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h-l-v-kennedy-blog · 23 days ago

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Part Two: “A String of Pearls”

pairing: john f. kennedy/oc (sabrina e. overstreet)

word count: 1,937 (I know, I went off with this one)

warnings: none, just a slow-burn romance (its not simmering yet)

summary: 1938, London, Kick, hand-touches and a new friend.

a/n: here's the next part, with some slightly jealous-Jack thrown in there.

One year bled into another, 1936 soon changed to 1938, bringing the Kennedys to the Court of St. James. The Overstreet’s remained across the Atlantic, Sabrina's brother Anthony (better known as simply Tony, two years younger than Sabrina) would join his sister in the world of college academia, starting his freshman term at Stanford in 1938, with a focus on Economics and Finance (having graduated a year earlier from Choate, and yes, the Kennedys and Overstreets had their kids attend similar schools), and Sabrina moved along in her studies at Wellesley, her concentration in Classics and History.

She kept close correspondence with the golden trio (though Joe Jr. seemed at a distance for her, since she found his letters mostly focused on “Dad said this, Dad did that” which cooled her interest in him). But Jack and Kick both were more of their own minds and filled their letters with stories of a gossipier nature (be it who Kick had met in London or who Jack was going out with or what either of them were reading or doing), and until Jack left for England, he visited the Wellesley campus. Although most of the time not explicitly to see her, since he and his Harvard pals frequented almost all the New England girl's college campus’s mainly for dates, going through them at a quick pace. However, sometimes, it seemed his appearance at the Quint was intentional. Though always tethered with an excuse: “I wanted return this book I borrowed” or “Would you come along with the group to the movies?” or “Needed to see that you were behaving like a good Overstreet and keeping up your studies”. Wit covered any sincerity, and charm made it seem less earnest, even if there was an eagerness in his manner. She saw it wasn’t anything unique, for whenever she was out with Jack and his buddies, Ann Cannon, was the object of his attention, and she was but a dance partner for Lem.

Jack arrived in London, in early July (around the 2nd day of the month), to join his family and tag along with his brother Joe and sister Kick in her London debutante season, she had already garnered notice and attention from the British people and press and had friends who would become Jack’s friends. He would stay until the fall semester began and he’d return to Harvard.

A few days after the fact, there was a surprise in store for the golden trio, when one morning over breakfast, Joe Senior declared that joining their family were the Overstreets (who were as they spoke, traversing over the Atlantic to the English port) after Kick had been asking Sabrina for weeks to join her in England and not summer without her (Kick having not known many summers without her best friend), so she brought her father into the plans and convinced James to allow his nineteen-year-old daughter and seventeen-year-old son to cross the Atlantic, which they managed to do. Sabrina and Tony’s mother, Evelyn, would be chaperoning them, and since the Ambassador’s house at 14 Prince’s Gate in Knightsbridge, was big enough, with its six stories and thirty-six rooms, Joe Senior offered the family friends to stay with them for the duration.

On the 7th (after four days of sea faring, as was the norm with ocean liners), the Overstreets would step off the RMS Queen Mary to be greeted by three Kennedys (Joe Jr., Kick and Jack). The trio embracing the Overstreet duo and respectively greeting Mrs. Overstreet.

After settling into her room, Sabrina sat on her bed looking at the very French decor in the guest room meant for her. Rose’s touch, she surmised. The four-poster bed was also quite regal. A bit much, but not tasteless. She flopped onto her back, hands crossing on her stomach as she ran through the experience of the past few days. She was abroad, for the first time, London! And with her favorite people. And Kick promised to take her to every place worth mentioning and to the best parties and dances. Which reminded her of the dresses a maid had hung up for her in the wardrobe. Nothing really new, but her mother had agreed to take her to a dressmaker so she would have fresh gowns made in Europe. She wanted to go everywhere. The dresses really weren’t her priority, but any number of bookstores or historical sights she could see, that...was her dream.

Her reverie came to a close, when the door to the bedroom was swung open and the bed dipped with a happy girly giggle and a proper Bostonian voice spoke. “Sabrina, darling, you can’t lock yourself away when you’ve only just arrived. We need to talk about everything.” Kick really had all the energy and joy in the world, Sabrina determined, and England had brought it out.

“Haven’t your letters covered everything yet?” Sabrina said looking up at the brunette who laid on her bed on her side with that bright Kennedy smile on her face.

“Not even close. So-” And they chattered for what seemed hours. Which it was. Sooner rather than later, Rose came by the open bedroom door to tell the girls to start getting ready for the party they would be attending of some English lord or another.

