https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/life-of-john-f-kennedy                                            
                                 
                  https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/22/politics/gallery/jfk-assassination-anniversary/index.html



Biography courtesy of https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/john-f-kennedy/

                                                    John F. Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States (1961-1963), the youngest man elected to the office. On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, becoming also the youngest President to die.

On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was killed by an assassin’s bullets as his motorcade wound through Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was the youngest man elected President; he was the youngest to die.

Of Irish descent, he was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. Graduating from Harvard in 1940, he entered the Navy. In 1943, when his PT boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, Kennedy, despite grave injuries, led the survivors through perilous waters to safety.

Back from the war, he became a Democratic Congressman from the Boston area, advancing in 1953 to the Senate. He married Jacqueline Bouvier on September 12, 1953. In 1955, while recuperating from a back operation, he wrote Profiles in Courage, which won the Pulitzer Prize in history.

In 1956 Kennedy almost gained the Democratic nomination for Vice President, and four years later was a first-ballot nominee for President. Millions watched his television debates with the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon. Winning by a narrow margin in the popular vote, Kennedy became the first Roman Catholic President.

His Inaugural Address offered the memorable injunction: “Ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country.” As President, he set out to redeem his campaign pledge to get America moving again. His economic programs launched the country on its longest sustained expansion since World War II; before his death, he laid plans for a massive assault on persisting pockets of privation and poverty.

Responding to ever more urgent demands, he took vigorous action in the cause of equal rights, calling for new civil rights legislation. His vision of America extended to the quality of the national culture and the central role of the arts in a vital society.

He wished America to resume its old mission as the first nation dedicated to the revolution of human rights. With the Alliance for Progress and the Peace Corps, he brought American idealism to the aid of developing nations. But the hard reality of the Communist challenge remained.

Shortly after his inauguration, Kennedy permitted a band of Cuban exiles, already armed and trained, to invade their homeland. The attempt to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro was a failure. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Union renewed its campaign against West Berlin. Kennedy replied by reinforcing the Berlin garrison and increasing the Nation’s military strength, including new efforts in outer space. Confronted by this reaction, Moscow, after the erection of the Berlin Wall, relaxed its pressure in central Europe.

Instead, the Russians now sought to install nuclear missiles in Cuba. When this was discovered by air reconnaissance in October 1962, Kennedy imposed a quarantine on all offensive weapons bound for Cuba. While the world trembled on the brink of nuclear war, the Russians backed down and agreed to take the missiles away. The American response to the Cuban crisis evidently persuaded Moscow of the futility of nuclear blackmail.

Kennedy now contended that both sides had a vital interest in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and slowing the arms race–a contention which led to the test ban treaty of 1963. The months after the Cuban crisis showed significant progress toward his goal of “a world of law and free choice, banishing the world of war and coercion.” His administration thus saw the beginning of new hope for both the equal rights of Americans and the peace of the world.

*The preceding content is not intended as a comprehensive biography, but it highlights their significance as a result of military or civilian distinction, lasting achievements, or association with impactful national events. 

John F. Kennedy and WWII friends in Hyannisport, 1944. Front, left to right: Edward Kennedy, Joe Gargan; back, left to right: Paul "Red" Fay, John F. Kennedy, L.J. Thom, Jim Reed, Barney Ross, and Bernie Lyons.

Date: 1944
From: JFK Library

Lt. John F. Kennedy, USNR, is awarded the Navy and Marine Corps medal for "...extremely heroic conduct as Commanding Officer of Motor Torpedo Boat 109...".  The Medal was presented to John F. Kennedy by Captain Frederick L. Conklin, Commandant of the Chelsea Naval Hospital, at the hospital in Massachusetts for Kennedy's heroics in the rescue of the crew of PT 109 during WWII on August 2, 1943 when the motor torpedo boat was struck by a Japanese destroyer.

Date: June 12, 1944   
From: JFK Library

JFK awarded the Navy and Marine Corps medal

The Navy Marine Corps Medal (on left) is an octagonal shaped medal depicting an eagle perched on a fouled anchor, beneath which is a globe and raised inscription "HEROISM", suspended from a blue, gold and scarlet ribbon.

