For a few seconds, I just stood
there frozen and stared. I thought,
“I am here just a few feet from the president of the United States.
My hero is right here in front of me.
Is this real?”
I didn’t know whether to run up and shake his hand or take his picture. I did both. As I approached him, he seemed a bit stunned. This sort of thing was not something he was used to, at least not while he was sitting trapped in his open limo. Secret service agents were paying no attention to me at that time. They were inside a military base and I guess felt more comfortable with security arrangements.
Once he saw I was friendly and that I bore visible press credentials, he seemed relieved. I took two pictures and managed to get WTVT's reporter Tim Moran in the frame right behind Kennedy.
Because meeting him was the culmination of years of admiration and dreams of such a moment, I nervously extended my hand to the President and he accepted it. It was like an electrical charge zooming from my hand to my brain. I had actually made contact with him. As we shook hands his Lincoln started moving. Mr. Kennedy looked back at me as the car zoomed away, almost as if he was sorry our brief encounter had ended.
For a 16-year-old kid, it was nirvana.
I had done what I set out to accomplish and wondered if I should even bother to continue following the President. After all, how could I top this? But I decided I wanted to spend the rest of the day with him and it was the best decision I ever made.
While it had been somewhat awkward, it was an important thing for me to have done and I learned four days later just how important. It was a “Forrest Gump” moment if there ever was one. When I saw the movie more than 30 years later, my evaluation of myself that day was of an early Forrest Gump with an aptitude for taking pictures rather than catching shrimp.
Meanwhile, I was still planted on the spot, dazed from my moment with the President. Tim Moran called over to me and said "I want a copy of that picture!"
The President was driven about a
mile to the MacDill A.F.B. Officer's Club for lunch and a briefing of the day's
activities. After lunch, Kennedy would be taken by helicopter to Al Lopez
Field.