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Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jr.

Male 1915 - 1944  (29 years)    Has 43 ancestors but no descendants in this family tree.

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  • Name Joseph Patrick Kennedy 
    Suffix Jr. 
    Birth Jul 1915  Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Death 2 Aug 1944  Suffolk, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Siblings 8 Siblings 
    Person ID I52311  Geneagraphie
    Last Modified 29 Aug 2000 

    Father Joseph Patrick Kennedy,   b. 6 Sep 1888, East Boston, Suffolk Co., Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 18 Nov 1969, Hyannis Port, Barnstable, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 81 years) 
    Mother Rose Elizabeth FitzGerald,   b. 22 Jul 1890, North End, Boston, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 22 Jan 1995, Hyannis Port, Barnstable, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 104 years) 
    Marriage 7 Oct 1914  Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F21296  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Katharine Mortimer,   b. 1923   d. 2003 (Age 80 years) 
    Marriage Type: romantically linked 
    Family ID F367594  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 28 Mar 2013 

  • Event Map Click to hide
    Link to Google MapsBirth - Jul 1915 - Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 
    Pin Legend  : Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  • Photos Photos (Log in)Photos (Log in)

  • Notes 
    • Joseph Patrick was well liked, quick to smile, and had a tremendous dose of Irish charm. He was graduated from Choate School in Connecticut and attended the London School of Economics for one year before entering Harvard in 1934. At Harvard he played football and rugby, served on the Student Council and was graduated in 1938, cum laude. He attended Harvard Law School, but left before his final year to volunteer as a Navy flier. Awarded his wings in May 1942, he flew Caribbean patrols and in September 1943 was sent to England with the first naval squadron to fly B-24's with the British Naval Command. His military service, which ended with his death on August 12, 1944, was described as follows by his brother, John F. Kennedy:
      His squadron, flying in the bitter winter over the Bay of Biscay, suffered heavy casualties, and by the time Joe had completed his designated number of missions in May, he had lost his former co-pilot and a number of close friends.
      Joe refused his proffered leave and persuaded his crew to remain on for D-day. They flew frequently during June and July, and at the end of July they were given another opportunity to go home. He felt it unfair to ask his crew to stay on longer, and they returned to the United States. He remained. For he had heard of a new and special assignment for which volunteers had been requested which would require another month of the most dangerous type of flying.
      ...It may be felt, perhaps, that Joe should not have pushed his luck so far and should have accepted his leave and come home. But two facts must be borne in mind. First, at the time of his death, he had completed probably more combat missions in heavy bombers than any other pilot of his rank in the Navy and therefore was preeminently qualified, and secondly, as he told a friend early in August, he considered the odds at least fifty-fifty, and Joe never asked for any better odds than that.
      The Secret mission on which he lost his life was described by a fellow officer after it was declassified: Joe, regarded as an experienced Patrol Plane Commander, and a fellow-officer, an expert in radio control projects, was to take a "drone" Liberator bomber loaded with 21,170 pounds of high explosives into the air and to stay with it until two "mother" planes had achieved complete radio control over the "drone." They were then to bail out over England; the "drone," under the control of the "mother" planes, was to proceed on the mission which was to culminate in a crash-dive on the target, a V-2 rocket launching site in Normandy. The airplane ... was in flight with routine checking of the radio controls proceeding satisfactorily, when at 6:20 p.m. on August 12, 1944, two explosions blasted the "drone" resulting in the death of its two pilots. No final conclusions as to the cause of the explosions has ever been reached. Joe was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross ... and also the Air Medal ... In 1946 a destroyer, the USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., destroyer No. 850, was launched at the Fore River shipyards as the Navy's final tribute to a gallant officer and his heroic devotion to duty.



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