The Purple Heart (on right) is a heart shaped decoration depicting the profile of George Washington set in purple enamel surrounded by a gold border, suspended from a purple silk ribbon with white borders.  At the top of the heart is the Washington Coat of Arms consisting of a white shield with two horizontal red bars below three red stars, set between sprays of green leaves.  The reverse shows a raised bronze heart and "FOR MILITARY MERIT".

The medals were presented to Lt. Kennedy in June 1944 for his heroics and injuries sustained in the rescue of the crew of PT 109 during WWII on August 2, 1943 when the motor torpedo boat was struck by a Japanese destroyer.

Credit Line: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, MA; Gift of the Estate of President John F. Kennedy

                https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/media-galleries/world-war-ii

                           

PT 109 crew commanded by Lt. John F. Kennedy 

PT boat officers, Reed, Kennedy, Ross and Fay

 John F. Kennedy on the left is seen with his older brother Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. 

On the left is John F. Kennedy and on the right is Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. 

Navy Lieutenant Junior Grade John F. Kennedy, 1942

From John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.   Photograph by Frank Turgeon Jr.

Arlington National Cemetery

Thank you for your service,  President Kennedy, on this the 81st anniversary of the sinking of PT-109.   You will never be forgotten.  May you always Rest in Peace

Thank you for your service Mr. President.  

JFK poem
In wartime's commotion, he is the representation of grace, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, his bravery we have embraced. From the halls of Harvard to the South Pacific, 
he a naval hero, destined to become an icon.
On PT-109, during the fight, his team struck down, yet he had to find a way. With great courage, he was commanding through dangerous waters for hours.
Facing the waves, his courage unbreakable, rescuing his comrades, in the midst of suffering, 
is a testament to his honor.
Purple Heart, decorated with medals gleaming in service to his nation, he will forever be recognized. From his naval battles to political office his legacy remains.
In Arlington Cemetery he rests being a patriot remembered with the best. Through his words and others, we can tell his story, JFK will forever be written into the textbooks.

The legacy you began carries on. Thank you for your service to our nation.

Thank your for your service, sir.  You inspire many still.

November 22, 1963, really ate me up. A month after the assassination — and I first revealed this in my 2022 book, My Travels with Mrs. Kennedy — I tried to drown myself in the ocean in Palm Beach, Florida. I was up to my neck, fully clothed, when a police officer pulled me back to shore. 

I stayed with Mrs. Kennedy for another year and returned to the White House, rising through the ranks of the service under Presidents Johnson, Nixon and Ford. But I was struggling. One question always haunted me: Could I have done something to save President Kennedy?

I suffered from a variety of health conditions, and in 1975, I failed a physical exam at Bethesda Naval Hospital. The Secret Service retired me that summer. I was only 43 at the time.

I owned some property in North Dakota and flew out to work the land, but when I returned home to Virginia, I just wasn’t functioning. I became very depressed. I started drinking Scotch, and I smoked heavily. One morning when I was 50, I woke up, reached over for a cigarette and thought, Why are you doing this? I stopped cold turkey and soon decided to stop drinking too.

In 2009, a former fellow Secret Service agent who was writing a book wanted me to meet the journalist helping him. When Lisa McCubbin and I met, it was the first time since I’d spoken with the Warren Commission that I’d talked about the events of that fateful day. It had been all bottled up inside. The more I opened up, the better and lighter I felt. Lisa and I ended up writing four books together. We got to know each other very well, and she and I got married in late 2021.

My friends keep saying the same thing: “Clint, you’re a different man than you were in the 1970s and ’80s.” That’s because I believed back then that you could just push away your problems by putting your shoulder to the grindstone. Nobody talked about PTSD. There was no counseling for guys like me. Now when I talk to groups or meet people struggling with trauma, I tell them to find somebody they can talk to. It could be a friend, their spouse, a priest, a rabbi, a minister, a schoolteacher, a therapist. No matter how old you are, talking about it will help.

I Survived the JFK Assassination
Secret Service agent Clint Hill endured one of the darkest moments in history. Here’s what he learned

As told to David Hochman,   AARP
Published November 15, 2023
https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/history/info-2023/i-survived-john-f-kennedy-assassination.html 

 


JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY

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