This Memorial Day coincides with the 100th birthday of a U.S. Navy World War II hero and the 35th president of the United States: John Fitzgerald Kennedy.JFK challenged Americans to serve their nation and to work toward greater equality and justice. He saw hope in the future: "Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans."
Now his daughter, former U.S. ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, is ensuring her father's memory and legacy is remembered and honored. She, herself, is passing the torch to another generation.
Beginning this Memorial Day weekend, Boston's John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is presenting JFK 100: Milestones and Mementos – an opportunity to connect with his life, achievements and ideals.
From the JFK Library: "Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and her children, Rose, Tatiana, and Jack, reflect on how 100 years after his birth, their father and grandfather continues to inspire others to work, fight, and believe in a better world."
Caroline Kennedy is author or editor of numerous books on history, constitutional law, poetry and patriotism.
Here are some poems for the next generation from her beautiful compilation, "Poems to Learn by Heart" (Disney Hyperion, 2013), with paintings by Jon J Muth. This sampling is selected for Memorial Day, as we remember service members who gave their lives for our freedom and in service to their nation.Shiloh: A Requiem, April 1862
(Herman Melville)
Skimming lightly, wheeling still,
The swallows fly low
Over the field in clouded days,
The forest-field of Shiloh—
Over the field where April rain
Solaced the parched ones stretched in pain
Through the pause of night
That followed the Sunday fight
Around the church of Shiloh— The church so lone, the log-built one,
That echoed to many a parting groan
And natural prayer
Of dying foemen mingled there—
Foemen at morn, but friends at eve—
Fame or country least their care:
(What like a bullet can undeceive!)
But now they lie low,
While over them the swallows skim,
And all is hushed at Shiloh.
What Are Heavy?
(Christina Rossetti)
What are heavy? sea-sand and sorrow:
What are brief? today and tomorrow:
What are frail? Spring blossoms and youth:
What are deep ? the ocean and truth.
Devotion
(Robert Frost)
The heart can think of no devotion
Greater than being shore to ocean -
Holding the curve of one position,
Counting an endless repetition.
Liberty
(Janet S. Wong)
I pledge acceptance
of the views,
so different,
that make us America
To listen, to look,
to think, and to learn
One people
sharing the earth responsible
for liberty
and justice
for all.
We remember JFK, his strong connection with the Navy, and his pursuit of "liberty and justice for all" on his 100th birthday with these photos:
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| President John F. Kennedy and others watch television coverage of the lift-off of astronaut Commander Alan B. Shepard, Jr. aboard "Freedom 7," on the first US manned sub-orbital flight. L-R: Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy; Special Assistant to the President for National Security McGeorge Bundy; Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson; Special Assistant to the President Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.; Chief of Staff of the United States Navy Admiral Arleigh Burke; President Kennedy; First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Office of the President’s Secretary, White House, Washington, D.C. (JFK Library) |
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| President John F. Kennedy presents Distinguished Service Medal to Admiral Arleigh A. Burke, Chief of Staff of the United States Navy. Looking on (L – R): Naval Aide to the President Commander Tazewell Shepard, Jr. (far left); Congressman Daniel J. Flood (Pennsylvania, partially hidden); Roberta Burke, wife of Admiral Burke; General Lyman Lemnitzer, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff (behind and between President Kennedy and Admiral Burke); others unidentified. Rose Garden, White House, Washington, D.C. (JFK Library) |
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| President John F. Kennedy hands a diploma to an unidentified cadet at the United States Naval Academy commencement ceremony, Annapolis, Maryland. Chief of Staff of the United States Navy Admiral Arleigh A. Burke is seated on the stage, fifth from the left. (JFK Library) |
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| President John F. Kennedy presents a posthumous medal for Lieutenant Commander Victor A. Prather, Jr., (United States Navy) to his widow, Virginia Merritt Prather. Prather’s children, Victor Alonzo III and Marla Lee, stand in front. Oval Office, White House, Washington, D.C. |
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| President John F. Kennedy meets with Harold Russell, National Commander of American Veterans (AMVETS), in the Oval Office, White House, Washington, D.C. They hold a pamphlet entitled “1102 American Heroes: Are They Forgotten?” produced by the AMVETS to encourage legislators to fund the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Hawaii. (JFK Library) |
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| President John F. Kennedy (center) greets a referee and team captains for the coin toss prior to the Army-Navy Football Game (United States Military Academy Cadets versus United States Naval Academy Midshipmen). John Hewitt of Navy stands at left; Mike Casp of Army stands at right. Associate Press Secretary, Andrew T. Hatcher, stands at far right (face partially hidden). Municipal Stadium, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (White House photograph) |
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| President John F. Kennedy's visits the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, April 1962 and looks through the periscope aboard USS Thomas Edison (SSBN-610). (Photo from National Archives.) |
