Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.
Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr. was an American naval aviator who was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. He was a member of the Kennedy family and the eldest of the nine children born to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. During World War II, Kennedy was killed in action while serving as a land-based patrol bomber pilot, and posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.
Kennedy's father had aspirations for him to become President of [the United States]. Kennedy was a delegate to the 1940 Democratic National Convention and planned to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives after his military service as the first stepping stone on the path to the presidency. Kennedy's death while participating in Operation Aphrodite in August 1944 caused his father to transfer his aspirations to his next-oldest son, John F. Kennedy, who followed the path first planned for his older brother by advancing from the House to the U.S. Senate and then to the presidency.
Early life and education
Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jr. was born on July 25, 1915, at a summer rental cottage on Nantasket Beach in Hull, Massachusetts. He first attended the Dexter School in Brookline, Massachusetts, with his brother John. In 1933, Kennedy graduated from Choate, a preparatory boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut. After high school, he spent a year studying under the tutelage of Harold Laski at the London School of Economics. Kennedy then entered Harvard College, graduating in 1938 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He participated in football, rugby, and crew and served on the student council. After college, Kennedy enrolled at Harvard Law School, but interrupted his studies to enlist in the Navy. Kennedy had dated Athalia Ponsell, who was murdered in 1974, and there were rumors of an engagement between them until his death.Political ambitions and views
From a very young age, Kennedy was groomed by his father and predicted to be the first Roman Catholic U.S. president. When he was born, Kennedy's maternal grandfather, John F. Fitzgerald, the mayor of Boston, told reporters: "This child is the future president of the nation."Kennedy was a Massachusetts delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1940. He planned to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives when the war ended.
Kennedy expressed approval of Adolf Hitler before World War II began. When his father sent him to visit Nazi Germany in 1934, Joseph Jr. wrote back and praised the Nazi sterilization policy as "a great thing" that "will do away with many of the disgusting specimens of men." Kennedy Jr. explained, "Hitler is building a spirit in his men that could be envied in any country."
Kennedy changed his opinion in 1939 under the influence of Aimée de Heeren, a Brazilian secret service agent based in Paris.
U.S. Navy
Kennedy left before his final year at Harvard Law School to enlist in the U.S. Naval Reserve on June 24, 1941. Kennedy entered flight training to be a naval aviator, received his wings, and was commissioned an ensign on May 5, 1942. Kennedy was assigned to Patrol Squadron 203 and then Bombing Squadron 110. In September 1943, he was sent to Britain and became a member of Bomber Squadron 110, Special Air Unit ONE the following year. Kennedy piloted land-based Consolidated B-24 Liberator patrol bombers on anti-submarine details during two tours of duty in the winter of 1943–1944.Kennedy was promoted to lieutenant on July 1, 1944. He had completed 25 combat missions and was eligible to return home, but instead volunteered for an Operation Aphrodite mission.
Operations Aphrodite and Anvil
was the use of Army Air Corps Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Navy Consolidated PB4Y-1 Liberator bombers that were converted into flying bombs and deliberately crashed into their targets under radio control from an accompanying bomber. They were to be used for precision attacks on well-protected targets. These "drone" aircraft could not take off safely on their own and so a crew of two would take off and fly to altitude before they activated the remote control system, armed the detonators, and parachuted from the aircraft. After trials, the first mission took place on August 4, 1944, against targets including the Fortress of Mimoyecques, an underground military complex under construction in northern France. There was little success.The U.S. Navy also participated in Operation Aphrodite, with its portion referred to as Operation Anvil. Kennedy had been promoted to lieutenant on July 1. After the U.S. Army Air Corps operation missions were drawn up on July 23, lieutenants Wilford John Willy and Kennedy were designated as the Navy's first Anvil flight crew. Willy, who was the executive officer of Special Air Unit 1, had also volunteered for the mission and pulled rank over Ensign James Simpson, who was Kennedy's regular co-pilot.
On August 12, Kennedy and his co-pilot Willy flew a BQ-8 "robot" aircraft for the Navy's first Aphrodite mission. Initially, two Lockheed Ventura mother planes and a Boeing B-17 navigation plane took off from RAF Fersfield, Norfolk, England at 1800 on Saturday, August 12, 1944. Then the BQ-8 aircraft, loaded with of Torpex explosive, took off to be used against the suspected V-3 development site at Mimoyecques.
