World War II drones and the death of Joseph Kennedy Jr,The Kennedy family is perhaps the most iconic

World War II drones and the death of Joseph Kennedy Jr,The Kennedy family is perhaps the most iconic American family in all of history, with nine brothers and sisters who mostly all reached positions of power, fame, and influence.  The most popular of the Kennedy’s was John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, who was slain by an assassin’s bullet in 1963.  However, it was originally the eldest brother, Joseph Jr, who was to be destined to take such a high office.  Weird as it sounds, the Kennedy patriarch, Joseph Sr, had groomed the first born of the family from the start to achieve greatness in life, even to the point that becoming President was to be his destiny. Imagine the pressure of having to live up to such expectations.  Most American families want their children to be successful doctors, lawyers, and scientists, Joe Kennedy Sr was really dreaming big, but he was a man who had the kind of connections to make such things happen.Joe Kennedy Sr was the first born of the family, born in 1915.  He studied at Harvard Law school and planned to run for Congress after he graduated, one of the first steps of his political career and rise to the top.  However when the United States entered into World War II, Joe put everything aside and volunteered for combat duty with the United States Navy as a pilot.  After completing two tours of duty and 25 combat missions, he was eligible to return home but instead chose to volunteer for a dangerous secret mission called Operation Aphrodite.  The goal of Operation Aphrodite was to turn a number of B-17 bombers into remote controlled drones for use against hardened bunkers and other structures.  The B-17 bombers, most of which were old clunkers well passed their optimum life time, were outfitted with a special radio control system so that they could be piloted remotely.  The bombers were then crammed full of  high explosives (around 30,000 lbs) and remotely piloted to their targets.  One of the many problems with this was that the remote control system was that it was not advanced enough to control a plane during takeoff.  Thus a pilot would start and takeoff the plane, and once in the air bailout with a parachute.  This was Joe Kennedy’s job when he piloted a drone on the morning of August 12th, 1944.  Once in the air, Kennedy and his co-pilot, Wilford John Willy   were to arm the explosives then bail out, after which another pilot in a chase plane would take control by radio device.  Upon arming the explosives, the B-17 immediately exploded with a massive blast.  Him and his co-pilot were instantly vaporized, and all that was left of their plane was small pieces of wreckage scattered across the English countryside.  The cause of the premature explosion is unknown, although many theories were proposed by a board of inquiry.  Joe Kennedy was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross, Distinguished Service Cross, and Air Medal. Operation Aphrodite was mostly a failure, as the majority of the drones were shot down or crashed before striking their targets.The death of Joe Kennedy was the first of many terrible tragedies that would haunt the Kennedy family in the upcoming decades.  The loss of Joe Sr’s firstborn son also put a wrench on his future family plans.  The next up to the plate was John, who was now the eldest son and also a decorated war hero.  John would take the place of Joe, being groomed by the family to be the most successful of the family, and of course becoming President as Joe Sr intended. -- source link

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