 My association with Vice President Johnson, LBJ, began in 1961 in December. The United States Air Force had assigned me to the Special Air Missions Unit there in Washington, D.C. after having been about 15 years flying in the Air Force. Good deal of experience flying transport airplanes. And anytime you went to the Special Air Missions Unit up there, you were supposed to have an accident-free record, have a reasonable good character, and so apparently I had that, and they sent me up there. And one of the first things that you were taught when you got there was the rules and regulations that you were supposed to be doing in that unit, because in the regular Air Force, you always flew in dirty airplanes and flying suits and that sort of thing. Once you got there, you were supposed to be in a complete full-dress uniform, you know, and always clean. The planes were shiny. They were VIP-type airplanes. So they always assigned you an indoctrinator, a sponsor, so to speak. And my sponsor, one of the things that he told me right off was say, if you ever get a trip with LBJ, you better be awfully careful. He has quite a reputation for being a very demanding man and he can give you lots of trouble if you don't do things exactly as he likes it to be done. Well actually, that was in 1958 when I first went there, when I was indoctrinated. Well he was at that time the Majority Leader of the United States Senate and really didn't travel with the Special Air Missions Unit very often in that particular role. Now a little bit later when he became the Vice President, of course he began to travel a great deal more in the Special Air Missions Unit because the President always had him doing various tasks around the country and consequently he traveled a good deal. Well in 1961 the United States Air Force changed us from flying two-engine Convair-type aircraft, prop-driven, prop-type airplanes. And they bought 16 Lockheed Jet Stars and that's this little airplane right here. They were delivered a couple of months beginning in October of 1961 and the leadership in the Air Force said that okay we're going to spend six months just doing nothing but training, shaking the bugs out of those little airplanes before we actually use them in VIP service. However, along about early December when the Vice President heard that they were available over there, even though the six months hadn't expired yet, we began to hear rumbles that he wanted to use one of those airplanes. Because it turned out a mission came in on the fourth day of December 1961 for him to be picked up at National Airport, flown to Chicago and then flown to his ranch at Stonewall, Texas on one of these jet stars. And so guess who got the trip? James U Cross ended up taking the trip and of course at that point in time I'd never seen the man, didn't know him, didn't know anything about him, all I knew about him was his reputation. I went with some misgivings of course because of what I'd learned from my sponsor back oh September I guess of 1958. Anyway the mission went okay with the exception of the fact that once we got airborne the weather was bad and the Vice President in those years did not get the kind of priority that the President always got as far as air traffic control was concerned. So we got over Chicago and we had to hold for about 20 minutes. Consequently he sent word up front to the cockpit that what's the hold up, what the hell's going on up there so I sent word back that we were holding on account of the weather and we finally were permitted to go on into Chicago and when it got off the airplane I was a major at the time in the United States Air Force. He said major? I don't like to be late. He said now let's don't let this happen again and all I could say was yes sir. Well when we departed from Chicago about two hours later he had a speech over there. We departed from Chicago and went on into his ranch and again the weather was terrible, it was turbulent and I thought oh boy cross you're in for some real trouble here and you may even end up having to leave the Air Force as a result of this because I was worried about him you know with his reputation. Well we got on the ground at his ranch at LBJ and he said well he got off and he stretched like this you know and stood on the top steps of this little airplane. He said major that was a nice trip I thought oh boy anyway he said I want you to come back and pick me up Sunday. I've forgotten exactly what day this was but he said I want you to come back and pick me up Sunday and of course the pilots in that unit up there never had any say so about what trips they flew or anything like that. The only airplane that ever had its own pilot was the President's airplane normally called Air Force One. It's only called Air Force One by the way when the President is aboard. But anyway I told him well yes sir we'll certainly be glad to send word that you want to be picked up on Sunday and I'll pass that along when I get back to Washington. Well the trip to pick him up on the following Sunday some other pilot took it which was fine with me because I thought at that point in time I'd had enough of this worry that I was concerned with at that point. Anyway the next time I saw him was early in January 1962 and lo and behold when I got there he said to me and said well where were you last about 14th or whatever day it was and December said I didn't see you. I said well no sir they had me on some other mission and I wasn't able to make it I'm sorry sir. Anyway the particular trip that I picked him up for on that January I believe that was January the 2nd of 1962 the mission came in and we always got a little card a little three by five card that told about who the passenger was what the phone numbers were what you were supposed to do generally speaking but you had to call him or in his case one of his assistants it turned out to be him and the mission was to go from Andrews Air Force Base pick him up in Texas and take him to Palm Beach Florida. He was to meet with the president who the president of course was having his cabinet members there as well as the leadership in the Congress and they were going to plot their strategy for the opening of the Congress which would be I think the 8th or 9th of January of that year. Well when I arrived there on the morning of appointed morning I believe it was the 4th of January I landed at Bergstrom Field and I picked up the phone and called the number it was an Austin number but it rang at the ranch and it was him he answered his own phone I said sir this is a major cross I'm here to take you to Palm Beach today per the instruction that I have from Air Force headquarters he said well I didn't hear you come in he said where are you I said well sir I'm at Bergstrom Field he said well hell I don't want to leave from Bergstrom Field I want to leave from my ranch out here and I said well that kind of flabbergasted me for a moment and I said well sir we don't have any jet fuel out there and we have to refuel the aircraft he said well send one of those trucks out from Bergstrom Field and come on out here and just refuel your jet out here and we can go and I said well sir that's one other problem I said the jet star requires about 6000 feet of runway to get airborne if we have enough fuel on board to go all the way nonstop to Palm Beach he said well hell major he said I don't know why it is that you Air Force people can always find some way to mess up my plans I said well sir we could come out there and do just that but we might have to stop halfway to Palm Beach before and pick up some more fuel before we could make it all the way he said well no I said what time do I have to leave Bergstrom then to be at Palm Beach at five minutes to four o'clock and I had already calculated flight plans two hours and 25 minutes and of course we'd lose an hour going from Bergstrom Field to the east coast eastern time zone I said well sir we need to leave at 12 30 Bergstrom time he said alright I'll be there well 12 30 came and went and no vice president 1245 came and went and no vice president and about that time one of the officers at the terminal there at Bergstrom came running out and said the vice president is on his radio patched into on his car radio patched into the telephone network he wants to talk to you so I hustled into the terminal there and got on the phone and of course you had to use yes sir this is major crossover he said major this is Lyndon Johnson he said what time do I have to leave Bergstrom Field to be at Palm Beach at about five minutes to four and of course I said well mr. vice president we really should have left sir at 12 30 he said oh major you've got me in a hell of a dither said I have to be there at five minutes to four because the plane from Washington is coming in at four o'clock president's going to be out there to meet it and I want to be on the ground there before the president drives up in his own car and also before the plane arrives from Washington I said well sir where are you right now I'm just trying to buy some time and he said well I'm in Oak Hill right now which is west of Austin there about 10 or 15 miles he said I'm driving 90 miles an hour on highway to 90 and I thought to myself oh boy it's going to be another 20 minutes before he gets here so we concluded our conversation hung up and I walked ejectedly back out to the aircraft and about that time up come this Lincoln convertible roaring up top was up of course because cold weather and he was alone in it didn't have a secret service for anybody with him and he said let's go he jumped out of the car and I think Earl Deeth one of his associates at the radio station TV station he had and Austin was out there and Earl was going to grab the car and get it out of the way and we ran to the plane in the meantime I had Captain Thornhill who was my co-pilot to start the two right side engines on this little jet and by the time I got in the airplane and buckle my seat belt engineer closed the door and so forth we had clearance to taxi and the tower