A maid helped on her blue satin dress with a long-flounced skirt, balloon sleeves and sweetheart neckline, a single string of pearls over her throat. Sabrina’s hair was in simple ringlets framing her face. Her mother only let her wear so much makeup, since there was a line between good and gaudy. But she always veiled such comments with praise for her natural beauty, which Sabrina took in stride.

In the car with her brother Tony, and the trio of Kennedys along with the Ambassador and Rose. Evelyn having stayed behind, blaming a headache. Sabrina looked at the streets lined with oil street lamps as the car whizzed by, the warm glow of the streets contrasting with the darkening sky. She was sat next to Jack (with Kick on his right, and Joe Jr. riding with their parents in a separate car), holding the window seat and her right-hand fidgeting with the satin of her skirt.

“Are you nervous?” His voice was closer to her than she had expected, breath warm on her skin as she turned her head. Jack’s question came in earnest, she could read it from the slight raise in his brow. And his tone wasn’t reaching for witticisms, either. He actually wanted to know.

“Um...a bit, yes.” She said, matching the volume his voice.

“Why? Don’t tell me you don’t think you’re not good enough to be in the company of Brits?”

Her hand had stopped fidgeting, and her head bobbed a bit, avoiding his eyes.

“Why?” He repeated the question.

“Well, I... I guess because I’m just...I know I’m from privilege like time, but I’m not the child of an appointed diplomat or lord. My father’s a businessman in New York, a very successful one. But...what if...” What if they don’t accept me?

She knew Jack would get the unsaid that lingered in the air. “You are better than them. And you will fit in. You’re studying the Classics for God’s sake, if that doesn’t turn some British heads then I’m not Jack Kennedy!” His voice raised a bit with a comforting smile, that caught Kick’s attention as she had turned to listen in to their conversation. “And you’re reserved and that humor of yours which is like that old Brit fashion. Don’t worry, Kick and I will make sure you have friends.” With a good-natured gesture, his hand passed over hers for a beat, giving it a squeeze before letting go, a bit hurriedly, almost like his mind had caught up with his action a moment too late. “And I’m sure Joe will save a dance or two for you.” Now, he was back in his joking mood, teasing with a mirthful smirk. “Maybe I will, too.”

Sabrina didn’t expect he’d keep his word, but Joe did give her a few passing glances and they talked before a colorful skirt passed by that was undoubtably more to his taste (she had long given up that he would take up interest in her other than seeing as his sister’s best friend, even if the Ambassador had made a few comments yet again at how handsome they looked together). So, in a candlelit ballroom, with people, young and old, bustling around her, some dancing, some talking and quite a few drinking; she felt alone. She had a glass of punch in her hand, as she saw Joe cut into a dancing couple to take the young woman for a twirl. Jack was in group, some his age and a few older, a charming smile on his face as his mouth moved, Kick was also contributing to the conversation, whatever the topic was. Was it terrible of her to be homesick, and tired of being on her own with people she mostly didn’t know, aside from perfunctory introductions? She wasn’t sure. But she did feel lonesome.

Almost as if someone had read her mind a voice spoke up at her side.

“Sans company, miss?” A British, posh London accent brought her unfocused gaze into focus. A young man, with brown hair, dark eyes and a long nose, in a white tie tux, looked at her.

“Sans is the right word.” She chuckled at the Latin word sans, meaning without. She took a sip to hide her surprise that someone would come up to her. “I don’t have many friends here.”

“I saw you come with the Ambassador and his family, so I doubt that, miss. And I’ll be your friend, if you want.” He spoke. “David Ormsby-Gore, second son of Lord Harlech.” Offering a gloved hand, which Sabrina took and he pressed a kiss to the top of her hand while Sabrina looked at him with an amused brow. “You’re an American, yes?”

“Was the title necessary?” She chuckled and her hand returning to her side as she set her drink on a passing tray. “And yes. I’m Sabrina Overstreet, only daughter of James Overstreet of “McIver Enterprises”.”

“Ah, a man of industry?” He spoke.

“You could say that.”

“And your relation to the Ambassador and his family?”

“Old friends. My brother and I grew up with their children.”

“Quite old friends indeed, though I wouldn’t think you quite old, yet.” There was that British humor. Cheeky.

She smiled. “No, indeed, I’ll be twenty in November, born 1918.”

“Well, we already have one thing in common, I’m also born that year, in May.”

“A fine month.” And they both laughed at that.

All the while, someone else had noticed their little interaction and disembarked from his own conversation.

“Well, aren’t you good, Sabrina? Making friends on your own.” That teasing and so Kennedy of a tone made her turn her eyes from the Englishman to the American. She didn’t hold back her own mirthful look as if to say: "I can manage even after you abandoned me to be on my own."

