KENNEDY JOHN FITZGERALD (1917-1963).

Lot 106
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Estimation :
1500 - 2000 EUR
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Result : 3 250EUR
KENNEDY JOHN FITZGERALD (1917-1963).
Signed autograph letter, signed « Jack Kennedy », Miami [18 mai 1944], to John E. MAGUIRE, Radioman 2nd Class on the PT-109, at the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons Training Center, in Melville, Rhode Island; 1 page and a quarter, in-4 format, letterhead stationery “Navy Department Submarine Chaser Training Center” (perforations to paper), envelope with autograph inscriptions and J. F. Kennedy’s address on the « P.T. Shakedown »; in English. John E. MAGUIRE, called « Mac », was a member of the crew of the motor torpedo boat commanded by the young Lieutenant Kennedy in the Pacifi c that was ultimately sunk by the Japanese during the Guadalcanal campaign. Both men were PT-109 survivors. The letter documents the enduring sense of camaraderie between the two men, and the warm attachment between them which lasted through Kennedy’s subsequent career in Congress and the Senate. Kennedy sends Mac a photo that Mr. Kernell gave her the day before: “Enclosed please fi nd a picture...featuring you, Mr. Kernell and myself taken that day we waited for so long off Lunga [Guadalcanal] for generals who never showed.” In a postscript, he adds, “That rather gloomy looking gent to the right who is obviously wishing he was back in the States is you.” Kennedy had joined the Navy in September 1941: he and his crew were posted to the Solomon Islands in April 1943, during the critical Guadalcanal campaign, working to interdict Japanese supply columns (“the Tokyo express”). On the night of August 2, 1943, while on patrol in the Solomon Islands, the vessel was rammed by the Japanese destroyer, Amagiri, killing two crewmen. At the time the collision occurred, Maguire and Kennedy were in the cockpit together. After the wreckage of the vessel sank, the surviving crew eventually swam to safety. In spite of his badly injured back, Kennedy swam for four hours towing a wounded crewman by the strap of a life-jacket held in his teeth. After several days on two smal
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