told us that the wind was out of the north at 35 miles an hour so consequently we had to take off to the north well the terminal was at the north end of the runway and it was nearly three miles down a long taxi way for me down a long taxiway that was parallel to the runway well we roared south on the on the taxiway and I pushed the throttles all the way to the tops thinking try to save some time and the tower called and said Air Force to you're not taking off on that taxiway are you well we were doing 110 knots taxing south on the taxiway we said no we're not we're just in a hurry to get to where we can take off well we turned back north on the runway of course and they cleared his immediate takeoff and I told Colonel he later became a Colonel I told Captain Thornhill I said let's call Houston Center which was the air traffic control facility for the area and I said tell them that instead of the flat planet we'd file which was to go directly to Baton Rouge Louisiana direct to Pensacola Florida direct to Orlando direct to Palm Beach let's change that go direct Houston direct Tampa Florida over the Gulf and direct to Palm Beach maybe we can pick up some time now we weren't supposed to fly across the Gulf because we didn't have over water equipment Air Force said that's a no-no but I thought well I'm a dead duck anyway so go ahead and change the flight plan which we did and we kicked we kicked the airplane to full throttle and we left it at full throttle all the way and we flew right on the red line speed which was about 60 knots faster than the regular cruise speed of the aircraft and we pulled in there exactly five minutes to four but he got off the plane he said I told you you could make it didn't I so that was the really the second encounter and the encounter I suppose that he decided that well maybe Cross is a can-do man and later that night I learned this the following day later that night he apparently spoke to Secretary McNamara Robert McNamara who was Secretary of Defense and he told McNamara said that fellow that's flying my airplane said I want you to point him assigned him to me permanently well the following afternoon we were to remain overnight the following afternoon he came back about three o'clock we were to go back to the ranch we could land at the ranch all right but we couldn't take off with a full load of fuel we go back to the ranch and drop him off anyway he drove up in his limousine the back seat and Air Force 1 the President's aircraft was parked 50 yards or so ahead of us and he headed for it because there's always a White House telephone at the nose of that aircraft and apparently he wanted to use the phone but as he drove by our craft here he stuck his head out the window and waved for me to come on I was standing by the nose of the aircraft so I walked up trotted over time I got over there he was on the phone talking to somebody and I stood back a appropriate distance you know and when he got off the phone McNamara drove up about that time and the President walked over and him and Mack he and McNamara were talking and he said by the way Bob this is the Air Force man I told you about last night well McNamara mumbled something you know and shook hands with me and the first time I'd ever met him as well and then he went and got on the White House telephone to talk to someone in Washington I suppose and then the President came or the Vice President I should say came up to me and he took me by the lapels of my coat of course he stood three four inches taller than me got right down to my face as he often did with a lot of folks that he dealt with when he wanted to get really personal and he said to me said Major I don't know whether you're going to appreciate this or not but said I told Secretary McNamara last night that I wanted you to be my regular pilot all the time and I want this airplane to be redone to my specifications and I want you to take care of it. I was completely shocked you know had no idea that something like this was about to happen but that is the beginning of my association with Lyndon Johnson right there and then of course over the next two or three years we had all kinds of adventures. One in particular I think might be of interest to folks if they ever choose to look at this video in 50 years from now. A mission came in and of course I was called directly in this case because I'd already been appointed to be his regular pilot. A mission came in to go from Washington to Grand Turk Island to pick up astronaut Colonel John Glenn who had just splashed back down into the South Atlantic and of course I think it's fairly well known fact that President Kennedy had appointed Vice President Johnson as the Chairman of the Space Council and apparently in the discussions about Glenn's coming back from his world famous orbital three orbital flight around the earth Johnson wanted to be sure and go down and make that pick up bring Glenn back to Cape Canaveral where Kennedy would be at Cape Canaveral and there would be a grand welcome for Glenn and so I was instructed to start making plans for the mission and find out how long it would take to get there and what time we should leave to be there at seven o'clock on the morning I believe of February the 23rd 1962. So I did and I phoned that back to Colonel Howard Burris who was the Air Force aid at that time to Vice President Johnson and then Vice President Johnson himself called me and we went over all the details how the weather was going to be this was a day or so before the actual mission and the weather was forecast to be good and it's going to take almost four hours to make the trip down there non-stop and this little jet star here. Anyway just oh four hours or so before the mission was to go I had been in my office at Andrews and I checked the weather and made all the last minute checks and I went home to enjoy dinner with my family we're going to have to leave around three or four o'clock in the morning in order to make a 7 a.m. arrival at Grand Turk Island which is in the Caribbean down there to pick him up and bring him back to eight o'clock departure and get him back to Cape Canaveral about nine o'clock in the morning. Well I checked the weather and it was supposed to be all right and I got home and I had my dinner and I was sitting around with my family and thinking about going to bed about nine o'clock in the evening and for a wake up around three around two I guess and the co-pilot at that time was a major lintine who was the operations officer of the squadron at that time called me and he says say Jim have you checked the weather lately and I said well yes sir I checked it just for a laugh and I said it's supposed to be clear all the way he said well look out the window well I run to the window and looked out and literally I could not see across the backyard he said you'd better call the vice president or his aide or somebody just tell them that the weather is zero zero at Andrews and all over the east coast and you're not gonna be able to make that trip I said well I guess I will so I called and his telephone by the way was listed in the Washington phone director the vice president lived at the Elms that was the name of his residence and so I called got looked up his phone number at home called him and I told him that the weather had really gone sour and he said oh lord major we're gonna have to go we're gonna have to go he said how's it what's the forecast I said well sir it's forecast to be this way all night and extends all the way to Atlanta Georgia it's zero zero and fog and low clouds he's well a may general a may who was chief of staff of the Air Force at that time has always told me that the Air Force can fly in any kind of weather anytime anywhere in the world and he said now by gosh I want to be sure that we make this trip the president wants me to make it we have to do it it's a world event and he said you call general a may and you just tell him that we have to make this and I'm a major in the Air Force and the major does not call the chief of staff of the Air Force a four-star general so what I did I called my commanding officer who was a Colonel Tim Ireland out at Andrews and I told him that I'd been instructed by the vice-president to call general a may and get permission to to make this takeoff and Colonel iron says hell no you can't do that you can't do that so I called Colonel Burris then who was the aide to the vice-president I told Burris he said well you better call general a may so I gutted it up and I called general a may I called through the Air Force command post in the Pentagon asked them to patch me through to the general told him who I was and why I was calling they patched me right through to his home he asked a few questions and said can you do it I said well yes sir we practice this sort of thing all the time under the hood and then the flight simulator and I said in in some conditions of wartime World War two I've actually made zero zero takeoffs and much lesser airplanes than the one we'll be flying tonight he said well said go go do it I said well sir my commander out at Andrews says that we cannot do it he said don't you worry about that I'll call and get that straightened out so anyway apparently the Air Force command post or the general called Colonel Ireland and said hey we're going and then I called back to talk to the vice-president I told him that we'd been approved for a goal he said what do you think we ought to get off right away by this time it was almost midnight on that only that would have been the 22nd and I said well sir it doesn't make any difference it looks like it's gonna be this way all night so we might as well just go whenever you're ready I said it will probably take you an hour hour and a half to get here from your residence to Andrews he's well said well I'll get ready and we'll come on out there so you go get ready and I went on out to the base and got the airplane ready and Colonel Ireland in the meantime was pretty sore about the deal but he finally decided that it had to had