Video: JFK's 1962 tour of the Atlantic Fleet

By Neil McCabe | 10:49 PM | September 07, 2014

President John F. Kennedy was a Navy man.

The Navy was not his first choice, he could not pass the Army physical. Nor did his Navy tenure start off well, considering that as an intelligence officer in Washington, he was carrying on with a female Nazi spy. After he ignored orders to stay away from the woman, his seniors cut a deal with his father, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., and Jack was sent to the Pacific to command Patrol Torpedo boats, most famously the PT-109.

In the Pacific, Kennedy was loved by his men and respected by his brother officers as a courageous and aggressive warrior.

The Naval History and Heritage Command Photographic Section made this 1962 film to document Kennedy’s tour of the Atlantic Fleet and the Marines at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

He did not start out as a Navy man, but as president you can see that he certainly was one in the end.

Watch the video here:

Neil W. McCabe is the editor of HE's "Guns & Patriots" e-letter and was a senior reporter at the Human Events newspaper. McCabe deployed with the Army Reserve to Iraq for 15 months as a combat historian. For many years, he was a reporter and photographer for "The Pilot," Boston's Catholic paper. He was also the editor of the free community papers "The Somerville (Mass.) News and "The Alewife (North Cambridge, Mass.)." Email him: [email protected] Follow him on Twitter: @neilwmccabe.