Jet crash that opened US presidency to JFK
Residents in a quiet English village are calling for a permanent memorial to the older brother of JFK who had been tipped as a future US president but died in a plane crash.
Lieutenant Joe P Kennedy, the brother of John F Kennedy, had been at the controls of an American bomber flying over Blythburgh in Suffolk in August 1944 after taking off from RAF Fersfield.
The navy pilot had been on a top secret mission named Operation Anvil, which aimed to target German forces in northern France. But the aircraft, packed with 21,000lbs of explosives blew up killing all on board and the remains of the crew were never found.
Lieutenant Kennedy's death hit the family hard, particularly his father Joe Kennedy Senior, who was said to have been grooming him to be the first Irish Catholic US president.
After his death, the former American ambassador to the UK, then started pinning his hopes on his second son John, who eventually became the 35th president of the United States in January 1961.
No memorial or has ever been put up in the village and there is no grave for the former pilot and now local military groups are calling for a simple tribute.
It is thought that the crash had been caused by a lack of electrical shielding and Lieutenant Kennedy was posthumously awarded the the Navy Cross, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal.
It is also understood that JFK later visited the crash site of where his brother died.
Comments