Meeting President Eisenhower
Written by Howard Richardson
In 1960, when I was in the U.S. Army stationed in South Korea, we got news the President Eisenhower was coming to visit. If I remember right, he was to arrive on a Sunday afternoon at the South Korea Airport.
Anyway, myself and some of my buddies made plans to go to the airport to see Air Force One with hopes of seeing the President from afar. We had on idea we would get to meet him in person.
When Air Force One landed and came to a stop, the door opened and about a dozen people got off. About five minutes later we saw the door open again, and about this time we heard a band we had not seen start playing “Hail to the Chief.” That is when we saw President Eisenhower appear in the door.
He came down the steps and met all the people there to greet him. He looked over and saw this group of about 75 to 100 servicemen standing behind a roped off area. Eisenhower started walking over to where we were and when he got to us, he just reached out and started shaking hands with us and telling each one how proud he was to have us serving our country. He also wanted to say “thank you” for our service in the Armed Forces of the United States.
This is how I met President Eisenhower.
Also, it reminds me when I see a man or woman that is serving in any of the Armed Forces to stop and say “thank you” for serving.
President Kennedy's Inauguration
Go back to Jan. 19, 1961. Place: Washington, D.C., the day before the presidential inauguration. I was in the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers station at Fort Belvoir, Va., outside of Washington, D.C.
On this day, it started snowing early in the morning; by mid-afternoon, we had between eight and 10 inches of snow on the ground.
On Jan. 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy was to be inaugurated as President.
That afternoon our unit was called out to remove the snow from the parade route, from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to the U.S. Capitol building. This is a two-mile, four-lane street; and then then we had to clear the sidewalk around the Capitol.
We worked through the night, and around 5 a.m. on January 20, we were taken back to Fort Belvoir to eat breakfast, take a shower, put on our dress uniform, and be ready to return to DC for guard duty along the parade route. The temperature was about 22 degrees, and the wind made it fell about seven degrees. I know it was cold.
We were on both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue and around the Capitol just an arm’s length apart. I remember my guard spot was on the east side of the Capitol where the presidential inauguration took place; this was a great experience for me.
While I was in the Army, I got to see and met two of our great presidents – President Eisenhower and President Kennedy.
