flame''. It's flame still burn there, 63 years later and we saw it.
Just 3 days earlier, this same woman was covered in her husband's blood as Lyndon Baines Johnson took the oath of office. She now lays beside him beneath the flame she lit.
Talk about grace under fire. Can we get anymore literal?
Why I could not put this mission off any longer.
It's hard to imagine that anyone could deny that we are in the darkest of days. If only there were one man in America, Catholics and other Christians could look to as a model. A man of vision and moral courage. A man with a first lady who was elegance and grace personified.
We had such a man and they killed him.
He was the only President with the Courage to stand up to Ben Gurion's regime in Israel, Castro in Cuba, Krushchev in Russia and Sam Giancana in the United States. He stood against the Vietnam war and the expansion of the military/industrial complex. He stood against the World Bank and the Federal Reserve, the FBI and the CIA. We are reaping the bitter fruit of the expansion of all of those entities.
In terms of motivation that seems equal parts spiritual catharsis and investigative journalism, the time for me to make this trip was now.
Just how deep does the rabbit hole go?
You have no idea.
Allen Dulles was the disgraced CIA director who oversaw the Bay of Pigs disaster. It is a commonly accepted assumption that Dulles was fired by JFK for, and only for, this calamity. Strangely enough, John Kennedy was apparently onto a plot to attempt to assassinate Charles DeGaulle, the President of France. France, in case you didn't know it, is an ally.
In his work, The Devil's chessboard, author David Talbot made the case that Dulles knew about the plot and was supporting it in some form or fashion. It was for this treasonous act, as well as the Bay of Pigs that caused Dulles to be fired, according to Talbot. If Talbot's assertion is correct, prosecution of Dulles may not have been far behind.
Do you understand where I am going with this? It's called motive. If Dulles were facing the possibility of treason charges, he had a vested interest in seeing the President of the United States silenced. Yes?
At an absolute minimum, we could say that the assassination of JFK certainly benefitted Dulles even if he were not an active participant. Can we be honest enough to say that Allen Dulles could have had much to gain by John Kennedy's death? Can we be honest enough to say that it's at least plausible that he had something to gain by the truth never coming out? Allen Dulles seemed to be a dirty dude. Can we just be honest about that?
Dulles Airport and the ''conspiracy''
Here we have a guy with a sketchy record, fired by President Kennedy, and they name an airport after the dude. Not just any airport either, the largest in the DC area and 4th largest in the country.
It was out of that very airport that I would fly to Dallas, Texas.
Naming an airport is one thing.
2 days after the assassination of John Kennedy, the man changed with crime was killed in front of a live tv audience of 30 million people by Jack Ruby.
That's when the word ''Conspiracy'' popped up. JFK's personal assistant Evelyn Lincoln was fired by LBJ within days of him becoming President. Lincoln maintained until her death in 1995, that JFK was killed by a conspiracy involving, among others, LBJ and the CIA.
Now. it's one thing for me to say it, but for the President's assistant to say it? That's something different. She was fired within days of the President's death and told she had 2 days to get out.
Why? What did she know?
If the powers that be thought Lee Harvey Oswald's death would close the books on this as far as public opinion, they were mistaken. Nobody bought Jack Ruby's line that he did it to spare Jacquelyn Kennedy the trauma of a trial. Oswald was killed because people thought he might sing to save his own skin.
Obviously, LBJ wanted the truth supressed too. When the public demanded a commission to get to the truth, guess who LBJ put on that commission? You guessed it. Allen Dulles. Nothing like appointing a fox to figure out where the chickens went, eh?
Yet, they wonder why we think it's a conspiracy?
I digress.
Flying in to Dallas was quite an experience. Everything is big.
Getting to the rental car place in Irving involved two shuttles and, wouldn't you know, the first one would be delayed because of a traffic accident. I was delayed for the 2nd shuttle, delayed for the rental car place, late for Mass at Holy Trinity Catholic church.
We're not off to a good start here.
In retrospect, it was partially my fault. A factor in the cost and crowdedness of my trip was doubtless the fact that it was a holiday weekend (Columbus day). I had taken that into account. What I did not factor in is that I came down during the biggest event of the year- the Texas State fair and a central part of that event is the biggest game of the year- Oklahoma vs Texas.
