Max was one of four brothers, fighting in four different theaters of war at the same time. They all came home.

George Harris Kennedy, Jr. was born on February 18, 1925 in New York City, to Helen (Kieselbach), a ballet dancer, and George Harris Kennedy, an orchestra leader and musician. Following high school graduation, Kennedy enlisted in the United States Army in 1943 with the hope to become a fighter pilot in the Army Air Corps. Instead, he wound up in the infantry, served under General George S. Patton and distinguished himself with valor. He won two Bronze Stars and four rows of combat and service ribbons. A World War II veteran,

Kennedy went on to become a performer. At one stage in his career, he cornered the market at playing tough, no-nonsense characters who were either quite crooked or possessed hearts of gold. Kennedy notched up an impressive 200+ appearances in both television and films, and was well respected within the Hollywood community. He started out on television Westerns in the late 1950s and early 1960s (Have Gun - Will Travel (1957), Rawhide (1959), Maverick (1957), Colt .45 (1957), among others) before scoring minor roles in films including Lonely Are the Brave (1962), The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) and The Flight of the Phoenix (1965). The late 1960s was a very busy period for Kennedy, and he was strongly in favor with casting agents, appearing in Hurry Sundown (1967), The Dirty Dozen (1967) and scoring an Oscar win as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Cool Hand Luke (1967). The disaster film boom of the 1970s was also kind to Kennedy and his talents were in demand for Airport (1970) and the three subsequent sequels, as a grizzled police officer in Earthquake (1974), plus the buddy/road film Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) as vicious bank robber Red Leary. Courtesy of https://www.imdb.com - George Kennedy Biography

Joseph Kennedy was the eldest son of Joseph and Rose Kennedy. After completed High School, he attended Harvard and graduated in 1938, after a year of training at London School of Economics,  Kennedy enter Harvard Law College. He and his father were determined he would become President one day and he was being groomed for it through out his life. Kennedy was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1940. Joe planned to run for Massachusetts's 11th congressional district in 1946.

Kennedy left before his final year of law school to begin officer training and flight training in the U.S. Navy. He earned his wings as a Naval Aviator in May 1942 and was sent to Britain in September 1943. He piloted land-based PB4Y Liberator patrol bombers on anti-submarine details during two tours of duty in the winter of 1943–1944. Kennedy had completed 25 combat missions and was eligible to return home. He instead volunteered for an Operation Aphrodite mission. Operation Aphrodite made use of unmanned, explosive-laden Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator bombers, that were deliberately crashed into their targets under radio control. These aircraft could not take off safely on their own, so a crew of two would take off and fly to 2,000 feet (610 m) before activating the remote control system, arming the detonators and parachuting from the aircraft. After U.S. Army Air Forces operation missions were drawn up on July 23, 1944, Kennedy and Lieutenant Wilford John Willy were designated as the first Navy flight crew. Willy had "pulled rank" over Ensign James Simpson (who was Kennedy's regular co-pilot) to be on the mission. They flew a BQ-8 "robot" aircraft (a converted B-24 Liberator) for the U.S. Navy's first Aphrodite mission. Two Lockheed Ventura mother planes and a Boeing B-17 navigation plane took off from RAF Fersfield at 1800 on 12 August 1944. Then the BQ-8 aircraft, loaded with 21,170 lb (9,600 kg) of Torpex, took off. It was to be used against the Fortress of Mimoyecques and its V-3 cannons in northern France. Following behind them in a USAAF F-8 Mosquito to film the mission were pilot Lt. Robert A. Tunnel and combat camera man Lt. David J. McCarthy, who filmed the event . As planned, Kennedy and Willy remained aboard as the BQ-8 completed its first remote-controlled turn at 2,000 feet near the North Sea coast. Kennedy and Willy removed the safety pin arming the explosive package and Kennedy radioed the agreed code Spade Flush, his last words. Two minutes later (and well before the planned crew bailout, near RAF Manston), the Torpex explosive detonated prematurely and destroyed the Liberator, killing Kennedy and Willy instantly. Wreckage landed near the village of Blythburgh in Suffolk.

