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As our current Oval Office occupant would say, “No joke, folks!” If you’ve visited the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, you will have seen the historic memento that facilitated JFK’s rescue during World War II. It is a coconut husk preserved on a wooden base and covered by a plastic dome. On this day for celebrating presidents, when Americans no longer see their chief executives as heroic, it might be appropriate to remember those presidents who revealed strength of character in combat.

With his fragile health and unstable back, young John Kennedy could have sought a 4F draft designation, preserving him from conscription during World War II. Or, at the very least, with his father being an influential figure in Franklin Roosevelt’s administration, JFK might have performed military service from behind a desk and out of harm’s way. Instead, he enlisted in the Navy just prior to Pearl Harbor and used his family connections to engineer an assignment in the South Pacific war against Japan as a patrol torpedo (PT) boat skipper.

Read the full article at The Hill