For those non college football people out there, Oklahoma vs Texas is one of the very biggest rivalries in the sport and every year, it is played in Dallas, Texas during the state fair.
This year, Texas was ranked #1 going into the game, and heavy favorites against unranked Oklahoma. As I am arriving back from Mass, driving down Akard street, preparing to make the left on Commerce, I see a throng of people gathered under a Time-Square-sized big screen and it showed the game live and in progress and tied 24 to 24.
I guess someone forgot to tell Oklahoma that they were supposed to get blown out.
After the valet parked my rental and I checked into my room, I dropped the bags inside and immediately came down to the street. There was a certain song playing in my head. It's called "He was a friend of mine". If you watch this very short video I made, you'll will see why.
Since I was about 9 years old I have known this song and even before then, I already knew who I was named after. It has been an obsession in my life to learn all about this man and to one-day visit the place where this horrible event took place. The official program I paid for wasn't until the next morning, but I wasn't going to wait. I had studied the maps and knew the route and knew I was about 11 minutes away by foot.
As I reached the street, that was my singular focus but it was not the focus of the people on the street. They were crowded around that big tv watching a field goal attempt.
I am walking the streets of Dallas towards the tragic event the city is most known for, and the streets are alive with whooping, celebrating Oklahoma fans and shocked and demoralized Texas fans.
It's a common theme. I encountered it at Parkland, Florida (Marjory Stoneman Douglass school shooting), I discovered it in Shanksville, Pennsylvania (the crash of United Flight 93 on 9/11) and I discovered it in Strongsville, Ohio (The crash of Mackenzie Shirilla). The people of these places refuse to be identified by the tragedy that took place there.
I was actually stunned by how much that is the case in Dallas. In the shadow of skyscrapers that must be in the billions of dollars in value, the trimmings and markings commemorating what happened on November 22nd, 1963, are so understated that you might miss them if you were not specifically looking for them. After more than 5 decades of my brain connecting the word Dallas with horrific images of a dying JFK, a panicked Jacquelyn, scrambling secret service agents, people diving for cover and a motorcade speeding to the hospital, I was not prepared for what I saw. In a city that is larger than life, presenting itself as such, Dealey Plaza was ''Oh, yea. That happened here too but we don't talk about it much''.
The tribute memorial in the city square is literally 4 concrete walls and a single black square with the name John Fitzgerald Kennedy. No speeches, no statues. Nothing else.
It's almost insulting in its simplicity. On the street where he died, the two impacts from the gunshots are marked not in placards or monuments of any kind but with x's made with white tape. You have skyscrapers 100 stories high and you make the most significant point in the city with tape?
For me the effect was quite different. This was not an "Oh, by the way'' place for me. I was seeing images I had seen my whole life, now before my eyes. My name is John Fitzgerald Benko. My name comes from and my entire identity is connected to, what happened right where I was standing.
I have heard ''from the sixth floor of the Texas school book depository'' since I was old enough to know what words mean and here, I was, on a sidewalk, looking at it.
Allow me to tell you what vantage point you are looking at.
The car you see turning left is turning onto North Houston Street off of Elm Street. The Motorcade actually came from the direction this vehicle is going to. The motorcade came down Main Street, on the right side of your screen, turned right onto North Houston and then left on Elm.
If the motorcade had taken the same turn you are seeing the car make, there is no controversy. The side of the building Oswald shot from is facing that way. He would have had a clear line of site. Remember that he is shooting from a small window.
I don't even have any trouble believing that he made the first shot at the top red circle. Clearly Oswald was a shooter, clearly, he was identified and claims that he was innocent just don't hold up against the mountains of evidence.
The controversy begins after that first shot.
The Warren commission's finding stated that that first connected shot hit both John Kennedy and Governor John Connally. This is something Connally denied until his death. A study by expert Josiah Thompson agrees with the Governor.
The "Single Bullet" theory (often derided as the magic bullet theory) is pure fiction.
Without even getting into the shifting and turning of the bullet, the problem is that the clear audio and video evidence doesn't even support the premise of how they were seated. Governor Connally stated on the record that he heard a gunshot then turned to his right and then he was hit.
