A Unique Memento of the Presidency of John F. Kennedy: a Signed Air Force One Pre-Flight Report

The combination of signatures is extraordinary, matching the two heroes of the youth of the Sixties – Kennedy and McCarthy, and the two antagonists for the 1968 Democratic nomination – Humphrey and McCarthy

 

We have never before seen a signed Air Force One Pre-Flight Report from the Kennedy years, and a search of public sale records going back 40 years fails to turn up even one

 

Provenance: the heirs of McCarthy’s long time secretary, Jean Stack

President John F. Kennedy was hitting his stride politically in late 1963, and preparing for the 1964 re-election campaign. On September 24 he set out on a four day, 11-state conservation tour, to highlight his interest in that subject. Flying on Air Force One with Kennedy were Interior Secretary Stewart Udall; Senators Gaylord Nelson, Hubert H. Humphrey, and Eugene J. McCarthy; Kennedy Special Assistant Kenneth O’Donnell; and aide Dave Powers. A large crowd greeted him at the Ashland, Wisconsin, airport. Standing on the stage with Wisconsin Senator Nelson, JFK announced the convening of a conference to study a water pollution problem in the area.

Then the President addressed thousands at a Northern Great Lakes Region Land and People Conference in Duluth, Minnesota. Those on the podium included President Kennedy, Governor of Wisconsin John W. Reynolds; Governor of Minnesota Karl F. Rolvaag, Senator McCarthy, Senator Walter Mondale, Secretary of Agriculture Orville L. Freeman, Senator Mike Mansfield, and Special Assistant O’Donnell.

Another purpose of his visit to Minnesota was to raise money for Democrats, which he did at a new event called a “Bean Feed.” “It is worth coming 1,500 miles from Boston to this city for a bean supper,” the President stated, pronouncing it “suppah” in his distinctive Massachusetts accent. Three Democrats on stage that day later ran for president themselves: Eugene McCarthy, Walter Mondale and Hubert Humphrey.

In Duluth, there was an eerie premonition from a television reporter covering the event. “They regard the potential of a threat to the president’s life as a very real thing,” said the reporter during an interview with a sheriff’s deputy assigned to presidential security. Eight weeks later in Dallas, the President was dead.

The pilot of Air Force One during the Kennedy years was Col. James B. Swindal, and he flew them from stop to stop on this trip. He was required to file pre-flight reports for these sojpurns, and did so here. This report is on an “Aboard the Presidential Aircraft” card, is entitled “Pre-flight Report”, and was filled in and signed by Swindal. He notes that the aircraft was taking off from Andrews Air Force Base, and the first stop was Stewart Air Force Base in New York. The distance was 235 miles, and flight time 35 minutes. “Our flight plan altitude is 23,000 feet…Turbulance – None reported.” The wind was east at 10 knots and clouds scattered.

Pre-flight Report signed, perhaps the only one ever offered for sale, on board Air Force One, September 24, 1963. Signing the report were JFK, Stewart Udall, Gaylord Nelson, Hubert H. Humphrey, Eugene J. McCarthy, Kenneth O’Donnell, and Dave Powers. The report is still stapled to a memorandum from Hubert Humphrey to Eugene McCarthy dated September 27, 1963, and stamped as received on September 30, saying: “Here is the PreFlight Report signed by JFK.” Below is a notation from McCarthy’s long time secretary, Jean Stack, reading, “Senator McCarthy suggested that I send this on to you.” McCarthy must have intended the recipient to be sent to a relative of Stack’s, as we obtained it directly from Stack’s heirs.

We have never before seen a signed Air Force One Pre-Flight Report from the Kennedy years, and a search of public sale records going back 40 years fails to turn up even one.

Just five years later, McCarthy and Humphrey, colleagues and co-signers of this report, locked in battle for the 1968 Democratic nomination for president. The backdrop was the Vietnam War, which President Lyndon B. Johnson had escalated into a major conflict in 1965. In 1968 McCarthy was so opposed to the war that he made a long-shot challenge to upend Johnson for the nomination. In March McCarthy was polling in the New Hampshire primary at 10-15% and was considered no threat. But with the aid of an army of college students who considered him a hero, on March 12 he stunned spectators of the race by winning a surprising 42.2 percent of the vote to Johnson’s 49.4 percent. Media outlets described the results as a “moral victory” for McCarthy, and influenced Robert Kennedy’s decision to enter the race on March 16. Johnson, who had wanted to be president all his life, felt he’d had enough and dropped out of the race on March 31, and Humphrey, then vice president, became the candidate of the Democratic establishment. The balance of the spring and summer was spent in a three way race between Humphrey, McCarthy, and Robert Kennedy (until his assassination on June 6). Humphrey won, but the party was split, allowing for the election of Richard Nixon in November.