The Secret Service agent who leapt onto JFK’s moving limousine when the president was assassinated in Dallas is still struggling with the trauma of that day 60 years later.
Clint Hill, an agent who was protecting former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, was on the running board of a follow-on car traveling behind the president when the shots rang out across Dealey Plaza.
‘Before Dallas, I was known as just Clint Hill,’ Hill told NPR in an interview pegged to the anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. ‘After that, I’ve been known as the man who climbed onto the president’s car. That six-second period in Dallas, it’s not an easy thing to live with,’ he said.
He described his own experiences that day.
‘I didn’t think at first it was a gunshot,’ Hill he said. ‘I thought it was a firecracker or something. But when I saw the president’s reaction, I knew that was not normal. I mean, he threw his hands to his throat and started to fall to his left.’
Clint Hill, an agent who was…