Kennedy: Brinkley's Tour of Duty reminds me of PT-109

[blm]

Tour of Duty will be released nationally on Jan.6. A Veterans Brigade headed by Max Cleland will be traveling around Iowa also for the next two weeks. More info at the link.

http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/releases/pr_2004_0103c.html

Tour of Duty

Historian Douglas Brinkley will be in Iowa prior to the caucus as part of his four-state book tour for Tour of Duty, his first full-scale account of John Kerry’s experience as a U.S. Navy patrol-boat skipper in Vietnam. The book will be released nationally on Tuesday, January 6.

“Douglas Brinkley's Tour of Duty reminds me of PT-109.  This book is a vivid chronicle of the horrors of war and a young man's extraordinary experience in coming to terms with it.  The story of John Kerry's journey from brave Swift boat commander in Vietnam to leading anti-war activist is a must-read. It captures the essence of a true profile in courage who changed America for the better and can do so again,” said Senator Edward Kennedy

In writing the book, Brinkley drew on extensive interviews with virtually everyone who knew Kerry well in Vietnam, including all the men still living who served under him. Kerry also entrusted to Brinkley his letters home from Vietnam and his voluminous “War Notes” – journals, notebooks, and personal reminiscences written during and shortly after the war. This material was provided without restriction, to be used at Brinkley's discretion, and has never before been published.
>>>>>>>

[dobak]

1. looking forward to it...

I am supporting Clark, but Kerry is a good man

[Octafish]

2. Good and brave people, those Kennedys.

... And they know a good person when they see one, so it's no surprise they endorse John Kerry.

BTW: The story of PT-109 demonstrates the real courage of John F. Kennedy. Less well known is the story of President Kennedy's big brother:

Ensign Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. with his Navy flight trainer.



The President’s big brother was the one being groomed for a life in politics by The Old Man. He had served as a delegate from Massachusetts voting for FDR at the 1940 Democratic convention. A very brave, athletic and conscientious young man, he volunteered for service in the US Navy before World War II. Here's how he died.

After completing his tour as pilot of a US Navy B-24 Liberator on anti-submarine warfare patrol from 1943-44 over the North Atlantic, flying out of an airbase in England, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. volunteered for a top-secret mission in which he would pilot an experimental version of the 4-engine B-24 bomber. The plane had been converted from being a 10-man bomber, capable of carrying sixteen 500 pound bombs, into one giant flying bomb.

The plan was called: Operation Aphrodite. The objective was to knock out the V-2 sites along the coast of France. A secret weapon the Navy, in cooperation with the Army Air Corps, wanted to use against the German V-2 sites along the coast of France.

One of Hitler's superweapons, the V-2 was developed by Werner von Braun and his team at Peenemünde. History's first ballistic missiles were used to rain death, destruction and terror upon London. The allies were worried that if the Nazis continued developing their super-weapons, the V-2’s descendants would be delivering bombs — possibly atomic — to New York City.

Kennedy’s job was to get the ship airborne from its airfield in Great Britain, point it toward Europe, and bail out over the countryside. Sounds simple, but it was anything but. It was state-of-the-art science, engineering, and warfare. Joe Kennedy’s plane was among a few Liberators and Flying Fortresses modified for a very early version of remote control.

The ship, basically, was history’s first guided missile. The entire fuselage was filled with Torpex and gelignite, IIRC, and was to be armed by a rather elaborate, and untested, electronic arming panel.

Like something out of Buck Rogers, the Navy equipped the airplane with a primitive 2-channel remote-control pilot. One radio signal could make the plane dive and climb and another signal could make it turn left and right. A prototype video camera would also send information to the Mother Ship, where the remote pilot sat before a tiny TV monitor.

Joe Kennedy and his fellow volunteer pilots were needed to get the flying bombs airborne. One aloft, they were to turn on the radio-guidance controls and arm the flying bomb. Then, somewhere over the English countryside, the pilot and bombardier were to bail out at an altitude of about ONE THOUSAND FEET.

The scientists and engineers in the Mother Ship would take over and signal on two radio frequencies: One to turn the stick RIGHT or LEFT; or push the stick FORWARD or pull the stick BACK. Primitive today, they were the first remote-controlled weapon of mass destruction. The Mother Ship would follow two miles or so back and then fly it over the English Channel and guide it down into the rocket launch sites.

It was dangerous work. Because of the modifications to the B-17s, one pilot was killed and another lost an arm in the process. By the time it was Joe’s turn in the B-24 there was reason for concern about a plan that was seeming to look like a suicide mission.

For the Kennedys and the future of American politics, the tragedy was that the Navy ship used a rather primitive arming panel. The regular engineer/co-pilot refused to fly and instead the Navy sent aloft the engineer who designed and installed the system.

Over the English countryside, the ship exploded, killing the two flyers and changing American political history. Joe's younger brother John Fitzgerald Kennedy then became the heir to the family's political ambitions.

John F. Kennedy made an outstanding President, living up to his brother’s promise of greatness. JFK, it should be remembered, saved the world from nuclear annihilation during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

While he never lived to see the dream realized, JFK also stretched mankind’s imagination and reach to the moon. Ironically, he even used the NAZI rocket scientist who developed the V-2 to do so. The same von Braun who the allied air command sent his lost brother, Joseph, to destroy.

— Octafish

# # #

Two outstanding books on the subject of Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. and his service in World War II:

“Aphrodite: Desperate Mission” by Jack Olsen

and

“The Lost Prince: Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy” by Hank Searls.

[JohnKleeb]

3. Kennedy outta campaign for Kerry

I really think it would help him out.

[JI7]

4. i got a borders gift card for christmas

i wanted to buy this book ever since i heard of it. when i got the gift card from my cousin i knew this was just what i wanted to use it for. and i will probably be there on the first day of the release to buy it. can't wait to read it.

[blm]

5. Just ordered it.

Yay.