Following them in a USAAF photoreconnaissance F-8 Mosquito to film the mission were pilot Lieutenant Robert A. Tunnel and combat cameraman Lieutenant David J. McCarthy, who filmed the event from the perspex nose of the aircraft. As planned, Kennedy and Willy remained aboard as the BQ-8 completed its first remote-controlled turn at near the North Sea coast. Kennedy and Willy removed the safety pin, arming the explosive package, and Kennedy radioed the agreed code Spade Flush, his last known words. Two minutes later, and well before the planned crew bailout near RAF Manston in Kent, the explosives detonated prematurely, destroying the Liberator and instantly killing Kennedy and Willy. Wreckage landed near the village of Blythburgh in Suffolk, England, causing widespread damage and small fires, but there were no injuries on the ground. According to one report, 59 buildings were damaged in a nearby coastal town.
According to USAAF records, the trailing Mosquito "was flying 300 feet above and about 300 yards to the rear of the robot. Engineer photographer on this ship was injured, and the ship was damaged slightly by the explosion." The Mosquito, which made an immediate emergency landing at RAF Halesworth, belonged to the 325th Reconnaissance Wing, a unit under the command of the son of President Franklin Roosevelt, then Colonel Elliott Roosevelt, who years later claimed to have been aboard that trailing aircraft, and his version of the event has gained wide currency. However, Air Force records cannot substantiate it. Instead, an after-action account by the 8th Combat Camera Unit noted:
The eighth CCU film of the event has not been found.
The 20th Fighter Group out of RAF Kings Cliffe, Northamptonshire had provided an escort of four North American P-51 Mustang fighters. VIII FC, Field Order 509 stated "20 GP will proceed to Fersfield and land coordinating with operations where to provide close escort support to one B-34 special Operation."
Lieutenant John E. Klink noted in his mission summary report: "Took off to excort BXXX, 1 B24, 1 B17, 2 B34s, and 3 photo Recons. When specially loaded B24 was at approx. 2000 ft. NE of Ipswich it exploded and crashed near small lake. No one got out of the plane. Rest of ships OK in spite of terrific concussion from explosion. All returned to base."
Accident investigation
Drone operations were paused for a month while equipment was re-evaluated and modified, and there would be no further Navy missions. The Navy's informal board of review, discussing a number of theories, discounted the possibility of the crew making a mistake. It suspected jamming or a stray signal could have armed and detonated the explosives. An electronics officer, Earl Olsen, who believed the wiring harness had a design defect, had warned Kennedy of that possibility the day before the mission but was ignored.Later reports that Kennedy's final mission was kept top secret until many years later are negated by a detailed public account of the operation and Kennedy's death released in 1945.
Recognition and commemoration
Kennedy and Willy were both posthumously awarded the Navy Cross, the Air Medal, and the Purple Heart. The names of both men are listed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial, a cemetery and chapel near the village of Madingley, Cambridgeshire, that commemorates Americans who died in World War II.A commemorative headstone cenotaph for Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. was later erected at Arlington National Cemetery, and a further memorial to him stands inside the fortress of Mimoyecques, France.
In the great reading room of the Harvard Law School Library located in Langdell Hall, there is an inscription engraved in marble on either side of a doorway, honoring and listing the names of Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jr. and other young men of the Harvard Law School who interrupted their studies to serve in World War II and were killed in action. On either side of an opposing doorway on the opposite end of the great reading room, there is a similar monument that honors Harvard Law School students who were killed in action during World War I.
Military awards
Kennedy's military decorations and awards include the following:Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.'s Navy Cross citation reads:
Legacy
In 1946, the Navy named a destroyer after Kennedy, the aboard which his younger brother, the future U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, briefly served. Among the highlights of its service are the blockade of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 and the afloat recovery teams for Gemini 6 and Gemini 7, both 1965 crewed spaceflights in NASA's Gemini program. It was decommissioned in 1973 and is now a floating museum in Battleship Cove, Fall River, Massachusetts.In 1947, the Kennedys established the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation and funded the construction of the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Memorial Hall at Boston College, which is now a part of Campion Hall and home to the college's Lynch School of Education. The foundation was led by his youngest brother, U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, until his death in August 2009. In 1957, the Lieutenant Joseph Patrick Kennedy Junior Memorial Skating Rink was opened in Hyannis, Massachusetts, with funds from the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation.
In 1969, Hank Searls wrote a biography of Joseph Jr., The Lost Prince: Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy. A television movie based on Searls' book won a primetime Emmy in 1977. Peter Strauss played Kennedy as an adult and Lance Kerwin played him as a teenager in the film. He was also portrayed in the 1990 TV miniseries The Kennedys of Massachusetts by Campbell Scott.