to happen and he ended up getting one of the follow-me vehicles with a big light on the back that says follow me and he led us to the runway when we finally got cranked up and got the vice-president board and we lined up on the runway couldn't see anything but just a couple of the runway lights but we had very good instruments and very good gyro compasses we got that all set got our clearance for takeoff and launched into the darkness that evening and we topped out on top of that thing and left in a minute about 3,000 feet we flew all the way down to Grand Turk we took off a little bit early by the way we flew all the way down to Grand Turk him asleep all the way as soon as you got on board the airplane he took off his clothes got into his pajamas and laid down on the couch and went sent him to sleep but once we got there we had had had some problems getting fuel down there because it was such a small airstrip we had sent in a KC-97 which was a Air Force tanker type plane that did air refuelings of the bombers and the fighters and so forth well that was the only way we get fuel in there and what we did we ended up asking them to put a long hose so that when they dropped their boom to start flowing fuel we clamped the hose onto their boom and then put a nozzle so that we could put it in the tank of the jet star there anyway when we got airborne coming back to Cape Canaveral of course John Glenn was in a festive mood and Chris Kraft was aboard and I believe James Webb who was the director of NASA at that time and of course the Vice President and we headed back to Cape Canaveral and John Glenn came up in the cockpit and of course we were quite anxious to visit with him and talk with him and of course him being a pilot and us being pilots a number of years all we wanted to do was find out what what sort of thrill it was to be in space and the weightlessness and so forth and he said boy I'm a main liner when it comes to weightlessness and then just as he got ready to go back to the cockpit he chuckled and he said say by the way I want you to know that I've had the most wonderful experience on your airplane I said how's that to Colonel Glenn he said well but four or five days before the launch he said we were puckered up pretty good and I said once we got on board your airplane after coming back said in the restroom back there I left you a little souvenir we made it back into Cape Canaveral about ten o'clock I believe and the president of course met John Glenn and our mission at that point was over we would take just a little bit of break June for the retirement of the guy that was flying Air Force One and they installed a new guy whose his name is Mark Tillman I went for that I also went for a preview of a film that they made about Air Force One our association continued all through 1962 and 1963 with the vice president we traveled actually over those roughly two years and then on into the presidency for about three years we traveled in this little airplane right here 132,000 nautical miles with him aboard and he really liked that little airplane by the way one particular time that he was still the vice president and we were still trying to get our sea legs so to speak with him as we didn't really know him all that well and we were from time to time wondering if we would survive because we'd get ourselves chewed out pretty regularly but one time we had landed at his LBJ Ranch and we had a bunch of people on board the plane with him Sarah MacLendon who was the Gadfly reporter from the Fort Worth Star Telegram I believe was one Mrs. Johnson A.W. Morrison judge A.W. Morrison and his wife had come in with us and I believe we'd come from Washington anyway he said to me said cross said why don't you and your co-pilot Captain Thornhill come on and ride with us out to the Haywood Place which was one of his ranches on Lake LBJ I believe they called it Granite Shoals at the time but it was later named Lake LBJ and said we'll have some barbecue and dinner out there well that's really thrilled us you know because here we were dining with the vice president of the United States and we were just small fry in the United States Air Force anyway we got out there and we went in a caravan Rufus Youngblood was the secret service man for the vice president at that time Jesse Kellam who was his station manager at KLBJ TV and radio station here in Austin and Sarah Yolanda Boozer one of his secretaries was along I think Marie Famer another secretary was along that evening and when we got there we were going down this long gravel road into the ranch itself off of US Highway 71 which led up to Guano, Texas we took the couple of miles of gravel road that went into the ranch down to the lake front on the way in there was a great big rattlesnake across the road in front of us and vice president stopped the car and yelled at Rufus Youngblood come up here Rufus and shoot this snake well the snake had crawled over the pile of prickly pear right beside the road and I remember vividly Rufus took two three shots at the snake the vice president said Rufus can't you hit that let me shoot that snake Rufus finally shot the snake and we started to leave and the vice president said no pick him up put him on the hood of this car so Rufus are one of the other folks there picked up the rattlesnake and put him up on the hood of the car and we drove on down to the ranch and I don't believe Sarah was along at that point which he came later anyway the president had told Rufus now you take that snake and save it because I'm going to play a trick on Sarah McLendon so he did he put it off out there beside of a trail that went from the house down to the waterfront where the boat dock was and then the vice president and some of his guests not we Air Force folk we stayed at the house but some of the guests went down and got on the speedboat they rode around on the lake well just about dark almost not quiet but just about dark and when they came back Rufus was to have left that snake right beside the trail and vice president walking along there with Sarah and he got real close he knew where it was and he got real close he said Sarah look at that snake is going to bite you and Sarah just had a conniption fit about that point and the vice president had a great laugh out of it and Sarah couldn't get over for the rest of the evening but she kept talking about it anyway we went over back up there they came back and joined the rest of us already out on a patio there I believe this was in September so it was warm that evening and we were sitting on the patio and they brought out the barbecue and the plates and so forth and we were all sitting around enjoying a good meal enjoying the company he was in a rare festive mood that night a kid and everybody and finally got around I had talked to him a day or two before that about his cattle that had been left to roam on that runway out there at the ranch when there was nothing coming in they would they would run them off the runway when we were due to come in or any other planes were due to come in otherwise the cattle roamed on the runway and ate the grass along the sides of the runway and when they had to do their thing of course they didn't care where they were it might be on the middle of the runway or whatnot and so they would let fly with scat right in the runway and that acid I suppose it's acid that forms in those piles was eaten holes in the runway and I had told him about this and that they should leave those cattle off the runway or patch the holes or something because we might come in in this very hard tired little airplane and crunched through the runway and have some sort of an accident well he took that particular occasion that night to tell Jesse Kellam he said Jesse excuse me he said Jesse the major tells me that your cows are crapping on his runway out there and tearing it up now by God you just get those cows off of his runway and so I thought that was rather amusing that he would take that kind of a approach to getting those cows off of my runway obviously it wasn't my runway after dinner we all loaded up in the cars and got ready to go back and the president with the vice president I keep saying the president because I remember him more lately as a president anyway the vice president was driving his own car Lincoln convertible and Judge A.W. Marston a local judge in Johnson City out there and a very good friend of the president was in the front seat with him and Paul Thornhill Captain Thornhill and I were in the back seat and we were the lead vehicle in the convoy of half a dozen vehicle sorts and so once the four of us got into the car well he just took right off and the others were still loading up we went over a little rise and he got on his radio he always had radios in all of his cars got on his radio and he says Rufus you hold up everybody back there now just for a minute or so said me and the judge are going to stop here just over the hill and we're going to check out the plumbing here so I thought that was rather amusing and again I'm still learning about the president's personality and his humorous side of him and in fact the very demanding side of him as well and so that was an early lesson in something LBJ something about LBJ it would take another second or two and let me have a sip of water please long about mid-1963 and my association with Vice President Johnson we were supposed to pick him up in Idlewild Airport in New York later I understand name renamed to JFK Airport and we were to pick him up at 3 a.m. in the morning got there about one o'clock in the morning and he showed up right on the money at 3 o'clock we started again we're in this small jet-store airplane here and we tried to start the engines and the number four engine wouldn't start had a bad starter well he was hard to get along with shall I say and he didn't know why the hell it was that the Air Force could always figure out some way to shortchange his plans and I assured him that we'd do our best to get another airplane and which we did we finally