“Yes, Jack, I am.”

“Taking good care of her, Ormsby-Gore?” Jack turned to David, with an unreadable and unfamiliar look. David didn’t seem to be bothered.

“I am managing, Kennedy. I was about to ask her for a dance-”

“Well, why don’t I do that for you.” He interrupted him. There was almost a competitive lilt in his tone before he looked back at Sabrina and offered her his hand. “Shall we, Sabrina?”

So, with an apologetic look to David, she let Jack whisk her away into a foxtrot step. She didn’t remember the last time they had danced together (for on group dates, the date was almost always over before he got to her). But she decided to enjoy the attention of at least one Kennedy that evening.

///

Back to Part One or Snippet for Part Three

///

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xtruss · 6 months ago

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The Top-Secret World War II Mission That Killed Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., The Heir Apparent To The Political Dynasty

In August 1944, the Older Brother of Robert and John F. Kennedy Died While Piloting a Drone Aircraft over England, Leaving His Younger Siblings to Fulfill Their Father’s Dreams

— Meilan Solly, Senior Associate Digital Editor, History

L to R: John F. Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. in London in 1937 Keystone / Getty Images

By all accounts, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.’s war should have been over.

As Allied forces advanced on the Western Front in the summer of 1944, the Navy lieutenant completed his 50th mission—twice the number required to fulfill a tour of duty abroad. Instead of returning home to the United States, however, he volunteered for a top-secret operation named after Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty.

“I am going to do something different for the next three weeks,” Joe Jr. wrote in a letter to his parents. “It is secret and I am not allowed to say what it is, but it isn’t dangerous, so don’t worry.” Somewhat wary in his response to his eldest son, the lieutenant’s father, former Ambassador to the United Kingdom Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., advised, “I can quite understand how you feel about staying there … but don’t force your luck too much.”

Three days after Joe Sr. wrote his reply, the hollowed-out aircraft carrying Joe Jr. and his co-pilot exploded over England, killing both men. The mission represented a fatal failure for Operation Aphrodite, which sought to transform battle-worn bombers into uncrewed, radio-controlled missiles—in essence, early drones.

The last known photograph of Joe Jr., taken on the day of his death, August 12, 1944. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Joe Jr. in uniform. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

On a more personal level, Joe Jr.’s death at age 29 dealt a staggering blow to his father’s grand dreams for the future. Groomed for the presidency since his birth, Joe Jr. had served as a delegate at the 1940 Democratic National Convention, with plans to run for Congress after the war. Upon hearing the news of his brother’s demise, John F. Kennedy, the family’s second-oldest son, reportedly remarked, “Now the burden falls on me.”

Previously “considered too ‘sloppy,’ fun-loving and physically unhealthy” for a career in politics, in the words of the London Times, John secured seats in the House of Representative and the Senate before narrowly winning the 1960 presidential election, becoming the first Irish Catholic commander in chief and the youngest person elected to the nation’s highest office to date.

“Just as I went into politics because Joe died,” John later said in an eerily prescient remark, “if anything happened to me tomorrow, my brother Bobby would run. … And if Bobby died, Teddy would take over for him.”

Born on July 25, 1915, Joe Jr. was the first child of Joe Sr., a wealthy businessman and prominent Massachusetts politician, and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, the daughter of a Boston mayor. The oldest of nine, Joe Jr. bore “a certain forcefulness of character that marked him as a natural leader” even in his youth, wrote Rose in her memoir. His younger siblings looked up to him, and he, in turn, set a strong example for them by excelling in school and sports. Still, Rose recalled, Joe Jr. “got into his share of mischief,” particularly when partnered with John, who was two years his junior. In 1923, the brothers wrote a song about bedbugs and cooties and started a club with a steep entry fee: To be initiated into the organization, new members had to consent to getting stuck with pins.

L to R: Joe Jr., Kathleen Kennedy, Rosemary Kennedy and John in Cohasset, Massachusetts, circa 1926 or 1927 © John F. Kennedy Library Foundation / Kennedy Family Collection/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

Both Joe Jr. and John attended Choate, a prestigious boarding school in Connecticut. There, Joe Jr. played football and edited the student yearbook. Before enrolling at Harvard University, his father’s alma mater, he spent the 1933 to 1934 school year studying under Jewish political scientist Harold Laski at the London School of Economics.