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| President John F. Kennedy (center, wearing sunglasses) speaks by radiotelephone to the crew of the submarine USS Andrew Jackson (SSBN-619) from the deck of the United States Naval ship USS Observation Island (EAG-154), at sea off the coast of Florida. Left to right: three unidentified military personnel; Deputy Commander of the Submarine Force of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, Rear Admiral Vernon L. Lowrance; Commanding Officer of the USS Observation Island, Captain Roderick O. Middleton (in back, partially hidden); President Kennedy (wearing a windbreaker bearing the insignias of USS Observation Island and USS Andrew Jackson presented as a gift from the crews of both ships); Director of Special Projects (USN), Rear Admiral I. J. Galantin; and two unidentified sailors. The President sailed aboard the ship to view a Polaris A-2 missile launch demonstration from the submarine. (JFK Library) |
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| President John F. Kennedy (center) speaks with U.S. Navy SEAL team members on the pier at Naval Air Station, Norfolk, Virginia, before boarding the USS Northampton (CC-1) for an overnight cruise to view U.S. Atlantic Fleet exercises. (JFK Library) |
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| President John F. Kennedy (center) shakes hands with an unidentified United States Navy pilot on the hangar deck of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, at sea off the coast of North Carolina. Admiral Robert L. Dennison, Commander in Chief of the Atlantic Command (CINCLANT), Commander in Chief of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, and Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic (SACLANT), stands at far left; Naval Aide to the President Captain Tazewell Shepard, Jr. (in profile, partially hidden), stands right of Admiral Dennison. President Kennedy delivered remarks from the hangar deck after observing U.S. Atlantic Fleet exercises. (White House photograph) |
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| President John F. Kennedy (center) greets Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, at a military reception in their honor. Also pictured: Military Aide to the President, General Chester V. Clifton; Naval Aide to the President, Captain Tazewell Shepard; Associate Press Secretary, Andrew T. Hatcher; Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy; First Lady’s Social Secretary, Letitia Baldrige; Deputy Secretary of Defense, Roswell L. Gilpatric; Secretary of Defense, Robert S. McNamara; and Secretary of the Navy, Fred Korth. Rose Garden, White House, Washington, D.C. (JFK Library) |
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| President John F. Kennedy visits with U.S. Navy officers. Left to right: Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) officer, Commander Irene Wolensky; Director of WAVES, Captain Winifred Quick Collins; and President Kennedy. Oval Office, White House, Washington, D.C. (JFK Library) |
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| President John F. Kennedy (center, wearing sunglasses) exits a United States Marine Corps helicopter upon his arrival aboard the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany (CVA-34), during a visit to the U.S. Pacific Fleet at sea off the coast of San Diego, California. Secretary of the Navy Fred Korth follows behind President Kennedy; U.S. Navy sailors render honors. (White House photograph) |
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| President John F. Kennedy (seated in high-back chair at right) and other distinguished guests watch U.S. Pacific Fleet demonstrations from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63), at sea off the coast of San Diego, California; a North American Vigilante bomber jet aircraft (with tail number 150823) sits on the deck in the background. Front row, left to right: Secretary of the Navy Fred Korth (pointing up towards the sky); Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet (CINCPACFLT), Admiral John H. Sides; President Kennedy; Governor of California, Edmund G. “Pat” Brown; Senator Clair Engle (California); Under Secretary of the Navy, Paul "Red" Fay; and Commandant of the Marine Corps, General David M. Shoup. (JFK Library) |
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| President John F. Kennedy (right)meets with Secretary of Defense, Robert S. McNamara, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Maxwell D. Taylor (far left). McNamara and Taylor reported to President Kennedy on their recent survey trip to South Vietnam. Oval Office, White House, Washington, D.C. |
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| President John F. Kennedy and others listen to a bugle player during Memorial Day ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. Administrator of the Veterans Administration (VA), General John S. Gleason (face obscured), stands right of bugler. (JFK Library) |
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| Military officials arrive at the White House prior to the funeral procession of President John F. Kennedy. Those pictured include: Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, General Curtis E. LeMay; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Maxwell D. Taylor; Chief of Staff of the United States Army, General Earle G. Wheeler; Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, General David M. Shoup; Naval Aide to President Kennedy, Captain Tazewell Shepard; Air Force Aide to President Kennedy, Brigadier General Godfrey T. McHugh; Military Aide to President Kennedy, General Chester V. Clifton. A member of the United States Navy color guard holds a flag at left. North Lawn driveway, White House, Washington, D.C. (JFK Library) |
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| USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) Underway during carrier airwing qualifications in the Northern Puerto Rican Operations Area, December 10, 1996. (Photo by PH2c Scott A. Moak, USN. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, NHHC.) |
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