called back to Washington and sent us another airplane we left that one up there for them to change the starter on it and we took off for for Texas landing at his ranch at about we finally got off at 6 o'clock in the morning we landed at his ranch at about 9 there about somewhere in that range and he told us now you stay here at the LBJ Ranch because I want you to go with me tonight and we didn't know where we were going that night but anyway we hung around the airplane there on the ramp at the ranch and we had no sleep of course we've been up all night and at about 5 o'clock he came out got in his car and he drove by the hangar out out there at the ranch at Stonewall and said you boys come on so we got in the car with him is Johnson and just the two of us Paul and Paul Thornhill and I and we went down to the rodeo grounds at Johnson City he was we found out when we got there to give a talk to the graduating class or some kind of a class well it had to have been a graduating class because I believe it was late May of 1963 and here we are sitting up in the stands you know and thinking boy this is really great we're invited by the vice president of the United States to attend one of his speeches and get a front row seat Lord Behold when he got to talking he was introduced and began his talk he said well he said you know I graduated right here in this school some number of years ago and I've forgotten exactly what he said from high school and it's a wonderful thing and he said and we were going to make this speech tonight in spite of all hell said the Air Force and these two young men sitting here that flew my plane tried their best to keep me away from here tonight but I insisted and we made it anyway so I felt about this tall of course but that was his way and I think that it's a well-known fact that he would try to do things like that and make his points not only to us but to show what sort of a control he had over over various things in his life and over the various people that served him so that was another interesting thing that happened sometime later well no I believe it had been a little earlier matter of fact I know it was it was in November 1962 the jet stars were grounded for some mechanical defects and and he had to go to New York to Mrs. Roosevelt's funeral I believe that was in November 1963 and I was no longer current to fly the the Convary and so didn't expect you know that I'd be invited but anyway he called me and he says now cross he said I've got to go to Mrs. Roosevelt's funeral but said the president's going to be going to that funeral and he's going to be landing at some place up there and I don't want to land my plane anywhere around where the president is because when the funeral's over I've got to get back to Washington said I'm giving a reception for Bob Novak and I forget the lady's name that he was going to marry Geraldine something or other at my home at the Elms tonight and I have to get back now I don't want to be delayed by the president any said now you work it out with the FAA and you find an airport that'll be close enough that we can get over to Hyde Park and make the funeral but then when I come back from the funeral I want to get on the airplane and absolutely don't want to be delayed at all by the president who's going to be wanting to come back to Washington as well so I worked it out tried to anyway with the FAA and we landed at Poughkeepsie Airport I was not the pilot but he wanted me to be along and he had another aide an Army guy named William Bill Jackson a colonel an Army colonel and Colonel Jackson was along of course and the usual staff that the president or vice president always carried with him I think you'll lend the boozer was along and two or three others we went up on a conveyor and I'm just riding along I had been qualified to fly the conveyor but it wasn't at this point so I was just along a sort of as a aide without portfolio if you will we got there and the weather was kind of bad but anyway they went on he went on to the funeral for Mrs. Roosevelt and came back about four o'clock and lo and behold the weather had gone kind of sour which meant that the FAA folks had a little bit of a problem controlling all the traffic in the area and we heard over the radio that the all traffic was being held for the president's departure and Colonel Jackson was really catching lots of heck back there in the back of the airplane from the vice president and I guess he stood it about all he could and he come running up to the front I was in the front with the pilots not in the seat of course but up there with them and he come running up says you better come back here and talk to the vice president said he is madder than a hornet so I went back and tried to console him a little bit and he wasn't to be consoled he said God damn it he said you told me that you had it all worked out we could land over here at Prokipsy and we could take off and I said well yes sir I did and that's the way it was supposed to be but I said something has come up that doesn't permit us to get off like we'd hoped to and he said get out here he was sitting in his chair and he made me squat down right beside his chair in the back sort of the captain's chair if you will in the back state room and he held on to this arm or this arm I'm sorry and I hear I'm squatting and a fellow you know that squats for five minutes or so his legs get to go to sleep and that's about what happened to me my legs began to go to sleep and I was really in pain and he was chewing me out telling me that he didn't know why in the world that I couldn't get things done and just over and over and over well finally he softened up a little bit and he said you know he said in the mean time we're getting ready to go I could feel us taxiing and getting on to the runway and I thought well he'd turn me loose and I'd be able to go back and sit in and put on the seatbelt but he didn't he said you know he said I don't know why in the hell I ever took the job as vice president anyway said the vice president nobody loves him I don't get any priority never do get to do what I want to do so I think when I get out of this term I'm gonna go back to Texas and just retire said miss Johnson got plenty of money and I got plenty of money and my two girls have got a million dollars a piece says I don't know why the hell nobody likes me anyway so I'm just going home to Texas and about that time we took off and I fell from the thrust of the airplane I fell beside the vice president's chair and I thought that was an interesting little item in our long relationship of some 11 years beginning in 1961 and ending when he died in 1973. Another interesting period of time came after President Kennedy was assassinated. Actually a couple of days before the assassination we had been traveling a good bit in this little jet star right here all over the country and I think we've been gone about 10 days and we arrived back at his ranch on the early early morning Wednesday which would have been the 20th of November 1963. He got off the airplane and he said cross you look tired. I said well yes sir. He said well why don't you go back over to Berksham tonight and spend the night spend the rest of the night and said you might as well go back to Washington tomorrow and be with your family and I thought that was a nice gesture to him thinking my family and after we've been gone for about 10 days. He said the president will be coming in Thursday to San Antonio and he'll be on number 26,000 which is this airplane the big airplane over here. He said he'll also have a backup 707. He said what I'll do is I'll take my private plane he had his own private plane at that time I believe was the Queen Air and his own private pilot. He said I'll take my private plane and fly down to San Antonio meet with the president and then when we leave from San Antonio to go to Houston said I'll take the backup plane that the president has with him and go from San Antonio to Houston from Houston to Fort Worth Fort Worth to Dallas and then I'll come on back home on the backup plane to Washington after all the Dallas function is over. He said so you spend the night at Berksham get you some rest when you get up tomorrow give me a call because I might want you to take something back or call somebody or do something for me and I said all right sir and so we left went back to Berksham spent the night with the rest of the night got up about noon the following or that morning really and I got ready to go back to Washington and picked the phone to call him and I said Mr. Vice President sir you told me last night to call you before we started back to Washington I'm ready to go and is there anything you want me to do for you and he said no matter fact there's not a thing don't have anybody to go back and said I'll see you next Monday and I said all right sir and I started to say goodbye and he said God bless you and so we did we hung up and I went on back to Washington and then of course on succeeding second day which would have been the 22nd the president was tragically assassinated and things changed dramatically at that point certainly for me because things had been rather informal in my association with the vice president the security wasn't nearly as important or it didn't seem to be there wasn't a palace guard so to speak surrounding him all the time and all of a sudden he's he's totally unreachable as far as my own associated association with him was concerned and I had no idea what was going to transpire with my life at that point in time with the president with the new president that is some days later I'm going to guess it might have been two weeks he called me which I was pleased of course to hear from him having been with him for a couple of years at that point and he said cross I want you to go and learn to fly that big jet that the president uses and said I also want to keep my jet star because that's the only thing we get in out of that range with and I like the jet star when I don't want anybody along with me