interesting JFK fact....

THC

I got a two dvd set on JFK by the History Channel from the library the other day...

anyway....apparently JFK was a rather sickly child...and later adult (very bad back, and intenstinal disease - which the family/administration very actively hid from the public).

he was read his last rights (in anticipation he would die shortly) 5 times in his life. 2-3 while a small child....and 1-2 later on in his adult life.

interesting aye?

SweetHarmonics

which is the reason Joe Sr. never figured him into his political equation

Joe Jr was a built athlete and made better grades, he was the obvious choice to come out as a candidate type....then the heroic PT-109 stuff went down and Joe Jr had to outdo his younger sibling and meet his fate in a fiery crash

the rescue mission brought even more physical maladies for JFK, in addition to the back injury he swallowed a bunch of fuel which did all kinds of internal damage

addendum: note how the big lib really came through in the clutch while the hawks always seem to skip out on their service

DriftingByTheStorm

THC wrote:

I got a two dvd set on JFK by the History Channel from the library the other day...

anyway....apparently JFK was a rather sickly child...and later adult (very bad back, and intenstinal disease - which the family/administration very actively hid from the public).

he was read his last rights (in anticipation he would die shortly) 5 times in his life. 2-3 while a small child....and 1-2 later on in his adult life.

interesting aye?

That is interesting.

On the subject of his last rights, another "amusing" anecdote is that when the motorcade got to Parkland, with JFK dead on arrival and after the doctors tried revive him anyhow, the priest came to read him his last rights ...

whatever section of the bible he had opened to and began reading, Jackie O. ddid NOT find this comforting and interjected, "no. no. no! his last rights, don't you understand? His ... last ... rights!" ... the priest immediately paused, thumbed to a different section and began reading anew.

I was fascinated by that tidbit, along with the mention that she did not cry at all during the events of that day (some say due to severe shock trauma, i tend to believe it was more through sheer resolve and character) and only later in the week, at the funeral, did she openly grieve.

She did say several indicatory things though. When she was on the back of the motorcade holding John, she said (per John Connoly), "My god, i've got his brains in my hand".

And then on three different occassions, including the most memorable, when with her clothes covered in his blood, a reporter asked her if she might want to change in to fresh dress, said, "No. I want everyone to see what they did to him".

She said that 3 times that day, "what they did to him".

Hmm.
THEY?

ledvedderman

Joe Sr. would always talk about Joe Jr. how he would grow up to be a great President. It's hard to think that this family could have had at least 3 Presidents.

Bobby getting gunned down I think is as sad as it gets. He would have been a great President.

THC

another interesting tib bit was that JFK was in office 1000 days exactly. and what a mark he made!

also...during the cuban missle crisis...the actual tapes of those events from the white house show how great a leader he was...
all his military and advisors said.."invade Cuba"...JFK was litterally one of the only ones who wanted another option.
then they had a Russian guy who was manning some of the missles...and he said they had like 90 nukes aimed at us...and if we had invaded...the last thing he would do before he died was shoot every last one of those missles at the u.s.
(thank God he didn't listen to his war hawk military advisors on that one...)

ledvedderman

Has anyone here read "The Guns of August"? I first heard about this book from the movie "Thirteen Days", that JFK used as his basis for his train of thought during the Cuban missle crisis.

It's a great account of history and after reading it I can see how JFK adapted some of it's lessons into his thinking.

tybird

SweetHarmonics wrote:

addendum: note how the big lib really came through in the clutch while the hawks always seem to skip out on their service

Bush Sr. did his turn fighting in the Pacific....was a fighter pilot in the Marines or the Navy. Of course, Ike saw a little action in WWII. I know that Nixon and Ford were both in the service, but I can't remember where and how they spent WWII. Reagan would have been in his thirties by then, not sure what he did. I don't even recall what LBJ actually did during the war....but he served in some capacity.

Clinton and Bush Jr. are the torch bearers for skipping out on the military service.

DriftingByTheStorm

ledvedderman wrote:

Joe Sr. would always talk about Joe Jr. how he would grow up to be a great President. It's hard to think that this family could have had at least 3 Presidents.

Bobby getting gunned down I think is as sad as it gets. He would have been a great President.

Yeah.
Bobby got gunned down by "the establishment" as well.
There is apparently a good bit of controversy over the Sirhan Sirhan lone gunman theory. I have yet to dig in to that.

Either way, you're right.
From what little i know he had done so much in his previous positions to motivate and magnetize the people around him. It is sad that the Kennedys never really had their time in office. It is real sad.

:(

TVVNCYBRAPJ

LBJ was a Congressman during WWII, Ford was a Lt. on the USS Monterey, an aircraft carrier in the Pacific, Carter joined the service in 46, Reagan made training films for the air corps, Nixon was a Lt. Commander in the Pacific theatre. Bush was the pilot of a Grumman Avenger, a torpedo attack plane, flying off the navy's USS San Jacinto.

Theodore Roosevelt Jr served in both World Wars, and as the assistant division commander of the 4th Infantry Division as a brigadier general, Roosevelt was the first off his landing craft at Utah Beach. He was also the only general to land with the first wave of troops on D-Day. (Roosevelt was portrayed by Henry Fonda in the 1962 war classic The Longest Day.) A presidents son in the first wave of troops on D-Day! He could've stayed on the ship with the other generals, but he was the first out of the boat.

Anon

THC wrote:

I got a two dvd set on JFK by the History Channel from the library the other day...

anyway....apparently JFK was a rather sickly child...and later adult (very bad back, and intenstinal disease - which the family/administration very actively hid from the public).

he was read his last rights (in anticipation he would die shortly) 5 times in his life. 2-3 while a small child....and 1-2 later on in his adult life.

interesting aye?

I watched that recently. They made mention on more than one occasion that he always said and truly believed that he would not live a long life. He expected to die young.
And it was definitely interesting to watch.