Agency: HSCA
Originator: DOD
From: KESTER, JOHN G.
To: BLAKEY, G. ROBERT
Document date: 04/20/1978
Document type: LETTER

## Page 1

JFK Assassination System

Identification Form

Agency Information

Date:

9/23/201

AGENCY :

RECORD NUMBER :

RECORD SERIES :

AGENCY FILE NUMBER :

HSCA

180-10084-10094

NUMBERED FILES

007348

released under the

Tohn F.

Kennedy

Assassination Records

ollection

144 USC 2107

Note!.

Cased: N

54756 Date:

10-31-2017

Document Information

ORIGINATOR:

FROM:

TO :

TITLE :

DOD

KESTER, JOHN G.

BLAKEY, G. ROBERT

DATE :

PAGES:

SUBJECTS :

04/20/1978

3

DOD

NATIONAL NAVAL MEDICAL CENTER

KENNEDY, JOHN; AUTOPSY

HURT, JOHN DAVID

DOCUMENT TYPE :

LETTER

CLASSIFICATION : Unclassified

RESTRICTIONS: 3

CURRENT STATUS :

DATE OF LAST REVIEW :

Redact

01/31/1996

OPENING CRITERIA:

COMMENTS :

Copy attached. Box 141.

v9.1

H# 54756

DocId: 32250536

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## Page 2

JFK Routing Slip

C07348

NO.

DAT PR 2 1 1978

alcome

Jocument I.D. ORTGOING CORRESPONDENCE

INDEX

COPY TO

Robert Blakey

John

Gary Cornwell

Kenneth Klein

Hurt, John Dave Charlie Mathews

Jim Wolf

Mary camera

Tiny Hutton

Jackie Hess

Cliff Fenton

Mike Ewing

Team #1

Team #2

Team #3

Team H1

Team#5

Special Instructions:

Form #2

HH 54756

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## Page 3

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE

WASHINGTON. D.C.. 20301

April 20, 1978

THE SPECIAL ASSISTANT

007348

G. Robert Blakey, Esq.

Chief Counsel and

Director

Select Committee on Assassinations

House of Representatives

Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Bob:

Attached are two fact sheets in reply to your letters

of March 13, 1978, and March 27, 1978, concerning informa-

tion on John David Hurt and the Navy

camera used during

the autopsy of President Kennedy.

As your office has previously been informed, all the

information requested in fourteen letters sent by you

between December 27, 1977 and April 7, 1978 has been made

available

for review at this Department--with the exception

of a few items where further information has been

requested

to permit completion of the

search.

Sincerely,

John G. Kester

Attachments

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## Page 4

Fact Sheet on John David Hurt Request

In a letter dated March 13,

1978, the Defense

Department was requested to provide any documents it has

on a Mr. John David Hurt of Raleigh, North Carolina.

Subsequently the House Select Committee staff informed

the Department that Mr. Hurt was a member of the Army

Counterintelligence Corps during World War II.

personhe, comput

The computerized index to the files in the National

Personnel Records Center indicates that a John David Hurt,

SSN 107-05-5407, born May 12, 1909, River Bend, Colorado,

enlisted in the

Army on November 5, 1942, and was dis-

charged on December 28, 1945. His Army Service number was

14180986. The personnel file on Mr. Hurt, to which this

index entry pertained, was destroyed in the July 1973 fire

at the Center that destroyed 16.5 million files on Army

personnel who served before 1960. The Defense Department

has found no other information on Mr. Hurt.

If he served

in Army intelligence, he would have had an intelligence

dossier on him,

but such a filé would have been destroyed

before now:

files of

this sort containing derogatory

information on the subject of the file are destroyed after

s years; tiles without derogatory information are

lestroyed after 15 years.

Although the Defense Department has no further infor-

mation on Mr. Hurt, it may be able

to aid the Committee

In veritying certain facts concerning Mr. Hurt's service

in the Army.

If he served in Army intelligence, Mr. Hurt

would have been provided a badge number.

If he can

remember this

number, the Army could search its records

of intelligence badges issued

and try to verify the fact.

Also, if Mr. Hurt can remember the units to which he was

assigned and the places where he served, Army files could

be checked to determine whether the units he mentions were

assigned to the places he mentions at the times he mentions.

Neither of these avenues of inquiry, however, would turn

up any new evidence on Mr. Hurt.

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## Page 5

Fact Sheet on March 27, 1978 Letter

This is in regard to the Committee's request for

the Navy camera used during the autopsy of President

Kennedy at the National Naval Medical Center on 22-23

November 1978.

Based on information provided to Ms.

Judy

Miller by the

Select Committee staff as to the location

of Navy documentation pertaining to the autopsy camera

and lens

a thorough and diligent search was conducted

of the files at the National Naval Medical Center, and

the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. Unfortunately, these

additional efforts have failed to reveal any records

stating the identity or location of the camera and lens

in question.

i-to the Committee was the camera used at the autopsy; the

Committee was the only one of that description in use at

the National Naval Medical Center in 1963.

not eat doctor.

vided to the Committee is a standard lens that was in

at the Medical Center in 1963.

Although other lenses were

also in use at the Medical Center during that time they

have been replaced. Furthermore, no records have been

located that

indicate specifically which lens was used

during the autopsy, nor does the Navy hold any records

pertaining to the

film holders used for the autopsy

photographs.

It is likely that those holders have been

replaced due to normal wear and

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