other than just the minimum staff and the minimum Secret Service and said we'll use the jet star a lot too he said I've told Secretary McNamara and the Air Force authorities that I want you to go to school and get qualified in the big jet which I did took about four or five months and then I started to fly with Colonel Jim Swindle who had been the pilot for President Kennedy and I flew with Colonel Swindle about a year and a half I guess we did all of the campaign in 1964 and it was a difficult task because it was difficult for him simply because he had so many stops to make and so many hands to shake and so many speeches to give that he was even more horse than I am today for all of his speeches but anyway we traveled all over the country during that period of time we did not make any overseas trips that I recall but in June of 1965 he called me one night at about midnight and I'm still a major in the Air Force by the way and Colonel Swindle was a full Colonel but unfortunately for the Colonel and for me as well the Vice President I'm sorry I said the Vice President now we're into the presidency the President I think never understood or if he did he didn't care about rank and that sort of thing in the military and he would often tell me to tell a general or tell that Colonel that I want this and this and so forth done and so it kind of put me on the spot being a major and having to call generals and colonels and tell them that he didn't like what was happening as a matter of fact let me go back just a minute right after he became the president there was a lot of activity going on out at the ranch to put in communication systems that had not been available to him as Vice President they were making all sorts of safety precautions for his life secret service making a lot of changes out there and I was of course out there every time he was at the ranch with this jet star that's what he wanted me he had told me that I want you out here all the time still a major so one of his aides General McHugh I believe his name was he was an Air Force Brigadier General Godfrey T. McHugh that was his name flew in there one day when we were at the ranch he was and I was of course out there and General McHugh came in on a T-39 Saberliner which was a little Air Force 2 engine jet sort of a passenger plane and General McHugh as I understand it had never been through pilot training but some way or another he'd got a pilot's rating and I always thought and everybody that knew the general told me he was minimally qualified as a pilot nonetheless he came in there with an instructor one day at the ranch and when he taxied in he taxied off the runway and buried that T-39 in the mud out there I mean plumb up to the wings it was just laying on the wings well the president came out there and saw it so what the hell is that asked me and I said well Mr. President that's General McHugh's airplane he taxied it off in the mud out there and we're trying to get somebody out from Berksham Field with some airbags and whatnot to float it out of the mud and get it righted so that he can leave he's well you get rid of him you just fire him by God tell that Air Force or somebody that I don't ever want to see him out here again well again here I was in a position of just being a major and having to talk to a general so I chose not to take him to heart exactly what he said but I did tell the general that it was going to take at least 12-14 hours to get that thing out of the mud and that there was a jet star that was at the ranch it would be going back to Washington and he could take the jet star and ride back on it the following day we'd get another pilot down to fly the T-39 out once we found it to be airworthy I say this about what the president said more or less to point out that he really didn't care about rank he didn't care who got hurt in a situation like that and I found myself in that position many many times over the next two or three years in my association with him can we take another break so I can get a sip of water please another interesting thing came about and I believe I started to talk about this a minute ago and then I thought of something else he called me one night about midnight and I think it was in June of 1965 and I think he was sort of in his chips you know they were having a function at the White House and the function was to entertain Jim McDivitt and Ed White who had made the orbit of flight I don't remember how many orbits they made but Ed White had been the first man to walk in space and the Paris Air Show was taking place right at that time Soviet Union had sent over a huge huge jet transport the largest one in the world at that time and they were getting all the attention at the Paris Air Show and the president I suppose maybe at the party that night decided that hey the thing to do is let's send our two astronauts over to the Paris Air Show and maybe we can overshadow the attention that the Russians were getting on on their big transport plane anyway he called me and I could tell they were partying at the White House because a lot of noise and it sounded to me like he might have been sort of overly festive maybe had a couple of drinks and he said cross I want you to find Hubert Humphrey said I don't worry as he's traveling somewhere in New York I think and of course our command post was able to track all of our planes and Humphrey would have been on one of these jet stars in fact was on one of the jet stars and he said you get him back here and said I'm going to send Jim McDivitt and his wife and Ed White and his wife out there and I want you to take my airplane and fly to Liborje Airport in Paris and attend the Air Show so he said I want you to leave about 1 a.m. well first of all this was about midnight and he oversimplified things a lot of times and in this case it took us to I think maybe seven o'clock in the morning to locate and get Hubert Humphrey back to Washington with his wife and get them aboard the airplane in the meantime we got McDivitt and his wife and Ed White and his wife and they came on out and we put them aboard the airplane and actually let them lay down we had some bunks on the airplane let them lay down and rest a little bit and we got off about 7 a.m. in the morning and flew to the Paris Air Show with Humphrey and those two astronauts and it made the news worldwide and really accomplished what the new president wanted to do shortly after that I believe it would have been around the 10th of July in that year the word came out that General Chester Clifton who was the Army aide to President Kennedy and had stayed on for a year and a half there with the Johnson administration was going to retire and there was a lot of speculation in the Pentagon as to who was going to be the new aide to the president and certainly I'm I'm still a major in the Air Force been a major for four years at that point in time had no idea whatsoever that he would even consider me to take that position and he never said anything to me about it never knew a thing about it on the 10th of July it was announced that I was going to be the new armed forces aide to replace Major General Chester Clifton now this was a real bombshell here I am a major and I'm going to be a lieutenant colonel on the 15th of that month but I'm a major on the date it was announced replacing a major general and so the Pentagon I think probably did a slow roll and everybody in the Air Force was aghast that something like this was going to happen to Piney Woods boy from South Alabama and not the least of of those doomsayers was me I had no idea that he was going to do it he never asked me about it I can say that I don't think I even knew how to spell military aid at that point in time but anyway the first thing he said to me two three days later when he finally talked to me about it he said across he said you got to damn this mess over there in that military office that I've ever seen there's two thousand people that work over there and says I don't know who they are I don't know what they do other than the fact that every afternoon about four o'clock they start drinking martinis and taking off for all the embassy parties around Washington and telling stories about how they work for the president and giving press conferences and that sort of thing said now I don't want you to piss anybody off I don't want you to fire anybody but I want you to get rid of half your people as soon as you get over there in your office in the White House in the East Wing and he said if you can't do the job I'm going to give you six months and if you can't do the job I'll find somebody that can so that was my charter as the new director of the military office of the White House only as in a parting shot he said by the way I want you to still fly both my airplanes so that was my initiation into the White House in July 1965 over the ensuing years over there every day was something new I using a metaphor I suppose about fighter pilots and how they end up in firefights with opposing aircraft they talk to one another on the radio they always have a wingman and a wingman is supposed to protect the leader and the wingman if he sees somebody on the leader's tail a bogey he says you got a bogey on your six o'clock well in my case I will use that metaphor and say that my six o'clock got dusted pretty regularly by the vice or the president at that point in time because of some particularly that he didn't like what was happening and I stood in the way of a lot of those and I'm sure that most of the president's personal aides at one time or another got their six o'clock dusted as well can I take another sip of water please one of the most interesting stories I think that I could tell about the president that would typify his personality and Prime Minister Harold Holt of Australia was drowned in a swimming accident right around middle of December I believe in 1967 and prior to the drowning the president and his family and of course I had been at the ranch for the Thanksgiving holidays and we'd been done or I think