Episode 256 A Tribute To Secret Service Agent Clint Hill Who Passed Away This Week at 93

Former Secret Service Agent Clint Hill died at his home in Belvedere  California just a few days ago on February 21st, 2025. He was  93. He’s the Secret Service man that  will forever be remembered for his  own courageous  moment in Dealey Plaza.  On November 22 1963, starting from one car behind, he would dash and land on the trunk of the presidential limousine….just moments after the fatal shot hit president Kennedy.  As the famous films of that moment so vividly depict, and as the presidential  limousine accelerated,  he held  on... and he gently nudged  Mrs. Kennedy back into her seat. He did so after she had climbed onto the trunk of the limousine,  Mrs. Kennedy herself at that moment in shock and desperately lunging to retrieve  a part of her husbands brain and  skull. Agent Hill would hold on tightly and continue to shield the president and Mrs. Kennedy as the limousine accelerated to speeds of  up to  60  and 70 miles  per hour during  the ride to Parkland Hospital.

His heritage was  Norwegian. and he was from North Dakota. He was drafted into the United States  Army,  and wound up being trained as a counter intelligence officer. After the military,  Hill would join the Secret Service and served on the presidential details beginning with Dwight Eisenhower. During the Kennedy years, he was assigned to guard  the first lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

We are reminded that he was the only Secret Service agent to take the dash. He was the only agent to offer his body as a human shield  for  the President and Mrs. Kennedy in those moments where there was still uncertainty. Uncertainty  as to whether  more shots would be forthcoming. It was too late for the President and it was  Clint Hill's acknowledgment of that...with a thumbs down... to  those in the Secret Service car just behind...and that would be the first moment of consciousness that our nation had lost its President…

There is no doubt that the Secret Service deficiencies in Dallas contributed to the President's death. But, there is also no doubt that Hills courageous acts that day were exemplary.  Just days after that moment in Dealey plaza, Agent Hill  was honored for his bravery…a moment that he himself  took little comfort in...

With all of the controversy about the exact nature of the President’s head wounds, there was likely no one that had more of an unfettered view of them then Clint Hill. He would hover over the top of the  President…as they raced to Parkland, his view unimpeded by others  for over five minutes, as they sped toward Parkland…with the rear of the President's head in plain view as it rested on Mrs. Kennedy.

Clint Hill would remain as the Secret Service agent assigned to guard Jacqueline Kennedy until after the 1964 election. And  then he was assigned to President Johnson, back at the White House.  In 1967,  Hill was named as the Special Agent In Charge (SAIC) at the White House. When Richard Nixon was elected, he became the SAIC for the vice president Spiro Agnew.

Agent Hill retired from the Secret Service in 1975, but he lived with the horror of that moment in Dallas for the rest of his life. Like the Secret Service in general, he steadfastly believed that it was Lee Harvey Oswald and Oswald alone that fired the shots that day in Dallas. And he steadfastly maintained that three shots... and only three shots... were fired. It can safely be said that Clint Hill was one of the good guys. Rest in peace, Clint Hill.