President Lyndon B. Johnson's

1965 Glastron V-204 Gulfstream...continued

Above is from LBJ Library archive April 13, 1968

Jerry Wilhoit, mentioned earlier, remembers well the fleet of Donzi Sweet 16s that the Secret Service used to try to keep up with LBJ. While they were great boats, they just couldn't quite keep up with the V-204 if LBJ decided to pull away at full power. Above is a good shot showing one of the Secret Service Donzis with radio gear and certainly some weaponry within easy grasp. Here is Jerry's recollection of "LBJ's Navy" as he called it:

Jerry asked me: "You know about LBJ's navy, don't you?" I said no. "Oh yes, Johnson had
Glastrons before becoming president, but once in office we fixed him up a nice 204 (1965 Gulfstream V-204). It had the big 409 in it. I did all the work on it. They wanted me to do all of it, so I did. Whenever he went out, here went all these Secret Service guys trying to keep up with him. And he liked to get away from them! The Secret Service guys kept asking me to slow the boat down, but the president wanted me to keep it fast. Shoot, I did what the president said. Yeah, that was LBJ's navy." Watch this 2 minute video of LBJ and these Donzis trying and failing to keep up with him. Note the camera man had nothing to film but the other Donzis once LBJ was a spot in the distance.

In the LBJ library film from this same date, LBJ was putting the hammer down as seen in the still picture shot from the same Donzi

Anyone wishing to document this boat can submit a history request (Ownership History PWD-763) to the Texas Parks and Wildlife and find this TX registration number and serial number matching and on file as the boat LBJ personally used. A sworn affidavit to this effect by Bill Gaston is included in this ownership history. Bill Gaston, Bob Hammond, Jerry Wilhoit all saw this boat at the July 28-30, 2006 Glaston 50th Anniversary convention and they all confirmed the obvious, that this is no doubt LBJ's Glastron.