| Destroyer
Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., known by her crew as the "Joey P," was
laid down April 2, 1945, by the Bethlehem Steel Company at the Fore River Shipyard
in Quincy, MA. Launched on July 26, 1945, and commissioned on December 15, 1945,
she was completed in only 8 months, reflective of the fast pace of shipbuilding
during the last year of WWII.
Homeported
in nearby Newport, RI, Kennedy spent the next 27 years performing countless
duties. Following commissioning, she spent the rest of the decade conducting training
exercises in the Atlantic and Caribbean, and executed peacekeeping duties as a
member of the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. On February 3, 1951, she joined
the carrier task force attacking North Korean positions.
In May of that year she stood off Wonsan, North Korea, using her 5" guns
for nearly a month of continuous bombardment duty. Kennedy left the war
zone and arrived back in the States in August 1951, and for the next several years
she completed several Sixth Fleet tours of duty, midshipmen cruises, and joint
NATO maneuvers.
In
early 1961 she operated in the Caribbean, assisting with the first Mercury
space flights. She arrived at New York Naval Shipyard in July for renovation under
the FRAM I (Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization) program. This conversion afforded
her new anti-submarine gear, a helicopter hangar
and flight deck, and other improvements designed to extend her useful life. Following
a post-refit shakedown cruise, she returned to Newport in September 1962 to embark
President John F. Kennedy for his observation of that
year's America's Cup Races. In October Kennedy
was dispatched to the Caribbean to participate in the naval
blockade of Cuba. It was here on October 26 that Kennedy stopped and
boarded the Greek freighter Marucla, suspected of ferrying missile components
to Cuba.
From the early 1960s until her decommissioning
in 1973, Kennedy again performed innumerable duties, including her role
as a recovery vessel during the Gemini space program. She was stricken
from the Naval Register of Ships in 1973 and acquired by Battleship Cove in 1974.
In Spring 2000, Kennedy was towed to Rhode Island sound to portray herself
and her sister ship John R. Pierce (DD753) in the Kevin Costner film entitled
Thirteen Days, which recreated the events
surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis.
A
National Historic Landmark, USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. is home to the Admiral
Arleigh Burke National Destroyermen's Museum and serves as the official memorial
to Bay State citizens who gave their lives during the Korean
and Vietnam Wars. For
a printer-friendly history of USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., follow this
link. |
