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Page 34 February 2018 The Catoctin Banner Newspaper www.TheCatoctinBanner.com Published by www.EPlusPromotes.com
1956
by James Rada, Jr.
Hitchhiking Marines Get a Special Ride
Marine Pfc. Harold Payne and Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons carried the story that the president
Pfc. William Weaver were stationed had picked up the hitchhikers. The
at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, president did something similar
but when they got a weekend three years later, when he saw
pass near Christmas of 1956, Airman Second-Class Jerry Beswick
they decided to head home to the hitchhiking through Frederick.
Midwest. Payne was from Akron, The president was passing through
Ohio, and Weaver was from DeWitt, the city on his way to his farm in
Michigan. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and he
The snag in their plan was that gave the airman a lift to the town,
neither Marine had a car, so the where he then caught a bus to
young servicemen set out on foot, continue his journey. He had his car
thumbing for rides as they went. stop next to the airmen. Then he
Since they were wearing their rolled down the window and said, “I
uniforms, it was relatively easy for Photo shows President Eisenhower in a motorcade. thought we’d give you a lift.”
them to get rides at first. This wasn’t the first time that the
They were about halfway along president gave a lift to a hitchhiking
their 700-mile journey on the was on his way to Camp David with Eisenhower turned around every serviceman. “He rarely passes them
Friday afternoon of December his wife, Mamie. so often, and I could see her pretty on the highway,” the Gettysburg
10, 1954, and the pair found “The president’s car was stopped well,” Payne told the Beacon Times reported.
themselves at Grafton Street and at a red light, preparing to turn onto Journal.
Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda. the main highway, when Eisenhower The president’s valet and a Navy
Despite being in uniform, no one saw the two men and ordered the doctor rode in the same vehicle as
seemed to be willing to give the motorcade to a halt,” Ohio.com the Marines. They talked on the
Marines a ride. reported. “He dispatched James J. drive to Hagerstown, where the
They watched as a procession of Rowley, leader of the U.S. Secret president dropped the Marines
dark vehicles approached along the Service, to ask if the Marines would off before heading over Catoctin
road. like a lift.” Mountain to Camp David.
“At first when I saw these cars They quickly accepted the offer. Meanwhile, in Hagerstown,
coming along, I thought it was a “Eisenhower didn’t exactly scooch Payne and Weaver decided that if
funeral procession,” Payne later told over on his seat or have Mamie sit they were going to have time to
the Akron Beacon Journal. on the servicemen’s laps, but he did spend with their families, they had
Lucky for them, a decorated direct them to a waiting vehicle in the better pay for some transportation.
World War II Veteran was in one motorcade,” according to Ohio.com. “It got cold, and I hopped a bus
of the vehicles. President Dwight The Marines rode in a car, two to Pittsburgh and then another one
D. Eisenhower, who was a former vehicles behind the president and home,” Payne said.
five-star general and had been the one behind the first lady. “Got a Their hitchhiking journey
supreme commander of the Allied good view once in a while of the turned the men into folk heroes,
Forces in Europe during the war, back of the president’s head. Mrs. as newspapers across the country
