Five Days in November

Five Days in November by Clint Hill & Lisa McCubbin  243 pp.

Clint Hill is the Secret Service agent know as the man who jumped on the back of President Kennedy's limousine after Kennedy was shot. Hill's reason for his actions were to protect the First Lady who was his charge. He already knew the President was fatally injured from his vantagepoint in the Secret Service car following the limo. In this book he recounts that fated trip to Texas almost minute by minute. He also explains what made this trip a nightmare for the Secret Service even before the shooting. Kennedy's insistence on riding in an open car in multiple motorcades through thousands of onlookers essentially made the President a sitting duck target for anyone wanting to do him harm. Frequent stops to allow the crowd to shake hands with JFK and Jackie added to the hazards. Hill doesn't gloss over the the gory details including his viewing of the President's head wound. As he was trained, Hill's account is factual and mostly unemotional (except where the emotions are wholly appropriate). I appreciate Agent Hill's account of an event that occurred when I was in kindergarten but was unforgettable even for a five year old.