Episode 159: Castaway; JFK, Part VI

After PT 109 is ripped in two, the eleven men who miraculously survive spend the next four days looking for rescue before they die of dehydration and before the thousands of Japanese troops surrounding them become away of their presence... This is also why JFK will have a coconut on his desk in the oval office.

 

Episode 158: Forged in Fire; JFK, Part V

In the chaos following PT 109's collision with INJ Amagiri, Jack Kennedy does everything he can to rescue his shipmates and when it becomes obvious that no one is coming to rescue them, he choses an island deep inside enemy territory and hopes it is small enough to be of no strategic value to the Japanese; but only time will tell if it is garrisoned or not.

Episode 157: Ripped in Two; JFK, Part IV

 

Jack Kennedy finally takes command of a PT boat in a combat zone and begins to settle into what turns out to be a fairly rough existence in a place that turns out to be less than the paradise it looked like at first glance.

His commander, not a PT man himself, comes up with a plan to attack a Japanese convoy, but the plan isn't great to start with and after it's implementation,  everything that can go wrong, seems to; which will nearly cost JFK his life.

Episode 156: In the Navy; JFK, Part III

 

After graduating form Harvard, JFK isn't sure of his next steps. He knows that he needs to find a way to serve - the world is at war and everyone is sure the US will soon join the fight.

With the help of his father, he follows his brother's footsteps and joins the navy, but soon both Kennedy boys realize their dad is likely pulling strings to keep them out of harms way... and having raised children taught to fight for what they want, both eventually go behind their father's back and get into the fight.

Episode 155: Harvard, London, and a World at War; JFK, Part II

 

JFK's collegiate path was never in doubt - his application essay (which I read in full on the podcast) is evidence of that - but after he begins university, his father's new senior position in the US government gives Jack a front row seat to the collapse of peace in Europe and leaves his struggling with how and why it happened.

Fortunately for him, that gives him a great idea for his senior thesis, which becomes a best selling book, but also leaves his grappling which what his role will be when the United States inevitably enters World War II.

Episode 154: Brookline to Hyannis Port - Growing Up Kennedy; JFK, Part I

 

Jack Kennedy - Age 10

More than four years ago - way back in Episode 13 - I shared the story of President John F. Kennedy's funeral as part of the series on the establishment of Arlington as a cemetery. At that time I said that I would probably share the story of how Kennedy became eligible for burial at Arlington (specifically his military service, not his election as president), and that time has finally come.

Jack Kennedy (left) age 2 and Joe, Jr age 4

But before we get to his time in the Navy, I am going to talk a little about his childhood, which was not as idyllic as it may have seemed from the outside (just wait until you hear younger brother Bobby's recollection about what Joe, Jr. like to do to poor Jack when they were young).

JFK - age 8 (second from left) and his siblings at Hyannis Port, MA

Episode 153: A Soldier of Three Armies

 

US Army Major Larry Thorne is the only known SS officer buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He was also an officer in the Finish army that fought the Russians several times during World War II and he was one the early US Army Special Forces (Green Berets) officers.

In his Finnish Uniform

Thorne's story is a truly remarkable tale about a man who went to great lengths to try to keep his county out of the Soviet Union's sphere of influence, and when that failed, he looked for other ways to continue the fight against communism. He also stepped on multiple land mines at a time he should have really been watching where he placed his feet.

Major Larry Alan Thorne is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Section 60, Grave 8136.