Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.

Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr. (July 25, 1915 – August 12, 1944) was an American naval aviator who was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. He was a member of the Kennedy family and the oldest 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, 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.

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 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 had been promoted to lieutenant on July 1. 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. 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 (CCU) 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 (two each from the 55th and 79th Fighter Squadrons). VIII FC, Field Order 509 stated "20 GP (P-51's, 4 A/C) 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 (2 Mosq. -1 P38). 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."

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:

Navy CrossDistinguished Flying CrossPurple HeartAir MedalAmerican Defense Service MedalAmerican Campaign Medal w/starEuropean-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal w/starWorld War II Victory Medal

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 became 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 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 and in the 1993 TV miniseries JFK: Reckless Youth by Loren Dean. He is also character in the musical Grey Gardens which has him getting engaged to Little Edie. He will be portrayed by Nick Robinson in the upcoming miniseries Kennedy.