about maybe 10 days as I recall and prior to the time that we came back to Washington I had visited with the president and told him that this large airplane here number 26,000 the primary presidential aircraft was overdue for its biennial inspection by about three months we'd had so much going on in that period of time that we simply couldn't take it out of service to send it for its overhaul inspection our facility that did the overhaul was in New York at Idlewild or JFK Airport the Lockheed Air Service Company did the work on all the planes on the contract and I had told him it was overdue and that if he didn't think that he'd be needing that aircraft over the next couple of months it really ought to go in for its overhaul he said well yes and we're going to stick around pretty close to Washington now we may want to come home for Christmas but said we can take one of the backup airplanes or take the jet star depending on how many people we're going to have down for Christmas he said you go ahead and send it well to protect myself I wrote him a little short memorandum a day or two later and I said to him per our conversation Mr. President your airplane your number one airplane is overdue for going into overhaul and I would like to confirm with you that it's okay to send it and I put a little note at the bottom see me yes no you know the usual thing that we always did those of us that was on his staff to get his approval or disapproval it came back approved came back to my office next day I guess approved so I sent one of my other pilots to take it to New York and promptly forgot about worrying about that had plenty of other problems to worry about and when Prime Minister Holt had his accident and perished over there in the swimming accident the word came through on the teletype and I had a teletype in my office so I got the word pretty quick he called me and he said have you seen the news about the Prime Minister Holt and I said yes or I have he said well you need to get my big airplane ready to go and he said we'll need to leave probably tomorrow to go to the funeral and I reminded him at that point that his big airplane the number one we had a backup of course a 707 but it wasn't near as comfortable it didn't have the long legs or long range that this big airplane had it was a 707 but just a shorter version I reminded him that we had sent the airplane to New York to be overhauled and he said well that's all right said just call him up and tell him you be up there to get it this afternoon I said well no sir I had been up there four or five days before and I'd seen the airplane scattered pretty well across the hangar the interior was pretty well gutted out of it and some of the control surfaces were off the landing gears were off and there's no way in the world it could be flown out and I told him this I said well it's pretty well dismantled Mr. President we're just gonna have to take one of the backup planes he said well no said you just call him up and tell him put it back together you'll be up tomorrow and get it well I finally convinced him that there was no way that we could do that he grumbled about it and said well he used this term on me a lot of times he said I don't know why the hell it is that your Air Force people can always figure out something to screw up my plans so I just sort of chuckled about that I'd had it so many times it really didn't bother me anymore and I knew it was probably in in the way of good-natured needling me anyway so he said well get one of those backup airplanes fixed out there for me said put one of my good beds on it and put some soundproofing in it those those backup jets don't have enough soundproofing in them and said we're gonna be flying a lot and I'm gonna be needing to sleep so you better put some covers over the wonders so those little sliding wonders don't block out the light said you put some covers over the wonders so we can sleep on board while we're making the trip so we weave my maintenance officer out there Andrews I told him what we needed to do and they pretty well gutted one of the airplanes and we started rebuilding the inside of it put a kind of a curtain-dolph area for the president to have a wide shot and it took about two days to get the final word on when the memorial service they never did find Prime Minister Holt's body and it took a couple of days until we learned that the memorial service would be I believe on the 22nd of December any event we left Washington on the 19th had to make several fuel stops we stopped in California and then we stopped again and Honolulu stopped at American Samoa and then went on into Canberra we're gonna be there about 24 hours and just prior to the arrival at Canberra I was rather tired been up for 30 hours or so and I got up out of my seat and walked back through the cabinet stretch and the president had just gotten out of bed asked me what time we're gonna be there and I said well we'd be there in about 30 minutes of Mr. President we'd already started to let down a little bit and he said and I had I hadn't shaved you know I needed shaved and I guess my eyes were red bloodshot and he said well cross you look tired I said well yes or I'm a little tired he said well get you a hotel room and said I won't be needing you for about 24 hours when we get to Canberra well I don't know that he was aware or if he was it really didn't concern him that we always had advanced preparations made for not only his arrival at wherever we were going we had telephones and everything in place including hotel reservations for everybody and I always stayed just two three doors down from the president because of my association with him and being the military aide as well as his pilot because oftentimes he'd want to see me about something anyway he said well you get you a room and I won't need you for 24 hours and get you plenty of rest as we've got a real long haul ahead of a shit so I don't we're we're gonna be going back through Alaska or the Philippines or Japan and I had already talked to him about going to Rome but he didn't want anybody to know that we might go to Rome and he kept telling me now don't you go out and tell everybody in the world that we're might go to Rome and I said oh no sir he said oh yeah you'll tell everybody no sir I won't tell anybody anyway I went to my room which was just a few doors down from his and I had taken a bath and shaved and cleaned up and really dead sound asleep the phone rang white-ass phone I picked it up and I'd been in bed about an hour I guess he said where are you I said well sir I'm in my room I didn't tell him I sound asleep he said well come on over here I want to talk to you so I got up I had on a t-shirt clean t-shirt put on a pair of trousers and had some slippers and I slipped into my slippers and walked down the hall and of course Secret Service all near me and I went right on in got inside and George Christian was in there with him and Walt Rostow, Jack Valendi and Marvin Watson Marvin was the chief of staff and Valendi was a former special assistant now the motion picture director president motion picture association I believe and he'd come along on the trip by the way George was in there because he was a press secretary and Rostow was in there because of course he was an extra security advisor and they were talking about possibilities could we go to Vietnam and if we did could we leave from there and what time would we get to Rome he was still wanting to see the Pope so this went on for I guess 30 minutes back and forth back and forth and he still didn't say that for sure we were going to to go to Rome and when I finally left the room the conversation seemed to be pretty well over I left the room and in my mind I knew we were going to make Rome but he said now don't you go out of here and start telling everybody we might go to Rome said I don't think we're even going to go to Rome we're going to go to Thailand and I'm going to talk to some of the troops then we might go back to Vietnam and I'm talk to the troops again and and then we'll probably go back through Alaska and go home yes sir I won't tell us so well the press plane which was always commanded by a good friend fellow named Doug Moody Pan American pilot wanted to know what our next move was and I said Doug I don't know I said if we get airborne we're going to let you take off after we do and the press always like to take off after Air Force One because the press wanted to be on the ground in case we crashed on takeoff and of course we always let them pass us so they could land ahead of us wherever we were going and I said when we get airborne you just stay in radio contact with me and when I learn anything wherever we're going I'll let you know in the meantime just take a course out of we were leaving from Melbourne really at that point that's where the service was said you take a northwest course because I'm sure we're going to go to Thailand and I'll tell you where to land when I find out so we did we took off and we had to stop in Darwin Australia for fuel the jet that the press plane did not they had enough fuel to go all the way and we went into Korat Air Force Base and in the meantime I called the press plane and told them that's where to land and when we got there pandemonium rain supreme because they were running combat missions out of Korat Air Base with F-105s and we came in there with a big press plane a big 707 we had a back up plane and then of course the president's plane and all this commotion in the middle of the night landing in Korat Air Force Base we spent about four hours there and when we took off we were going to take back to the South East along the Cambodian coastline we couldn't go across Cambodia because they were a communistic non-friendly to us and we flew southeastward until we skirted the south tip of Cambodia then we turned and went over Saigon well just about the time we were to go over make our turn go back a little bit to the northeast towards Saigon and on the Cameron Bay where General Westmoreland had a