The Mighty USS Joseph P. Kennedy: A Historic Destroyer at Battleship Cove in Fall River, MA

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Come along with us to explore the USS Joseph P. Kennedy Destroyer at Battleship Cove in Fall River Massachusetts!!

Transcript

00:00Welcome back to another exciting episode. Today we are back at Battleship Cove in

00:23Fall River Massachusetts to check out the USS Joseph P Kennedy. So come along

00:32with us and see what we can see. Destroyers like the USS Joseph P

00:39Kennedy jr. DD 850 are not the biggest ships but they still take a while to

00:46explore and go through. So here's my friend Davis to tell you a little bit

00:51more about this destroyer, its history and so much more. Take it away Davis.

00:57Destroyer Joseph P Kennedy jr. known by her crew as the Joey P was laid down

01:03April 2nd 1945 by the Bethlehem Steel Company at the Fall River shipyard in

01:08Quincy Massachusetts. Launched on July 26th 1945 and commissioned on December

01:1415th 1945 she was completed in only eight months. Reflective of the fast

01:19pace of shipbuilding during the last year of World War two. Home port to

01:24nearby Newport Rhode Island the Kennedy spent the next 27 years performing

01:28countless duties. Following commissioning she spent the rest of the decade

01:32conducting training exercises in the Atlantic and Caribbean Seas and executed

01:36peacekeeping duties as a member of the 6th fleet in the Mediterranean. On

01:40February 3rd 1951 she joined the carrier task force attacking North Korean

01:46positions. In May of that year she stood off once in North Korea using her five

01:50inch guns for nearly a month of continuous bombardment duty. The Kennedy

01:55left the war zone and arrived back in the states in August 1951 and for the

01:59next several years she completed several 6th fleet tours of duty, midshipman

02:03cruises and joint NATO maneuvers. In early 1961 she operated in the Caribbean

02:09assisting with the first Mercury space flights. She arrived at New York Naval

02:14shipyard in July for renovation under the fleet rehabilitation and

02:17modernization program. This conversion afforded her new anti-submarine gear, a

02:22helicopter hangar and flight deck and other improvements designed to extend

02:26her useful life. Following a post refit shakedown cruise she returned to Newport

02:31in September 1962 to embark President John F Kennedy for his observation of

02:36that year's America's Cup races. In October the Kennedy was dispatched to

02:40the Caribbean to participate in the naval blockade of Cuba. It was here on

02:45October 26th that Kennedy stopped and boarded the Greek freighter Marikla that

02:49was suspected of ferrying missile components to Cuba. From the early 1960s

02:54until her decommissioning in 1973 the Kennedy again performed innumerable

02:58duties including her role as a recovery vessel during the Gemini 6 and seven

03:02NASA space program missions. She was stricken from the Naval Register of

03:07Ships in 1973 and acquired by Battleship Cove in 1974. In spring 2000

03:14the Kennedy was towed to Rhode Island Sound to portray herself and destroyer

03:17John or Pierce DD 753 in the Kevin Costner film entitled 13 days which

03:23recreated the events surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis. Well thank you

03:27Davis that was a lot of great information. You are very welcome. I hope

03:34you come back to be with us on our future episodes to places unknown. Oh

03:41before you go one last thing there's even a carousel on site if you're

03:49interested. Now the cost is three dollars per ride it's actually up there on the

03:59second floor. I was unable to get up there without paying so I'm not really

04:04interested today to go on the carousel after going through all those ships but

04:11it is something people who came off said were pretty neat so there you go. But

04:19until then as always have a great day

04:29you

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