If that is the case (and the film supports it) Connally's back is now turned away from Oswald making the Connally wound an impossible shot for Oswald because the Governor was hit in the back. Mr. Thompson said that shot came 7/10ths of a second after the first one and from an angle of 27 degrees. It is impossible that Oswald connected on 2 shots in 7/10th of a second with a bolt action rifle. The angle also makes that shot impossible to have come from Oswald. Thompson's scientific analyses determined that that shot came from the roof of the Dallas County records building.
Our tour director went to great pains to try and rebut the multiple gunmen evidence, even mentioning Mr. Thompson by name. I found his arguments less convincing than the scientific evidence presented by Thompson. Mr. Thompson wasn't a man with an agenda. He simply studied the audio and video evidence, wounds and angles and said this is what the evidence shows.
In this very spot were 13 eyewitnesses who saw Oswald in the sixth floor window. Our tour director was very animated and determined to prove Oswald was a shooter. To his credit, he really left no doubt that Oswald was a shooter, but he did little to convince me that only Oswald was a shooter.
Moving on from the first and second shots was the so-called kill shot. Abraham Zabruder was standing on this pillar filming the motorcade and captured that shot directly in front of him. To see it gave me an appreciation of just how close he was and just how horrific it must have been.
This is what he saw.
As JFK emerged from behind the sign, you can see he has already been hit as he is clutching his throat. Watch the slow-motion version which plays second. You will see Connally turn dramatically to the right then suddenly grimace from being hit, just as I stated earlier. He was hit after JFK. Then, you see the kill shot. Not only did the angle of the limousine, with respect to the schoolbook depository make this shot impossible from there, but anyone with eyes can also see that shot came from the front. Watch it 100 times and all the gaslighting in the world won't convince you otherwise.
Many eyewitnesses, including Zabruder himself maintained that they heard that shot from the Grassy Knoll. Years later, convicted mobster James Files claims that he made that shot and said exactly where he made it from. I made a point to go to the exact spot he claimed he shot from. What I saw gave me chills.
This picture is from exactly where James Files claims he was standing. The X in the center of the road is where the fatal shot occurred. It is impossible that he would have missed. To the left is the corner pillar Zabruder was filming from. It is impossible that Zabruder was mistaken about where he heard the shot from. This area came to be known as ''the grassy knoll''.
The evidence to me, of three gunmen is proven beyond a reasonable doubt by what I saw with my own eyes in Dealey Plaza.
Even through an incredibly dirty window you can see that the kill shot is pretty much impossible because it is an angle dramatically to the right, from a window facing forward. He could not have cycled a bolt action rifle, completely changed his position to the left side of the window, fired completely across his body to the right, and connected, in what amounted to about 3 seconds. There is just no way.
Three gunmen in three different locations. That's what the evidence shows. However, 3 gunmen means conspiracy.
After the spiritually and emotionally overwhelming experience of Dealey plaza, I walked the 11 minutes or so back to the hotel. After a cold drink and some regathering of myself, I walked for about 18 minutes to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
I bought three rosaries, had lunch and did a tour. A distinctly Hispanic community, it was a very nice preparation for the real Guadalupe shrine in Mexico next month. Visiting this Cathedral in Dallas will be a cherished memory.
Columbus day wrap up
I checked out of the hotel at about 5:00 AM local time. I then duplicated the last few minutes in the life of President John F Kennedy, down Elm Street, past the schoolbook depository, under the underpass, onto the interstate heading towards Parkland Hospital. As I made the drive, I could just picture that limousine racing towards that hospital in hopes that the President and the Governor could be saved. At about 1:00 PM local time, the Catholic priests announced that the President was dead. The new Parkland Hospital is quite a facility and across the street from the original but what a connection I made with the staff.
Ironically enough, I did not ever have an actual sit-down meal in Dallas until I was in the airport, waiting to fly back home.
After I left Parkland Hospital, I drove the roughly 75 minutes to Ernie's cafe in Colbert, Oklahoma to have a proper breakfast and check off another state. Ernie's is 5 minutes across the border but that still counts.
The new map looks like this. New Mexico and Colorado are in blue because I will add them in less than a month.
It would not shock me to get one or two more in by the end of the year.
Thank you for letting me share this deeply personal spiritual journey with you.
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