Kerry's Dark Side.... Very interesting...

[Rowdyboy]

http://www.newhavenregister.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10306604&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=517515&rfi=6

I knew people like him in college.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

1. "Kerry Bio piece I haven't see. Very interesting..." that's what you 'had'

why the hell did you change the title of the thread?
Dark side? WTF? Kerry's philosophical and reflective and you want to characterize it as 'dark'? I think the following is a better example of this quiet side of John:

"Thorne remembered that on Nov. 22, 1963, he and Kerry were playing soccer against Princeton when word filtered down to the bench that Kennedy had been assassinated.

"John was white as a sheet," Thorne said. "He went off by himself, to church."

"John spent the weekend about 4 feet away from the little black-and-white TV we had in our room," Bundy said. "He was absolutely dumbstruck."

[PATRICK]

6. as one of that generation

We were ALL pretty dumbstruck except maybe for the hottin and hollerin righties in Texas mourning for their stricken Connally. In fact I would say my own inner turmoil was far darker than that mentioned in the article.

That was the end of hope and the sham at the same time, the day we should have rebuilt democracy and peace from scratch- only it got meaner and more distracted after the pagan choruses retired waiting for the RFK and MLK encores.

[Zan_of_Texas]

8. We were ALL pretty dumbstruck

Totally true. I was like a walking zombie for several days after the assassination of JFK. I could not believe it.

Interesting piece, although I didn't see any dark side. (Except for the Skull & Bones, which presumably DUers already know.)

[Rowdyboy]

7. To be honest....I posted a piece I thought was interesting

under a boring headline. After 10 minutes, it was dropping like a stone. So I edited the subject line to make it sexier. It worked.

I'm not a Kerry supporter, he's 3rd or 4th on my list. But I felt this piece was worthwhile and helps to humanize a good Democrat. Read it and see what you think.

[JI7]

9. that's what i thought

i think it is true a headline like "kerry's dark side" would get more attention than something like "kerry's bio, or life etc". and thanks for posting it.

[Rowdyboy]

10. We have a tremendous field of candidates...

The best since 1976 (Carter, Udall, Harris, Muskie etc)

We should do whatever is necessary to draw attention to our guys.

[maggrwaggr]

2. uh ... how is that his "dark side?" Looks like a very positive piece

just read it. Maybe I missed something you didn't.

Explain.

[FlemingsGhost]

5. I think he/she is being facetious

:shrug:

[1monster]

3. That's a dark side?

[WilliamPitt]

4. "I knew people like him in college"

Count yourself fortunate.

[freethought]

11. You call that a 'Dark Side'?

Sounds more like to me that Kerry knows how to cut loose occasionally and has his quirks just like everyone else.
Competitive, intelligent, studious, sometimes impatient and is able to retain friendships over the long hall.
Hhhmmm.

Some 'dark side'.

[thebigidea]

12. you missed the bit that talks about his ravenous thirst for human blood

small print, though.

[neebob]

13. Oh, goody, another Bonesman. nt

[Octafish]

14. Great article.

There's no "dark side" that I could see, though.
John Kerry is the kind of guy most men wish they were,
to borrow a phrase from Oliver Stone's Nixon.


This man got a note from his doctor stating his back was sufficiently strong
to serve in the United States Navy.

[blm]

15. Kennedy looks so slender in that picture.

But, WOW...what a heroic approach to life he had.

[Cooley Hurd]

16. JFK was a hero by no stretch of the imagination...

...and the same goes for JPK Jr, who lost his life while on a dangerous volunteer assignment. That's why the right wing is so eager to tarnish his reputation, because they have NO ONE who even comes close to the heroism of the Kennedy boys...

Not only can't the chickenhawks match their heroism, they can't even say they got laid more (that's what they're really pissed about - can you see Richard Perle getting the girls Jack and Bobby did? ;) )

[UTUSN]

17. Kick for Great Article, Despite *All* the Headlines n/t

[blm]

18. Hahah....good one.

and SO true.