number of troops out there to be reviewed by the president anyway Marvin Watson came into the cockpit and he said to me said have you got the medals and I said what medals you talking about Marvin I said I've got some purple hearts I knew that coming over in this part of the world we had probably go visit a hospital and the president might give some purple hearts as he walked through the hospital he said no he said he's going to give a distinguished service medals to all of the admirals and the generals that are over here commanding in this war and I said well nobody's told me about it he said well the president said that you knew about it I said no I sure don't he said well you better get some so fortunately I had two very good friends one was the chief of staff of General Westmoreland's Mack V headquarters a brigadier general Bill Nolton was his name and I thought well I'll call Bill Nolton and the other fellow that I had was a good friend over there been a squadron mate of mine as a matter of fact was Colonel Ernest Triplett he was the head of the military transport service base at Tonsanute Airport in Saigon so I called I told my radio man I said I don't care who wants to use the telephone for the radio telephone even the president you just tell him it's not working right the moment I said I want we had just two lines on board I want both lines right now to get in touch with Colonel Nolton or General Nolton and Colonel Triplett so he did he he wouldn't let anybody else use the telephones and I got Colonel Nolton and I told him what I needed he said you got it Jim we were good friends and he said you got it what'll I do with them when I package them up I said you take them to Colonel Ernest Triplett down at the Mack terminal he said I know Colonel Triplett so we'll take them down there and give them to him and in the meantime I'm going to talk to him and get him to commandeer the first airplane that's sitting on the ramp with the engines running and no matter where it's going it's it's new destinations Cameron Bay he said all right well all this worked out just fine and we got to metals and got them on the plane and redirected it to Cameron Bay and about that time we were going over Saigon and I thought well when we get to Cameron Bay that the president will of course want to get out and review the troops and he'll be wanting to make a speech and it'll probably take 30 minutes so by that time hopefully the metals will be here as it turned out they just barely got to Cameron Bay and a little Colonel fellow named Giannini ran up I had designated him to catch the plane and get the metals and the little box that was supposed to be marked with my name he ran up with the metals and Marvin Watson and I were standing at the foot of the steps at the platform sort of a homemade platform that had been put up out there for the president to address the press and the troops and whatnot president went up made his speech Marvin and I frantically frantically tearing open the boxes and I of course would run up with the metal when the president would read or I had another guy read the citations and have the president painted on and a run back down get another metal and we got them all done and I thought oh boy that really worked out to everybody's satisfaction hopefully and then he turned the president turned to the press and the crowd and Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker who was the United States ambassador to Vietnam at that time was sitting on the platform and he said and Ambassador Bunker it's my privilege and honor to present you with the Medal of Freedom and he looked down at me and Marvin at the foot of the steps and I had no idea who was in charge at the Medal of Freedom turns out I believe its Treasury Department handles it but I had no connection whatsoever with the Medal of Freedom were to get one or anything and and had no idea he was going to give the Medal of Freedom to anybody so when he turned and looked at me all I could do was this and he turned back to the crowd to the press and to Ambassador Bunker and he said well Mr. Ambassador said my military aid has failed me one more time so I thought well what could I do well the ceremonies were over about that time and the airplane was sitting over about 100 yards away ready to go and when he came down off the steps he said come on so I fell in like a good military man half a step to the rear to his left and he said what happened I said well sir not my way of making excuses but I said I had no idea you were going to be giving a medal of freedom and I said besides that I wouldn't know where to get one anyhow I don't know who handles it the military certainly doesn't handle it he looked at me with his little squinty eyes and he said well cross dog on it at least you could have handed me an empty box to give him so I just thought well one more one more six o'clock dusting and we went on from there we took off and went back over Saigon and headed for Pakistan that was our next destination we were going to land there for fuel and see iube con who was the president of Pakistan at that time and as we went across the Indian Ocean as we approached the coast of India we could see it out there ahead of us about 50 miles and then we received orders that we couldn't cross India that we had to land so I told Walt I said Walt you better get in touch with somebody we had diplomatic clearance but apparently somebody didn't get the word I said Walt you better get a hold of somebody and try to get us clearance to cross India because India and Pakistan was not too friendly at that time and I understand now they're even less friendly but in any event Walt got a hold of a fellow named Bromley Smith who was Secretary to the National Security Council in the White House. Bromley apparently got a hold of Mrs. Indira Gandhi who was the Prime Minister of India and just about the time we crossed the coastline Mrs. Gandhi called off the fighter planes that were going to escort us to land and we went on and landed in Pakistan visited with iube con from there we took off and the president still didn't want anybody to know we were going to Rome and so he told me now don't you let anybody know and so I filed a flight plan for Madrid Spain figuring that as we got in the vicinity of Rome that we would change our flight plan and whisk into Champino Airport which was the old civilian airport at Rome and we did we did just that I had already prior to the time I left Washington shipped cars and people and helicopters dismantled of course on board C-141 aircraft over to the general area they were at some little base in India I forgot the name of it but the weather was so bad that we couldn't get those helicopters put back together well anyway when we landed at Champino had no stairs to get off the airplane I sent Sergeant Joe Chapel who was my flight engineer off the plane on a rope and he commandeered a maintenance stand that was one of those old yellow painted things that they worked on engines with and we finally got the president off and we had no helicopters to move him from the plane to see the president of Italy and then on to see the pope of the Vatican so Marvin Watson and I got off the plane found out that there was a small rescue unit belonging to our United States Navy there that we're using reciprocating engine to World War two type helicopters and so we commandeered two of those helicopters to take the president over to see Sargat and then from there to to the Vatican to see the Pope in the meantime our planes had been reassembled I should say put the rotors back on them and whatnot and the weather cleared sufficiently that we could test fly them and by the time the president got ready to come back to the plane we were able to send our own helicopters and pick him up and bring him back to Champino Airport we took off from there headed out over the Atlantic and just as we passed over the stretch of Gibraltar headed for the Azores we didn't have sufficient fuel to make it all the way to Washington so we had to stop in the Azores where we have a base or we had a base over there at the time and just as we passed through the Straits president came into the cockpit Sargent Chapel said here comes the president everybody clear out so everybody cleared out of the cockpit except the left the jump seat open behind me president walked up and he said tap me on the shoulder and he said cross have you done your Christmas shopping yet I said no sir by the way this is Christmas Eve of 1967 about 3 a.m. in the morning 2 or 3 a.m. I said no sir I haven't he said well have we got a base where we're going to stop over here I said yes sir we got a lodges Air Force base in the Azores Islands he said well the president none of his guests have done a Christmas shopping either said you call up that commander over there and tell him that the president wants him to open up the PX tonight we're all going to do some Christmas shopping so I did I got on the radio phone and called the commanding officer he was a Brigadier General forgotten his name and told him that the president wanted the PX to be opened up and he said what I said well we want to open the PX so that the president can do his Christmas shopping so okay so they open the PX have no clerks or anything I guess they gathered together anybody that was warm body and put them down there as clerks and when we got there the president all of his party all of the crew except the engineer who had to stay and see the refueling process we all jumped on an old school bus and went down to the PX and shopped and then we took off of course it came on back to Washington have I got time for one more little story let me take a sip of water it should be obvious but people not thinking about it you might finish that up by saying good point in fact the matter is I'm trying to write a book right now and I believe I've got that very point in the book I'm ready actually when we arrived there at lodges and saw the military folk that were there of course for the arrival there were