John Fitzgerald Kennedy, affectionately known to us as Jack Kennedy, served as the United States of America’s thirty-fifth president. Assassinated sixty-two years ago while riding through Dallas, Texas, in the open presidential Lincoln limousine, Jack Kennedy has been revered and honored since that November, 1963 day.

Kennedy served in the United States Navy in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War Two as a PT (patrol torpedo) boat commander. World War Two PT boats were relatively small for naval fighting vessels, being just shy of eighty feet long, and armed with a variety of weapons, including 21 foot long torpedoes, twin M-2 Browning fifty caliber machine guns, Bofers 40 millimeter cannon, depth charges, and smoke screen generators. The boats were powered by twin Packard V-12 aircraft engines modified for marine service. The boats were deployed in high speed hit and run tactics against larger enemy naval craft as well as reconnaissance duty.

Seriously injured during night operations when his PT boat was cut in two by a Japanese destroyer, Kennedy managed to save his crew with Kennedy himself, using a makeshift harness, swimming and towing behind him one of his crew too injured to make their own way. The entire crew made a four mile swim in the darkness to an uninhabited island and were recovered two days later by American forces. For the rest of his life, Kennedy was plagued with the injuries he suffered in the engagement.

Among the many memorial honors President Jack Kennedy’s countrymen have bestowed upon him was the establishment of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, located along the Potomac River in Washington, DC and opened in September 1971, eight years after Kennedy’s death.

Our country now has a chief executive who, among other deficiencies, availed himself of five deferments to avoid military service to our country. Some would call such behavior draft dodging. I certainly would. That individual has now seen fit to place his name on the front of the Kennedy Center above the name of John F. Kennedy. Does that individual believe such an act is going to bring him honor?

Pathetic is the word that comes to mind.