Originally Posted by Texas Star

Were the bullets taken from Tippett's body and matched to that gun? Was the gun in Oswald's possession when he was arrested?

I don't recall ever seeing anything about that.

BTW, I was in Dallas the day of the JFK assassination. I was on leave from the USAF, and that summer, I was personally present when JFK delivered the commencement address at the AF Academy. An OSI agent and I were protecting part of the President's route to the stadium and I got dust from the Presidential helicopter on my white scarf, cap, and bootlaces.

BTW, I was wearing a different Victory Model that day, a .38 Special with four-inch barrel. We got a bunch of those from the Navy because the Combat Masterpiece was in short supply, most going to SAC and to Vietnam. I think the CM was only adopted in 1962, and it was reaching troops gradually.

An additional connection of the Victory Model to JFK is that he had one aboard PT-109 when a Japanese destroyer cut his torpedo boat in half, sinking it. According to an account I read, he wore that .38 on a lanyard as he swam heroically around, trying to rescue his crew and reach an island where he thought he could signal US ships. He reportedly wanted a S&W because he was from MA, where they're made. Ever the politician, I guess, even before he ran for office. Or, maybe it was just pride in his state?

I first saw Kennedy when I was 12, sitting in the visitors' gallery at the Senate. I identified him on the floor because I'd seen him in the news, to which I paid much more attention than did most boys my age.

An additional Presidential connection to the Victory Model is that President Bush the Elder had one in an Avenger Navy bomber. He was shot down and gave that gun to an officer aboard the sub that rescued him. (His gunner was killed.) I read a few years ago that the gun was still with that sub officer's family and photos showed it to be in excellent condition. The story said that this man offered the gun to Bush after he became President, but he declined. Although he hunted birds with double-barreled shotguns, he wasn't into handguns, and Barbara Bush supposedly doesn't like them and told him he can't own pistols!