The wrong Kennedy became President. Joseph, Jr. was born in 1915 to a millionaire business man and politician and the daughter of the Mayor of Boston. The first of nine children, he graduated from Harvard and planned on get a law degree and running for public office. His father planned on putting all the family’s riches and influence behind their #1 son. Joseph, Sr. was positive he could make his son President one day. He did not stop him from enlisting in the Navy in June, 1941, probably figuring military service would enhance his political career. Joseph, Jr. competed flight school and started his military career flying over the Caribbean on patrols. Next, he was shipped to Great Britain where he joined British Naval Command. He flew a specially adapted B-24 Liberator (designated the PB4Y) on anti-submarine patrols. The sight of an enemy plane would force u-boats to dive, thus making them less of a threat to convoys. After completing the minimum 25 missions, he was eligible to end his time in combat, but instead he volunteered for Operation Aphrodite. Lt. Gen. Jimmy Doolittle had green-lit this super-secret project. It called for the use of bombers loaded with explosives to be remote-controlled into German targets. Because of the possibility of a catastrophic premature explosion, the drones (a term coined for this project) had to take-off under the control of a pilot and co-pilot. Once airborne and under remote control, the pair would arm the explosives and bail out. On August 12, 1944, Lt. Kennedy and his co-pilot Lt. Wilford Willy took off from a British base. Their target was some u-boat pens in Norway. The pens were fortified with a lot of concrete and had proved impregnable to conventional bombing. (Some sources claim the mission was against a V-2 site.) After orbiting for a while to make sure the remote worked, they armed the 21,000 pounds of Torpex (a type of explosive) and prepared to bail out. Kennedy radioed the code words “Spade Flush” to indicate they were about to abandon the plane when it exploded, instantly killing both men. Even today, it is unclear what caused the accident. Perhaps a faulty connection or German jamming of the radio signals or a stray signal. Kennedy was awarded the Navy Cross. The family’s next oldest brother, John, took up the torch of becoming President.
https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/joseph-kennedy-jr
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_P._Kennedy_Jr.
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