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World War II-dated TLS signed “Jack Kennedy,” one page, 7.25 x 10.5, United States Navy letterhead, postmarked November 18, 1944. Handwritten letter to “Mac,” fellow PT-109 survivor John E. Maguire, in full: “Thanks for your letter — it was a pleasure that you both and your wives came — and I hope that it wasn't too much work for your wife driving both ways. I suppose you handle the radio. Mac — I'v[e] arranged to have some more of those pictures made of the crew of the I09. Write me and let me know who wants them…Also I'd like to send one to Harriss' family. Would you [to] try to find their address? Also was Palmerlees first name…Bill? Went up before the Survey Board the other day — and I'm on my way out. It's going to seem peciliar [sic] paying full price at those movie theaters again. It won't seem quite right until everyone is out, I don't think. Going to spend Christmas with the folks and then going to go to Arizona for a pretty long time, I guess. If there is anything I can do, let me know and best regards to the boys.” Includes the original free franked mailing envelope, 7.5 x 4, hand-addressed by Kennedy, who incorporates his signature in the return address area, "Lt. J. F. Kennedy, U.S. Naval Hospital, Chelsea–Mass.” Marked "Free" in the upper right and postmarked in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 18, 1944. In overall fine condition.
On April 24, 1943, Kennedy took command of PT-109, based in the Solomon Islands. In the early morning of August 2, 1943, Lieutenant Kennedy’s PT-109 was struck by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri in the Blackett Strait. Two crew members were killed, but Kennedy and ten others survived — including Radioman, Second Class John E. Maguire — and swam more than three miles to a deserted island. Kennedy clenched the strap of a badly burned crew member’s life jacket between his teeth and towed him to safety.
Over the next week, Kennedy or the entire crew swam to additional islands looking for food and fresh water. On one, Kennedy found packages of crackers and a fifty-gallon drum of drinkable water left by the Japanese and a small canoe, which he paddled back to his starving crew. After native scouts found the crew and took a message scratched on a coconut shell to allied authorities, another PT boat rescued them on August 8th. Kennedy later received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism for his actions in saving the crew.
He returned to duty for several months in the Solomon Islands before a doctor relieved him of command because of his back injuries. He was sent back to the United States in January 1944 and was soon stationed at the Submarine Chaser Training Center in Miami. From May to December 1944, Kennedy was hospitalized at the Chelsea Naval Hospital in Massachusetts for back surgery and recuperation, then released from active duty. After more therapy at a military hospital in Arizona, Kennedy retired from the Naval Reserve on physical disability and was honorably discharged with the full rank of lieutenant on March 1, 1945.
John Maguire later worked in Kennedy's congressional and presidential campaigns, and when Kennedy was elected president, Maguire was commissioned U.S. marshal for the Middle District of Florida, a position he held for nine years until Nixon became president. Maguire once said of Kennedy: 'He was my commanding officer, my president and my friend. I'll never forget him.'
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