Well....actually, one of them was a vice president when I met him, George W. H. Bush, but he became the 41st president four years later. So why quibble over such minor things! At any rate, all of the meetings occurred more or less by chance, with the first one being the most "chancy" of all!
In the second week of November of 1963, on Monday the 11th, I finally left the Special Forces Training Group where I had been in training for the past 8 months or so. I arrived at my new permanent assignment, B Company of the 7th Special Forces Group. I was a brand new Special Forces trooper, a young PFC with a brand new green beret with a "recognition bar," not a full flash.
Back in those days, unlike today, you did not receive a full beret flash until you were fully "three" qualified. Number 3 was the suffix for the MOS that signified that you were Special Forces qualified. It didn't matter that you had just gone through a grueling process of training anywhere between six months to a year and a half, depending on your MOS. You were not considered fully ("three") qualified until you did additional training with your unit and cross-trained in at least one more MOS which could take about six months to a year. Only then were you allowed to wear a full beret flash. Prior to that, you wore a little strip of the flash that was officially called a "recognition bar," and more commonly referred to as a "candy stripe," but more popularly called an "idiot bar."
So, there I was, a brand new Special Forces trooper with an "idiot bar" on my beret. At any rate, I was just getting used to being with the 7th in my second week when I was ordered to report to the Company Sergeant Major. The Sergeant Major in the old army was like a god! Everyone feared the Sergeant Major, officers included! I went into a mild panic, trying to think of what I had done wrong to cause the Sergeant Major to demand my presence. But, orders are orders, so I reported to the Sergeant Major.
Sergeant Major Greer, everyone called him "Pappy" Greer, was a World War Two and Korean War Veteran. He was with the 503rd Airborne and then the Alamo Scouts during WWII and in Korea he started out with the Airborne Rangers and ended with Army Unit 8240, the United Nations Partisan Forces in Korea (UNPFK). He was a grizzled, hardened combat veteran, an imposing figure.
As I stood in front of him, he was looking over my 201 file (Personnel file). He glanced up at me and asked which languages I spoke. I was a bit puzzled, since my languages were listed in the file. But he asked, so I answered.
He looked at me hard, then said, "You speak Mongolian, don't you?"
I gulped and answered, "No, Sergeant Major, I don't speak Mongolian."
He continued to stare at me and said, "You speak, Mongolian."
I said, "No Sergeant Major, I don't speak Mongolian."
He gave me such a look that it almost made me shrivel up! "You speak Mongolian! Do you understand?" He said in a booming irritated voice.
"Yes, Sergeant Major, I speak Mongolian," I told him as he wished.
"Good," he said, calming down. "You're just what we need. You're detailed to the Gabriel Demonstration Area. Report to Sergeant Major Gaffney, he's in charge over there. He'll tell you what your duties will be. That's all!"
Well, the Gabriel Demonstration Area, or "Disneyland" as we used to call it, was a vast area that was built to use for demonstration purposes, mainly for VIPs. The whole idea was to set up grounds where Special Forces could demonstrate its various skills to VIPs, Congressmen and such, so that it would help funding for Special Forces! There was everything from rappelling to HALO and Skyhook demonstrations. There was even a typical Vietnamese village constructed.
The whole demonstration began with the introduction of an "A" Detachment, the Special Forces' main operating unit. A 12 man "A" Detachment marched out and faced the VIP crowd, then each member, beginning with the Team Leader, the Captain, would take turns and give a spiel, namely their duties and the foreign languages that they spoke. Sometimes, some of the VIPs would ask questions directed at individual soldiers. In some cases, I was told that language skills were tested, so, it was important to be fluent in the languages that you claimed to speak.
Sergeant Majors Greer and Gaffney thought it would be good to have someone who spoke a language that would be highly unlikely that anyone in the audience would know. So, they decided on Mongolian, and they needed an Asian to carry off this ploy, The soldier, of course, had to speak another language or languages as well, languages that might be tested! But they thought Mongolian would be a safe bet! It was a kind of a joke that the Sergeant Majors wanted to pull! So, there I was, assigned to the Gabriel Demonstration Area team. The first thing I was told to do was to have a full flash sewn on my beret. It wouldn't do to have someone with an "idiot bar" on the demonstration team! So, at least there was that one fringe benefit, I could put on a full flash months before I actually earned it.
We practiced our drill daily, marched out and gave spiels. Everyone else on the demonstration team thought it was a riot that I was supposed to speak Mongolian. The team leader, Captain Hoffman, started calling me Genghis, and that nick name kind of stuck for my remaining time in the Special Forces! Then, around November 20 there was a bit a frantic activity in "Disneyland" as well as the rest of the Special Forces. Rumors were that someone really important was coming to Fort Bragg, specifically to Smoke Bomb Hill where the Special Forces was located.
On the 21st of November we got all spiffy in our starched fatigues and spit-shined boots, looking like a bunch of parade ground soldiers! The VIP that arrived was the President and the First Lady! They were on their way to Dallas and Air Force One made a previously unscheduled stop at Pope Air Force Base just the other side of Fort Bragg, because JFK wanted to visit his favorite Army unit, the Special Forces. Both the President and the First Lady had visited the Special Forces before, so this was not their first time. But it was their first time at the Gabriel Demonstration Area which was only built a few months earlier that year.
So, we all waited anxiously, and when time came, marched out as we always did. The team leader, Captain Hoffman gave his spiel and said he spoke French. Jackie said a few words to him in French and JFK joked and said that his French was awful. They came right down the line. Another team member announced that he spoke Spanish, Jackie said a few words to him in Spanish. The team was made up of predominantly French, Spanish, and Portuguese or Italian speakers. I was the only one with none Romance language ability. When it came my turn, I was surprised that I was able to say anything at all! But I managed to give my spiel, and ended by saying I spoke Russian, Japanese, Korean, and Mongolian! At the time I did not speak Spanish so I couldn't add that to my list, but I still had the longest list of anyone on the team.
I probably just imagined it, but it seemed to me that JFK's eyes registered surprise at hearing that I spoke Mongolian. But he didn't say anything or ask me if I was a Mongol, he just shook my hand, as he did with every team member, and said that he was impressed! Jackie didn't say anything, just smiled pleasantly. Obviously, she didn't speak any of the languages that I claimed to know, especially Mongolian! If truth be known, although my Russian was at native level, my Japanese was just fair, and Korean shaky at the time! Of course, Mongolian was non-existent!
So, that was my first meeting, as brief as it was, with a President of the United States, in this case JFK, who was assassinated the next day in Dallas.
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