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Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.
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Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jr. (July 25, 1915 – August 12, 1944) was the eldest of the nine children born to Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr. and his wife, Rose Elizabeth Kennedy née Fitzgerald. Elder brother of future President John F. Kennedy, he was expected to bear the family's political hopes.
ph, Jr. graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall prep school in Connecticut in 1933 (his brother John F. Kennedy also attended) and entered Harvard University in 1934 and graduated in 1938 (political historian Theodore White was a classmate).
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Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jr. (July 25, 1915 – August 12, 1944) was the eldest of the nine children born to Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr. and his wife, Rose Elizabeth Kennedy née Fitzgerald. Elder brother of future President John F. Kennedy, he was expected to bear the family's political hopes.
Early life and World War II service
Joseph, Jr. graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall prep school in Connecticut in 1933 (his brother John F. Kennedy also attended) and entered Harvard University in 1934 and graduated in 1938 (political historian Theodore White was a classmate). There he played football, rugby, and crew, and served on the student council. He spent a year studying under the tutelage of Harold Laski at the London School of Economics, before enrolling in Harvard Law School. In 1940, he made his first step in what would have been his political life, as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. During this time Joe became engaged to Athalia Fetter (citation needed). He left Harvard Law before his final year for officer training and flight training in the United States Navy. He earned his wings as a Naval Aviator in May 1942 and was sent to England in September 1943. He piloted the land-based PB4Y Liberator patrol bomber on anti-submarine and other missions on two tours of duty throughout the winter of 1943-44. Although Kennedy had completed his 25 combat missions and was eligible to return home, he volunteered for an Operation Aphrodite mission in which he died on August 12, 1944.
Operation Aphrodite
Operation Aphrodite was the name of a series of bombing runs by explosive-laden airplanes piloted by a skeleton crew who would parachute from the aircraft before detonation. After previous US Army Air Forces Operation Aphrodite missions were conceptualized on July 23, 1944, Kennedy and LT Wilford John Willy (born May 13, 1909 in New Jersey) were designated as the first Navy flight crew - LT Willy had pulled rank over ENS "FNU" Simpson (who was the regular co-pilot with Kennedy) in order to be on this mission in a modified version of the B-24 Liberator (code named "Anvil") in the US Navy's first Aphrodite mission. After the two Lockheed Ventura mother planes and a navigation plane had taken off, the BQ-8 "robot" aircraft completed take-off from RAF Fersfield, England loaded with 21,170 pounds (9,600 kg) of Torpex to use as a guided missile on the V-3 cannon site in Mimoyecques, France. Following approximately 300 feet behind the drone was Colonel Elliott Roosevelt in a de Havilland Mosquito to film the mission. Kennedy and Willy remained on board while the BQ-8 completed its first remote-control turn. Approximately two minutes later and ten minutes before the planned crew bail out, the Torpex detonated and destroyed the Liberator. The aircraft came down near to the village of Blythburgh in Suffolk.
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Roosevelt's damaged Mosquito with injured crew members was able to limp home, and fifty-nine buildings were damaged in a nearby British coastal town. The Navy's informal board of review rejected the possibility of the pilot erroneously arming the circuitry early and instead, suspected jamming or a stray signal could have armed and detonated the payload. An electronics officer, Earl Olsen, had warned Kennedy of this possibility the day before the mission. The Navy Cross citation reads:
Kennedy's body was never recovered, and he was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross; the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal. LT Willy was also posthumously awarded the Navy Cross, and both men's names are listed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial.
After death and his legacy
In 1946, the Navy named a destroyer for Kennedy, the USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (DD-850), aboard which his younger brother Robert F. Kennedy briefly served. Among the highlights of its service are the blockade of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the afloat recovery teams for Gemini 6 and Gemini 7. It is now a floating museum in Battleship Cove, Fall River, Massachusetts.
In 1946, the Kennedys established the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation and funded the construction of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Memorial Hall at Boston College, now a part of Campion Hall and home to BC's Lynch School of Education. The foundation is currently led by Edward M. Kennedy.
See also
External links
- Retrieved on 2008-02-10
- — Blythburgh Web
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