A majority of the Presidential sites that I had visited had become famous long ago in our nation’s past, but the Washington Hilton Hotel became infamous in 1981. Mongo parked the Optima two blocks from the hotel and Tom carried me in the camera case to the T Street exit of the Hilton; which was to the right side of the massive building.
When we arrived at the site, I immediately had chills travel from the spring in my neck all the way down my back. The site had not changed much in the 33 years since the historic incident and I immediately thought about Dealey Plaza in Dallas; as it hadn’t changed much since 1963 as well.
On March 30, 1981 President Ronald Reagan had emerged from the hotel’s secured ‘President’s Walk’ after he delivered a speech to AFL-CIO representatives. At 2:27pm, and as he was waving to the assembled crowd that stood near the hotel, John Hinckley, Jr. fired his Rohm RG-14 .22 LR blue steel revolver at the President. Was Hinckley at fault for his actions or did he simply fall victim to Tecumseh’s Curse? After all, Reagan was elected in 1980 – a year that obviously ended in a zero.
Hinckley fired six shots in less than two seconds, which was followed by pure pandemonium. The first bullet struck White House Press Secretary James Brady in the head. The second shot hit D.C. police officer Thomas Delahanty in the back of the neck as he turned to protect Reagan. After the third shot missed its target, the fourth bullet hit Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy in the abdomen as he used his body to shield the President. The fifth shot missed everyone, hitting the bullet-resistant glass of the Presidential limousine. As another agent quickly pushed Reagan into the armored limo, the sixth bullet ricocheted off the car’s armor plating and struck the President in the left underarm. That .22 caliber slug had grazed a rib and lodged in Reagan’s lung; causing it to partially collapse. Luckily for Reagan, the bullet had stopped less than one inch from his heart.
Ronald Reagan survived the attack and he returned to the Oval Office on April 25, 1981. He also made his first public appearance since the assassination attempt just three days later. Reagan was elected President in 1980 and was the first since William Henry Harrison to survive Tecumseh’s Curse.
As I stood on the walkway next to the stone façade of the hotel, it was almost as though I could see Reagan as he walked towards his limousine. My photographer had placed me on the exact place where President Reagan had waved to the crowd; and where he was at when the shots rang out. Standing at that location eerily reminded me of when I stood on the ‘X’ on Dallas’ Elm Street in the shadow of the Texas School Book Depository; with the exception that I was in no danger of being run over by a speeding automobile at the Hilton.
We took in the site for nearly a half-hour as we looked at the scene from different angles; at one point we had wondered where Hinckley had been positioned as Reagan approached the gunman. Once we were finished at the potential assassination scene, I was carried into the building. Tom and Bob wanted to get me inside the auditorium where Reagan had delivered his speech on that fateful day. It took a few minutes to find the precise room; but once it was located, we realized we were out of luck as there was a huge conference inside – we had no chance of admittance. My photographer didn’t attempt to talk his way into the room; which was okay with me as there were too many people in the auditorium anyway.
During our exit of the 1,070-room luxury hotel, my photographer carried me along the same route that Reagan had walked moments before he was shot. There was an exit door at the ‘President’s Walk’; and once we were through that door, I was carried along the sidewalk and finished exactly where we had started – at the site of Reagan’s assassination attempt. I was glad that I couldn’t lift my right arm and wave to the crowd as I didn’t want to tempt fate.
It was late in the afternoon on July 18, 2014; the dashboard clock of the Optima read 7:48pm. It had been an exhausting day that began in Michigan and ended with a nice handful of Presidential sites in our nation’s capital. Our travelling partner, Bob Moldenhauer, had made reservations at the Best Western Pentagon Hotel because he had stayed there on previous trips and found it acceptable for the price; plus the hotel’s location had its advantages as well.
From the Hilton, Mongo drove the Optima through Washington, past the Lincoln Memorial and over the Arlington Memorial Bridge. As we made it over the Potomac River, I was elated – I had finally made it to Jefferson’s home state of Virginia. Not wanting to waste a moment of daylight, however, my travelling partners decided to take a detour and visit the United States Marine Corps War Memorial before we headed on to the motel. It didn’t matter to me; as a bobble head, I don’t get tired.
Even though I wasn’t photographed at the Marine Corps Memorial because it wasn’t a Presidential site, I was still carried up to the monument and saw it from my opened case. The view that I had of the Iwo Jima Memorial, which the monument was also known as, was breathtaking with the distant Capitol and Washington Monument lit by the late-day’s sun.
The figures of the six Marines were 32-feet tall and they were portrayed as they raised a 60-foot tall flag pole on Mount Suribachi; the same as the Marines had done in World War II on February 23, 1945.
We arrived at the Best Western Pentagon Hotel at 8:30pm and I was immediately placed onto the table next to the television of our first-floor room, which was where I spent the night. It was obvious from the outset that the Best Western was in need of some updating and a good cleaning; our room also had an odor of bleach or ammonia. It was also obvious that I wasn’t spending the night at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas nor the Washington Hilton; but then again, that Best Western was one-third the price. But what could possibly go wrong? The plan was to stay just two nights in that room – I thought I could handle that.
