royer. The force of the collision threw him to the deck, reinjuring his back. Despite this, he gathered the ten members of his crew together. One of the crew members was so badly injured that he was unable to swim. He was put into a life jacket.Kennedy gripped one of the jacket's straps between his teeth and towed the man as the crew swam to a nearby island. It took them five hours to reach it. For his heroism, Kennedy was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps medal, the Purple Heart, and a citation. The back injury, however, put him out of action for the remainder of the war.Nearly one year after John's narrow escape, Joe, Jr., a Navy pilot, was killed when his plane exploded in the air over the English coast. To his brother's memory John wrote 'As We Remember Joe', a collection of tributes. In 1948 John's sister Kathleen died in an airplane crash in the south of France. She was the widow of the marquess of Hartington of England. He too had been killed in action during World War II, while leading an infantry charge in Normandy, France.The death of his brother deeply affected John Kennedy. Before the war Joe had decided to carry on with his ambition to enter politics. This caused a certain degree of disappointment for John, because he too had considered that field. He felt, however, that one Kennedy in politics was enough and determined to become a newspaperman. After his discharge from the Navy he worked for a short time as a correspondent for the Chicago Herald American and the International News Service. In 1946 he decided to enter politics. To the family this was the most natural thing for him to do.For his first target, Kennedy chose to try for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. He would represent the 11th Massachusetts Congressional District. His family rallied to his side as he began his campaign for the nomination. Because the 11th district was predominantly Democratic, the candidate for the office would have no t...