a lot of people there supporters of ground crews and that sort of thing we always had to have help with our airplane to refill it and so forth and in actual fact I suppose that this is the first time that a president of the United States has ever circumnavigated the globe the world in less than five days in an airplane and surprise the people at lodges in this particular case in fact we surprised a lot of people at a lot of places around the world on that epic journey and I venture to say that a president of the United States will never perform such a trip as that certainly in that length of time again it was truly an epic journey and yours truly is or was certainly honored to have been on the trip and had a hand in making it successful the president he was very pleased when he got back to Washington matter of fact he told me said well now you go home and rest enjoy Christmas with your family and we won't be going anywhere this year we're gonna stay at the White House that was Christmas Eve by the way I got home went to bed for a few hours my wife and I got up went to Marlowe Heights shopping mall and did some Christmas shopping ourselves and about four o'clock that afternoon the president called me and said we need to get the plane ready that we'd be going to the ranch or to Texas tomorrow the day after Christmas so he surprised me again I want to tell you one more story when he made his announcement that he wasn't going to run for president in the upcoming election 68 we knew everybody in the White House knew that there was going to be a major speech that particular night March the 31st I believe of 1968 and I was busy in my office there in the East Wing of the White House till about 8 o'clock but I knew that the speech would start at 9 and so I wound up my work and wanted to rush home so I could watch a speech on television and eat my supper and whatnot well I got home and I had a steak or something and I was sitting there watching the speech and as surprised as everyone I suppose when he announced that he wouldn't seek the nomination and wouldn't accept the nomination to run for president again I told my wife Marie I said honey I better hustle out of here in the morning pretty early because it's very likely that he may want to talk to me particularly noteworthy events oftentimes the next day he would always have something to say to me so I did I left the house about 6 30 which was a little ahead of the traffic got to the White House about 7 o'clock and sure enough he called me about 7 30 so where are you nice well I'm in office Mr. President said come on over here I want to talk to you so I said all right sir and I came I came upstairs I knew he was upstairs in the bedroom found him up there in the bed in his pajamas reading his night reading and reading the papers and so forth he said to me said well what did you think about my talk last night and I said well Mr. President whatever you want to do is certainly fine with me I said I'm with you all the way whatever you want to do he said well said what's going to happen to you once I'm no longer in the in the presidency to take care of you I said sir you don't have to worry about me thanks to you you've made me a full Colonel in the Air Force and the Air Force will certainly have something for me to do or I can retire because I had at that point in time I believe about 25 years of service he says oh no said how would you like to go down and be the commander at Bergstrom Air Force Base and I have told this story I suspect before and some of my friends Bob Hardesty among others may have heard it but anyway he said how would you like to go down and be commander at Bergstrom Air Force Base and I said well sir there's nothing I'd like any better than that as a matter of fact you don't know this but my father was the general superintendent of construction when Bergstrom was built in 1942 and as a matter of fact I worked there as a water boy I was 17 years old at that time as a water boy in the summer of 1942 before I went back to my home in Alabama to finish my final year in high school and be drafted into the Army Air Corps he said well said you know once I am no longer the president I'm not going to have a friend in the world and he said maybe if you're down there as a commander of that air base he said you'd let me use your hospital and your PX and your commissary I said oh yes sir I surely would if I were the commander he said well figure all going down there now because I've talked to General McConnell and McConnell was the chief of staff of the Air Force at that time and they tell me they're going to make you a general and I said well sir I certainly have you to thank for that I doubt seriously that the Air Force would have made me a general without your encouragement he said no no you deserve it and said I want you down there and said by the way when you when you get down there he said I want you to take one of these Convair airplanes that we've had refitted with the turbojet engine turbo prop engines on them he said you since you're going to be a general you'll need your own private plane for surveying your domain and I said well yes sir of course I knew that I didn't need a private airplane he said would you let me use it oh yes sir and he said you and you need to send a couple of those Huey helicopters like we've got down there San Antonio down there because you'll need a couple of those too you'll have things that you want to use them for and yes sir I will obviously it wasn't for me I was quite aware and he said while you're at it said be sure and put those nice soft interiors in it with the colors that Ms. Johnson likes I said oh yes sir we'll we'll take care of that and after giving me a few more instructions about things that he wanted me to do around the White House and within the last few days that I was going to be there I had a list about that long I suppose of things I always tried to take notes to so I wouldn't forget anything and he said well can you be out of here this week and I don't recall the date but it seems to me like that might have been the middle of the week and he wanted me out by Friday I said well no sir I can't quite be out by Friday I suspect that I'll have a little trouble selling my home over close to Andrews and I said I've got three children in school over there they won't be out till around the first of June he said we'll figure on leaving about the first of June and I said all right sir and that was the end of the conversation and just as I started to walk out the door he said oh by the way said General McConnell tells me that if you're going to be in command of that air base down there they've got some kind of fighter planes or something and said you need to go down here and train in those fighter planes and go to Vietnam and fly some combat before you come back because all your people are going to have been combat veterans and I said well yes sir I appreciate the opportunity to do that I've been wanting to go as a matter of fact I had tried I didn't remind him of this but I had tried earlier to get him to let me go over there if nothing more than on a visit to Kaysan where the Marines were under siege for a long time about the time of the Ted offensives and just to tell those four fellas that their president was behind them a hundred percent and that he was worried about them and that me being a direct representative as his military aide would perhaps tell them something about how much he cared but he wouldn't let me go and so I was tickled to death that I was finally going to get to go to Vietnam and fly some combat actually I did I went down and trained in the RF4s they were photo reconnaissance jets rather than fighters I took me about two months or so to get checked out in those and then I went to Vietnam and I flew 17 combat missions over there and was thrilled to have the opportunity to do it but I got over there and I was there maybe three months or something on that order and the word came that General Brown who was the commander wanted to see me he said that he'd been called in the middle of the night by the president and to get me the hell out there that they wanted me home so I came home just before Christmas of 1968 and took over as the wing commander at Berksome Air Force Base in February 1st of February 1969 and that was pretty much the years of my association with the president I considered it a huge honor privilege to have been there something I shall never forget after he became the former president the ex-president I stayed real close to him and every time he wanted something whatever it was I jumped drop whatever else I was doing to abide his wishes and the saddest day of my life I guess was when he died and as Johnson called me I by the way had maintained as the military aid and when I left Washington he made sure that I carried with me the funeral plan for his passing as the military aid I had plans for all of the ex-presidents that were still living and for him as well in his case he wanted me to take the funeral plan home with me or to Texas with me and over the months and years that he was the ex-president and I was both a civilian or as well as civilian I should say he would admonish me from time to time to keep that funeral plan handy you know cross I'm gonna pass on one of these days and we'd be riding around his ranch in in a Lincoln convertible or whatever often times when he'd invite me out there to talk about something we'd always stop at the cemetery and he'd remind me now cross I expect you to bury me right here next to his mother and the father they keep that funeral plan handy and you check it out from time to time with Ms. Johnson she needs to stay current on it I said you call Ms. Johnson well I'd call Ms. Johnson we'd talk about it but she didn't choose to ever let's pull it out and review it until the day that he died and I got a call from her that I should come with that and that was the end of my association with him although we're still very close to the family and thank God for that thank you