Joe Jr.’s time in Europe coincided with the rise of Adolf Hitler; when he visited Germany, he learned about the Nazis’ forced sterilization program—a policy he praised for doing “away with many of the disgusting specimens of men which inhabit this earth.” According to historian Kate Clifford Larson, Joe Jr. “held quite conservative views about the disabled,” a stance that was surprising given his close relationship with his younger sister Rosemary Kennedy, who had intellectual disabilities. Despite Joe Jr.’s similarly respectful attitude toward Laski, he also espoused antisemitic sentiment, claiming that Hitler had offered the “scattered, despondent and … divorced from hope” Germans a common enemy. “It was excellent psychology, and it was too bad that it had to be done to the Jews,” Joe Jr. wrote to his father. “This dislike of Jews, however, was well founded.”

Joe Jr. graduated from Harvard in 1938, then joined his family in London, where his father was serving as the U.S. ambassador. In February 1939, the 23-year-old traveled to Madrid, arriving soon after a shelling by insurgents fighting in the Spanish Civil War. Not dispatched on official business, he was “just looking around,” Joe Sr. told the Associated Press, adding, “His mother will die when she hears he is in Madrid.”

The Kennedy family at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, in 1931. Joe Jr. is in the back row at right. Richard Sears/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

The following year, Joe Jr. made headlines as a DNC delegate who pledged to vote for Postmaster General James Farley over incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt. Under pressure to switch his allegiance to the president, particularly as the son of an ambassador appointed by Roosevelt, he remained steadfast in his choice, believing that no commander in chief should be allowed to serve three terms. The burgeoning politician’s conduct at the convention won him the admiration of prominent attendees, one of whom told Joe Sr. that his son “seemed to gain the respect of everybody there,” adding, “I am sure he can have a political future if he wants one.”

Though Joe Jr. returned to Harvard for law school, he ultimately decided to enlist in the Navy as a pilot in June 1941 instead of finishing his degree. Prompted in part by his father’s staunch opposition to the U.S.’s entry into World War II—a scenario that seemed increasingly likely in the lead-up to Pearl Harbor—he defended his decision in a letter to Joe Sr.: “With your stand on the war, … people will wonder what the devil I am doing back at school with everyone else working for national defense.” John soon followed in his older brother’s footsteps, relying on his family connections to secure a position in the Naval Reserve, despite back issues that would normally have barred him from serving. When the U.S. finally joined the war in December 1941, both brothers were partway through naval training.

“Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. to Get Naval ‘Wings’ Today as Dad Looks On,” read a May 5, 1942, headline in the Boston Globe. The title telegraphed the family dynamics at play, underscoring the pressure placed on Joe Jr. by his father, whose presence and influence loomed large. Adding to the weight of Joe Sr.’s expectations was the surprising military success of John, who received a promotion to lieutenant and command of his own boat by the end of 1942. As his younger brother led a squadron patrolling for Japanese ships in the Solomon Islands, Joe Jr. was relegated to a naval air base in Virginia, where he launched lower-risk patrols in search of German U-boats.

Joe Jr. on the campus of Harvard University in 1938 Bettmann via Getty Images

On the night of August 1, 1943, a Japanese destroyer rammed into John’s boat, PT-109, knocking its crew into the water and ripping the starboard side clean off. Then 26 years old, Kennedy exhibited great bravery during the incident, leading the 11 surviving sailors to a nearby island before swimming, sometimes solo, to neighboring islands in search of food and aid.

The press, the Navy, and friends and family alike praised John as a hero. But while Joe Jr. was certainly glad that his younger brother had escaped death, he felt overshadowed and was eager to prove himself. “Colleagues commented later on his intense preoccupation with putting himself in harm’s way, and thus on the path to publicly recognized heroism,” wrote Edward J. Renehan Jr. in The Kennedys at War: 1937-1945. As fellow pilot Louis Papas later recalled, “There was never an occasion for a mission that meant extra hazard that Joe did not volunteer. He had everybody’s unlimited admiration and respect for his courage, zeal and willingness to undertake the most dangerous missions.”

Sent to Great Britain in September 1943, Joe Jr. spent the next several months flying patrols over the Atlantic, the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay, piloting PB4Y Liberator bombers on anti-submarine details. By May 1944, he’d flown the 25 missions required for reassignment to the U.S., losing his co-pilot and numerous colleagues to enemy anti-aircraft fire in the process. Though he had permission to return home, he opted to stay in the fight. As he told his parents in mid-June, “I now have 39 missions and will probably have 50 by the time I leave. It is far more than anyone else on the base, but it doesn’t prove a hell of a lot.”

