Henry Kulbaski, 74, Secret Service Agent Had Helicopter Shot Down at White House
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Henry Kulbaski, a uniformed Secret Service agent who played the accordion on the South Lawn for President John F. Kennedy and ordered an errant helicopter shot down over the White House in 1974, died of cancer June 17. He was 74.
Kulbaski was watch commander in the White House Executive Office control center in the predawn hours of February 17, 1974, when he received word from the Maryland State Police that an army whirlybird had been stolen from Fort Meade and was being chased into restricted air space near the White House.
As the purloined UH1B Huey helicopter circled the WashingtonMonument, Kulbaskiwatched and waited.
President Nixon and his family were away, and at 1 a.m. Kulbaski had difficulty reaching his superiors.
“When no one answered, I knew I had to make the decision myself,” he told the Citizen’s Voice in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., in 1994.
The copter buzzed the White House and resumed circling the monument. If it came back, Kulbaski told the agents on duty, be prepared to shoot it down.
About 20 minutes later, the copter headed again toward the White House, and Kulbaski gave the order. The copter “landed in a blaze of gunfire on the south lawn of the White House,” according to a Washington Post account of the incident.
The pilot, who had taken the state police on an erratic 50-mile journey through Maryland and into Washington, suffered superficial pellet wounds and was taken into custody.
Nixon later congratulated Kulbaski for issuing the order to down the helicopter.
Kulbaski was also an accomplished accordion player who specialized in polkas, and was asked by first lady Jacqueline Kennedy to play at White House parties for the president.
However, when President Johnson asked him to play his accordion at a reception in honor of his daughter Lynda Bird’s wedding to Charles S. Robb, he declined. Kulbaski was concerned that he did not have sufficient time to master the song “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” said his nephew, Frank Kulbaski.
During his 20-year career, Kulbaski spent much of his time at the White House managing tours for Hollywood VIPs, and members of Congress and their acolytes.
His service spanned six presidents, from Eisenhower to Carter, before he retired as a lieutenant in 1978.
