Eyewitness to be part of Germanna JFK event

GERMANNA TO HOST EYEWITNESS FOR NOV. 5 DISCUSSION IN OBSERVANCE OF THE
50th ANNIVERSARY OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY’S ASSASSINATION

When shots rang out at Dealey Plaza on Nov. 22, 1963, Jack McNairy was a Dallas high-school student who watched as President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade sped away.  A Secret Service agent asked the 18-year-old McNairy to give him a ride to Parkland Memorial Hospital. Once there, McNairy stared in disbelief into the president’s blood-splattered limo moments before the Secret Service ordered it cleaned and sent it back to Washington. McNairy interviews played a key part in the Discovery Channel's 2008 investigative program, "Inside theTarget Car."  What McNairy saw seems to support the Lee Harvey Oswald as lone gunman theory reinforced by Larry Sabato in his new book "The Kennedy Half-Century: The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F. Kennedy."

Jim Martin was a young newspaperman covering President Kennedy’s assassination from a Washington perspective.

Germanna Community College history instructor Dan Carter will moderate a discussion with McNairy and Martin and GCC Asst. Prof. Stuart Smith will explain the political climate that led to the president making his fateful trip to Dallas. A discussion with the audience will follow.

The event, which is open to public, free of charge, will be held at Sealy Auditorium in the Workforce Building at Germanna’s Fredericksburg Area Campus in Spotsylvania from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 5, 2013.

An interactive video feed in room 114 at Germanna’s Locust Grove Campus  and room 118 at GCC's Daniel Technology Center will allow student and area residents in those locations to watch and hear the event live and ask the panelists questions.