Mr. DULLES. Doctor, would you give your full name?
Dr. LIGHT. Frederick W. Light, Jr.
Mr. DULLES. Would you raise your right hand? Do you swear that the
testimony that you will give before this Commission is the truth, the
whole truth, so help you God?
Dr. LIGHT. I do.
Mr. SPECTER. Dr. Light, the purpose of asking you to appear today is
to question you concerning the results of tests taken at the Edgewood
Arsenal. With that brief statement of purpose, I will ask you to state
your full name for the record, please.
Dr. LIGHT. Frederick W. Light, Jr.
Mr. SPECTER. What is your business or profession, sir?
Dr. LIGHT. I am a physician specializing in pathology.
Mr. SPECTER. What is your educational background?
Dr. LIGHT. I have an A.B. from Lafayette in 1926, M.D. from Johns
Hopkins Medical School in 1930, and Ph. D. from Hopkins in 1948.
Mr. SPECTER. Would you outline your experience since 1933 in a very
general way, please?
Dr. LIGHT. Well, in 1933 I was still at the Reading Hospital, resident
in pathology. Between then and 1940 I was pathologist in Clarksburg, W.
Va., and later in Springfield, Ill. In 1940 I returned to Johns Hopkins
University to study mathematics for awhile.
Mr. DULLES. To study mathematics?
Dr. LIGHT. Yes. And then in 1952, or 1951, excuse me, I began working
at Edgewood Arsenal where I am at the present time.
Mr. SPECTER. What have your duties consisted of while working at
Edgewood Arsenal?
Dr. LIGHT. Primarily the study of pathology of wounding.
Mr. SPECTER. What is your formal title there now, Dr. Light?
Dr. LIGHT. I am chief of the Wound Assessment Branch and assistant
chief of the Biophysics Division.
Mr. SPECTER. And what is your relationship to Dr. Olivier and Dr.
Dziemian?
Dr. LIGHT. Dr. Dziemian is the chief of the division. Dr. Olivier
is chief of one of the branches, and I am chief of one of the other
branches.
Mr. SPECTER. Have you been present here today to hear the full
testimony of Dr. Olivier?
Dr. LIGHT. Yes.
Mr. SPECTER. And were the tests which he described conducted under your
joint supervision with Dr. Olivier?
Dr. LIGHT. Only a very general way. I wouldn't want to say I supervised
him at all. We discussed what he was going to do.
Mr. SPECTER. Would it be more accurate to state that you coordinated
with him in the tests which were under his general supervision?
Dr. LIGHT. Yes; that might be stretching it a bit even.
Mr. SPECTER. How would you characterize your participation?
Dr. LIGHT. Largely--originally Dr. Dziemian, as I recall, was ill, and
by the time we began to do these specific tests that you mention,
Dr. Dziemian was back on the job again. So he took over whatever
supervision was needed.
Mr. SPECTER. Were the tests which Dr. Olivier described made at the
request of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President
Kennedy?
Dr. LIGHT. Yes; they were.
Mr. SPECTER. Do you have anything to add by way of any detail to the
findings reported by Dr. Olivier in his testimony here earlier today?
Dr. LIGHT. No; I think he covered it very thoroughly.
Mr. SPECTER. And as to the conclusions and opinions which he expressed,
do you agree or disagree, to some extent, on his conclusions?
Dr. LIGHT. I agree in general at least. I am not quite so certain about
some of the things, but generally I certainly agree with what he said.
Mr. DULLES. What are the things on which you are not quite so certain?
Dr. LIGHT. For example, I am not quite as sure in my mind as I believe
he is that the bullet that struck the Governor was almost certainly one
which had hit something else first. I believe it could have produced
that wound even though it hadn't hit the President or any other person
or object first.
Mr. DULLES. That is the wound, then, in the thigh?
Dr. LIGHT. No; in the chest.
Mr. DULLES. I was thinking that the wound in the thigh--let me start
again. As I understand the previous testimony, Dr. Olivier would have
expected the wound in the thigh to be more serious if it had not hit
some object.
Dr. LIGHT. Yes.
Mr. DULLES. Prior to entering Governor Connally's body, but you feel
that the wound in the thigh might be consistent?
Dr. LIGHT. The wound in the thigh is the terminal end, is the far end
of the whole track. I don't believe that in passing through the tissue
which was simulated by what Dr. Olivier described first, 13 or 14
centimeters of gelatin, I don't believe that the change in velocity
introduced by the passage through that much tissue can be relied upon
to make such a definite difference in the effect.
Mr. SPECTER. Do you believe that if the Governor had been struck by a
pristine bullet which had gone through his chest, that it would have
caused no more damage than which appeared on the Governor's chest?
Dr. LIGHT. I think that is possible; yes. I might say I think perhaps
the best, the most likely thing is what everyone else has said so far,
that the bullet did go through the President's neck and then through
the chest and then through the wrist and then into the thigh.
Mr. SPECTER. You think that is the most likely possibility?
Dr. LIGHT. I think that is probably the most likely, but I base
that not entirely on the anatomical findings but as much on the
circumstances.
Mr. SPECTER. What are the circumstances which lead you to that
conclusion?
Dr. LIGHT. The relative positions in the automobile of the President
and the Governor.
Mr. SPECTER. Are there any other circumstances which contribute to that
conclusion, other than the anatomical findings?
Dr. LIGHT. And the appearance of the bullet that was found and the
place it was found, presumably, the bullet was the one which wounded
the Governor.
Mr. SPECTER. The whole bullet?
Dr. LIGHT. The whole bullet.
Mr. SPECTER. Identified as Commission Exhibit No. 399?
Dr. LIGHT. Yes.
Mr. SPECTER. And what about that whole bullet leads you to believe that
the one bullet caused the President's neck wound and all of the wounds
on Governor Connally?
Dr. LIGHT. Nothing about that bullet. Mainly the position in which they
are seated in the automobile.