The President's Back

The President’s Back

Noel Laflin

11-12-15

JFK in Salt Lake City September 26, 1963

My old friend, Bill, once told me a story about the time he was tasked with presidential guard duty for John F. Kennedy.

“I was so close I could have touched the man,” Bill recalled.  “But it would only have been his shoes, or maybe an ankle at most, had I been so inclined to reach out to him,” he concluded, a twinkle in his eye.

Bill was a cop in Salt Lake City when the president came to town in late September of 1963; his assigned area of patrol was the inside of the podium from which Kennedy addressed the assemblage.

“So, the podium was on a raised stage and curtained all around,” Bill outlined, “and my perch of concealment was standing beneath that platform with just my head sticking through a large square hole in the floor of the stage, which was hidden by the lectern.  My job was to keep an eye on the president’s back.  And although I had a good view of the dignitaries sitting behind him, as well as many of the folks in the balcony above, all I could see of the man himself were the pant legs of his suit and his shoes.  He had shiny black shoes,” Bill said with a smile.

“He spoke for about twenty minutes,” Bill continued, “and during all that time I did my job keeping a lookout for any bad guys who might have wanted to do any harm from behind.  I had his back!” he proclaimed with pride.

“But during that time,” Bill said with a wicked smile, “I kept toying with the idea of just how easy it would be to reach out and gently undo his shoelaces and then retie two of them - each to the opposite shoe.”

Bill paused at this point in the story and took a drag on his cigarette – the mischievous smile was suddenly gone.

“He went to Dallas two months later, of course,” Bill resumed, clearing his throat loudly, trying to hide the crack in his voice.

“I only wish there’d been a podium in that limo with a cop hiding at the base – just keeping an eye out for the bad guys.”