[Octafish]

19. Here's a picture and story about Joe Jr.

Ensign Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. with his Navy flight trainer.



The President’s big brother was the one being groomed for a life in politics by The Old Man. He had served as a delegate from Massachusetts voting for FDR at the 1940 Democratic convention. A very brave, athletic and conscientious young man, he volunteered for service in the US Navy before World War II. Here's how he died.

After completing his tour as pilot of a US Navy B-24 Liberator on anti-submarine warfare patrol from 1943-44 over the North Atlantic, flying out of an airbase in England, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. volunteered for a top-secret mission in which he would pilot an experimental version of the 4-engine B-24 bomber. The plane had been converted from being a 10-man bomber, capable of carrying sixteen 500 pound bombs, into one giant flying bomb.

The plan was called: Operation Aphrodite. The objective was to knock out the V-2 sites along the coast of France. A secret weapon the Navy, in cooperation with the Army Air Corps, wanted to use against the German V-2 sites along the coast of France.

One of Hitler's superweapons, the V-2 was developed by Werner von Braun and his team at Peenemünde. History's first ballistic missiles were used to rain death, destruction and terror upon London. The allies were worried that if the Nazis continued developing their super-weapons, the V-2’s descendants would be delivering bombs — possibly atomic — to New York City.

Kennedy’s job was to get the ship airborne from its airfield in Great Britain, point it toward Europe, and bail out over the countryside. Sounds simple, but it was anything but. It was state-of-the-art science, engineering, and warfare. Joe Kennedy’s plane was among a few Liberators and Flying Fortresses modified for a very early version of remote control.

The ship, basically, was history’s first guided missile. The entire fuselage was filled with Torpex and gelignite, IIRC, and was to be armed by a rather elaborate, and untested, electronic arming panel.

Like something out of Buck Rogers, the Navy equipped the airplane with a primitive 2-channel remote-control pilot. One radio signal could make the plane dive and climb and another signal could make it turn left and right. A prototype video camera would also send information to the Mother Ship, where the remote pilot sat before a tiny TV monitor.

Joe Kennedy and his fellow volunteer pilots were needed to get the flying bombs airborne. One aloft, they were to turn on the radio-guidance controls and arm the flying bomb. Then, somewhere over the English countryside, the pilot and bombardier were to bail out at an altitude of about ONE THOUSAND FEET.

The scientists and engineers in the Mother Ship would take over and signal on two radio frequencies: One to turn the stick RIGHT or LEFT; or push the stick FORWARD or pull the stick BACK. Primitive today, they were the first remote-controlled weapon of mass destruction. The Mother Ship would follow two miles or so back and then fly it over the English Channel and guide it down into the rocket launch sites.

It was dangerous work. Because of the modifications to the B-17s, one pilot was killed and another lost an arm in the process. By the time it was Joe’s turn in the B-24 there was reason for concern about a plan that was seeming to look like a suicide mission.

For the Kennedys and the future of American politics, the tragedy was that the Navy ship used a rather primitive arming panel. The regular engineer/co-pilot refused to fly and instead the Navy sent aloft the engineer who designed and installed the system.

Over the English countryside, the ship exploded, killing the two flyers and changing American political history. Joe's younger brother John Fitzgerald Kennedy then became the heir to the family's political ambitions.

John F. Kennedy made an outstanding President, living up to his brother’s promise of greatness. JFK, it should be remembered, saved the world from nuclear annihilation during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

While he never lived to see the dream realized, JFK also stretched mankind’s imagination and reach to the moon. Ironically, he even used the NAZI rocket scientist who developed the V-2 to do so. The same von Braun who the allied air command sent his lost brother, Joseph, to destroy.

— Octafish

# # #

Two outstanding books on the subject of Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. and his service in World War II:

“Aphrodite: Desperate Mission” by Jack Olsen

and

“The Lost Prince: Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy” by Hank Searls.

[blm]

20. You have great resources, Octafish.

Did you major in History?