stripes - History
History Hanau, West Germany, June, 1963: President Kennedy's car drives past some of the 15,000 American troops from 280 USAREUR units who lined a mile-long parade route during his visit to Hanau's Pioneer Caserne. A staggering 1,015 American soldiers lost their lives in the HMT Rohna incident, making it the deadliest encounter at sea in the history of the U.S. military. But the U.S. War Department swore the nearly 700 survivors to secrecy under threat of court-martial, leaving the disaster all but unknown to the public for more than 50 years. top History stories