[JimVT]

Kerry is attempting to be our generation’s Vietnam War hero, much the same way his avowed idol, John F. Kennedy was of that generation.

I will never understand how JFK1 got to be a "war hero" by letting a Jap destroyer slice his boat in half!

[Stonewall Jackson]

Kennedy really dropped the ball that night in the Solomons. The only thing that kept him from being court-martialed for his stupidity was his leadership in keeping his men alive over the next several days. No one could ever understand why he carved the rescue message onto a coconut when his exec had a pen and pad of paper in a waterproof pouch. If it had been anyone else, the very least that would have happened would have been an assignment at a Navy weather station in Kansas or somewhere else where they can't cause anymore harm than they already have. (I guess there are advantages to having a father in politics!)

I often wonder how large of a political career JFK would have had if his brother, Joe Jr., had survived the war. FYI-Joe was the pilot of a Navy ASW bomber in England for most of the war. In 1944 he volunteered to pilot an explosives laden bomber into the sky then bail out so that it could be flown by radio-control into one of the production sites for the V-3 rocket. Shortly after takeoff, the bomber exploded in mid-air, killing all onboard. Ironically, the V-3 site had already been abandoned by the Germans. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross. I don't know if his actions merited the Navy Cross, but he knew that the mission was extremely hazardous and he still volunteered for the assignment, so perhaps his actions were deserving of the Navy Cross. At least they are far more deserving of it than his brother's foul-up against the Amagari.

While Kennedy wasn't what you would call the best officer in the world, or the best President for that matter, he did volunteer for duty in a war zone (over the objections of his father) and didn't run home to daddy when the bad guys started shooting at him (ala John Kerry). Yes, he might have been a major league screw-up who shouldn't have been put in charge of a rowboat in a swimming pool, much less the entire country, but at least he didn't try to shaft his fellow veterans when the fighting was over.

As a student of military history, I have read numerous books on the PT Boats during WW2, but everything I have read has always been curved in Kennedy's favor. I have formed some opinions on the man, but I would love to hear yours.