53. Louis Denfeld to Russell Willson, April 7, 1944, box 22, JPKP; A. P. Cluster to JPK, January 9, 1944, box 22, JPKP. Kennedy is the only president to have received either of these honors.

54. RK to children, August 25, 1943, box 2, JPKP. See also RK, Times to Remember, 293.

55. Nasaw, Patriarch, 557.

56. JFK to RK and JPK, August 13, 1943, box 2, JPKP.

57. BG, August 19, 1943; NYT, August 20, 1943; Nasaw, Patriarch, 557–58.

58. JFK to RK and JPK, n.d. (September 1943), box 5, JFKPP.

59. JFK to JPK, n.d. (September 1943), box 2, JPKP.

60. JFK to Inga Arvad, n.d. (September 1943), printed in Sandler, Letters, 31–33.

61. JPK to JPK Jr., August 31, 1943, box 2, JPKP.

62. JPK Jr. to parents, August 29, 1943, quoted in Goodwin, Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, 662.

63. Searls, Lost Prince, 202–3; Blair and Blair, Search for JFK, 325.

64. RK, Times to Remember, 285.

65. Blair and Blair, Search for JFK, 337, 339–40. In a letter home, he made light of his new title: “Got promoted…—purely routine—and am now a full Lieutenant. (Mother, you can look that up on your little chart—it’s the same as Captain in the Army.)” JFK to family, n.d. (received November 1, 1943), box 2, JPKP. Byron White co-authored the report on the PT 109 incident cited above. In 1962 Kennedy would nominate him for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, where he turned out to be more conservative than Kennedy and his advisers expected.

66. O’Brien, John F. Kennedy, 163, 164.

67. The malaria symptoms would continue to plague him. See JPK to JFK, February 10, 1948, box 3, JPKP.

68. JFK to RFK, November 14, 1943, in Donovan, PT 109, 152.

69. Fay, Pleasure of His Company, 130–31.

70. Hastings, Inferno, 422.

71. Blair and Blair, Search for JFK, 352; Hamilton, JFK: Reckless Youth, 638.

72. The story appeared in dozens of newspapers nationwide; e.g., “Tells Story of PT Epic: Kennedy Lauds Men, Disdains Hero Stuff,” BG, January 11, 1944.

73. BG, January 11, 1944; Farris, Inga, 306.