John (left) and Joe Jr. in their naval uniforms Hulton Archive/Getty Images

In the summer of 1944, Joe Jr. volunteered first for Operation Cork, an air patrol connected to the Allied invasion of France, and then for Operation Aphrodite and its Navy counterpart, Operation Anvil. The top-secret project was aimed at taking down the Nazis’ steel-reinforced concrete bunkers in occupied France, from which the Germans were launching their devastating V-1 cruise missiles and V-2 ballistic missiles. Uncrewed, gyro-controlled jets packed with explosives, the projectiles offered a low-risk way of terrorizing the British from afar.

Commander James Doolittle, of the Army’s Eighth Air Force, suggested converting war-weary bombers into pilotless missiles. “Control and autopilot technology [were] sufficiently immature to make the … program incredibly risky, but the perceived benefits justified the potential costs,” wrote Roger Connor, a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, in a 2014 blog post. Though the bombers were remote-controlled, they required a two-person crew to get the aircraft off the ground and ensure it stayed on course.

When Joe Jr. heard about the operation, he readily volunteered for it. According to an account by a fellow officer, the lieutenant, “regarded as an experienced Patrol Plane Commander and … an expert in radio control projects,” was tasked with piloting “a ‘drone’ Liberator bomber loaded with 21,170 pounds of high explosives into the air and [staying] with it until two ‘mother’ planes had achieved complete radio control over the ‘drone.’” After completing this transfer of control, Joe Jr. and co-pilot Wilford J. Willy were supposed to bail out over England, parachuting to safety as the plane continued on to the V-1 bunkers.

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The motley group of Allied aircraft needed for the mission—among them a Mosquito carrying the president’s second-oldest son, Elliott Roosevelt, who was tasked with capturing the flight on film—took off from a Royal Air Force base shortly after 6 p.m. on August 12, 1944. Eighteen minutes into the mission, Joe Jr. shared a message over the radio: “Spade Flush,” the code phrase for the bomber to be handed off to the mother ship. At approximately 6:20 p.m., as Joe Jr. and Willy awaited the signal to bail out, two explosions rocked the plane, killing the pilots and nearly destroying the other aircraft in the formation. The pair’s bodies were never found.

The accident was “the biggest explosion I ever saw until the pictures of the atom bomb,” a pilot on board the mother ship said. No one on the ground was hurt, but debris from the wreck rained down on the English countryside, with one local witnessing an “enormous black pall of smoke resembling a huge octopus, the tentacles below indicating the earthward paths of burning fragments.” The cause of the disaster was never identified, but mechanical failure was a leading theory.

Operation Aphrodite continued through January 1945, with little success. In recognition of the pilots’ sacrifice, the government awarded Joe Jr. and Willy the Navy Cross, the second-highest military decoration. John, meanwhile, won the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, the highest non-combat award for heroism, for his actions aboard PT-109.

Joe Jr. sitting in an aircraft during training in 1941 Bettmann via Getty Images

John and his wife, Jackie Kennedy, watch a boat race while on board the USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., a destroyer named in Joe Jr.'s honor Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

The Kennedys deeply mourned Joe Jr.’s death. With no body to bury and scant details of his final moments (the mission remained classified until after the war), the family commemorated their eldest son with a privately published book titled As We Remember Joe. In the text, John—now the heir apparent—wrote:

It may be felt, perhaps, that Joe should not have pushed his luck so far and should have accepted his leave and come home. But two facts must be borne in mind. First, at the time of his death, he had completed probably more combat missions in heavy bombers than any other pilot of his rank in the Navy and therefore was preeminently qualified, and secondly, as he told a friend early in August, he considered the odds at least 50-50, and Joe never asked for any better odds than that.

Despite the grief he felt over Joe Jr.’s death, Joe Sr. remained resolute in his ambitions for his family. “We’ve got to carry on,” he told his wife. “We must take care of the living. There is a lot of work to be done.” According to legend, Joe Sr. called John into a meeting, where he announced that the younger son would take his brother’s place as the family’s representative on the national stage. “It was like being drafted,” the future president later said. “My father wanted his oldest son in politics. ‘Wanted’ isn’t the right word. He demanded it. You know my father.”

Joe Jr., for his part, had seemingly predicted how events would play out in the event of his death. In a letter written just before his enlistment in the Navy, he wryly commented, “It seems that Jack is perfectly capable to do everything, if by chance anything happened to me.”

— 12 August 2022

#Youtube #Air Transportation | American History #American Presidents #Franklin Delano Roosevelt | John F. Kennedy #Nazi | Political Leaders #Politics #Robert F. Kennedy #Technology #US Navy #Warfare #Weapons #WWII #Top Secret #Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.#The Political Dynasty #Drone Aircraft

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