Old news. The Black Watch and President John F. Kennedy!

[OC Richard]

It's chilling to watch the film of Kennedy.

How well I remember the assassination. None who were old enough to remember will ever forget.

From a technical viewpoint, notice that from 0:15 to 0:31 you can hear the brass and pipes playing together but the pictures show the brass alone playing, with the pipers standing at attention.

The Black Watch were doing a North American tour in 1963. I have the programme of that tour in front of me, unfortunately it doesn't give the tour dates like most of the later programmes do.

Generally these tours would begin in New York or DC, go down the East coast, across the South to California, up the West coast to British Columbia, then across Canada and back to New York. So I'm guessing that the White House visit was at or near the beginning of the tour.

I have read that they were in the midst of the tour when the Kennedy family requested that the Black Watch play at the funeral. Nine pipers left the tour for that duty.

Here, at 22:42 you can see the nine pipers of The Black Watch at Kennedy's funeral

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KJQkn6zUvM

Not sure what they're playing initially but at 23:06 the sound becomes clear, I think the tune is The Badge Of Scotland.

At 32:27 a different pipe band is playing The Mist-Covered Mountains. I believe it might be the USAF pipe band.

[Brian Rose]

I would have been in the 3rd grade. I heard the news on the playground during afternoon recess. I'd recently finished a book about the Secret Service. Being the smart alec that I was, I put my new knowledge to work and wouldn't believe the news. After all, I'd just had a lesson about how closely the President was guarded.
I'm sure I watched the funeral- all of the U.S.A. stopped to watch it. I've just done a quick look at the parts O.C. Richard pointed out. At 31:10, as the camera pulls back, there's a military formation front and center. Given the state of the Cold War at the time it seems hard to believe but it appears to be a Soviet Army Honor Guard. If it is, it's a tremendous tribute to the respect that JFK generated.

[Bruce Scott]

I would have been in the 3rd grade. I heard the news on the playground during afternoon recess. I'd recently finished a book about the Secret Service. Being the smart alec that I was, I put my new knowledge to work and wouldn't believe the news. After all, I'd just had a lesson about how closely the President was guarded.
I'm sure I watched the funeral- all of the U.S.A. stopped to watch it. I've just done a quick look at the parts O.C. Richard pointed out. At 31:10, as the camera pulls back, there's a military formation front and center. Given the state of the Cold War at the time it seems hard to believe but it appears to be a Soviet Army Honor Guard. If it is, it's a tremendous tribute to the respect that JFK generated.

They were Irish Army Cadets.




https://www.irishtimes.com/news/worl...side-1.1606662

https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2013...ennedy-funeral

[Brian Rose]

Well, that makes a lot more sense. Difficult to tell what the uniforms were at a distance. Definitely not American, light colored trousers meant not British, but looked like Jodpurs.