Courtesy of Military-History.Fantom.com.

Young John F. Kennedy’s future was one of privilege and opportunity with his graduation from Harvard University in 1940. He had previously attended the London School of Economics and was entering graduate school at Stanford University in California when he paused, with all of America to intently listen to President Roosevelt’s galvanizing declaration following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor ending with “a date which will live in infamy”. Young Kennedy’s nation was now at war. Older brother Joe joined the Navy and was training to be a pilot. John whom friends and family called Jack, wanted in on the action too. The problem was Jack had a bad back and it was doubtful the Navy would take him. The family patriarch Joseph Kennedy relied on a few well-placed connections to help his second eldest son. The elder Kennedy was the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain and good friends with Captain Alan Kirk who was the Director of Naval Intelligence. This was the break young Jack needed to get his foot in the door and he was soon assigned as an ensign in the Naval Reserves serving in intelligence. His initial duties with the Navy were modest at best shuffling between office bound assignments stateside. Ensign Kennedy’s next big break came when he was able to attend Officers Training School in the late summer of 1942. This set him up for his big chance he had so longed for where he could contribute and command as an officer. It was a calling based on his skills and passions from a life of growing up on Cape Cod among the sleek and fast luxurious wooden hulled motorboats effortlessly skimming across the waves on weekends. A Patrol Torpedo (PT) Boat skipper had arrived ready for duty. Ensign John F. “Jack” Kennedy was finally was at the helm of his own boat with the salt air spray in his face and the ocean chop bouncing him and his crew across the waves aboard the roaring PT 101. The 101 was a 78-foot Higgins boat which was one of two variants the Navy was fielding along with the slightly larger Elco PTs. His time aboard the 101 was only for training with the Navy’s Motor Torpedo Squadron Four located in Melville, Rhode Island and later for testing in the tropics in Panama, but it gave the young officer the thrill of commanding a roaring wooden hulled boat across the sea but this time with a compliment of torpedoes and heavy machine guns. The PT boats were the US Navy’s concept for quick attacks and for close in shore support. Combat Command and the PT-109 Lt. (jg) John F. Kennedy aboard the PT-109 in the South Pacific, 1943 Lt. (jg) John F. Kennedy aboard the PT-109 in the South Pacific, 1943 John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum Promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade (JG) Kennedy entered combat with an assignment to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Two based in the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific in 1943. It was there he boarded “his” PT boat. Finally he had his first combat command. It was the PT-109. She was an Elco type. The bigger of the two variants by about 10 feet complete with a formable array of torpedoes, heavy machine guns and depth charges. No time to waste for the young Kennedy as he skippered the 109 with several other PT Boats away from the Solomons towards the Russel Islands as the US Navy prepared for the invasion of New Georgia. Soon Kennedy and his crew of eleven sailors were conducting nightly attacks on Japanese barge traffic frantically attempting to resupply their isolated garrisons in New Georgia. The US Navy used the lightning speed of the PT boat to attack with quick surprise launching torpedoes and strafing the enemy craft with 50 caliber heavy machine gun rounds. The boat’s speed allowed for a quick exit before counter attacks could be a serious threat. The crew of the 109 also found themselves on patrol in and around the remote islands serving as lookouts for the larger more formidable Japanese destroyers and cruisers that may attempt to attack US warships or US Marines on beach heads in the New Georgia-Rendova area. The only real weapon the PT boat had when facing off with the venerable much larger and heavier destroyers was speed, the quick release of torpedoes and a rapid exit before the large guns of the destroyer could attempt to fix their targets. The PT boats and their crews would easily succumb to a single blast from a destroyer’s heavy guns. It was speed or nothing. Collision with a Japanese Destroyer Higgins type PT-796 similar in appearance to the Elco type PT-109 Higgins type PT-796 similar in appearance to the Elco type PT-109 United States Navy The 109 joined fifteen PT boats on patrol on a dark night in early August 1943 to intercept Japanese warships in the straits. Fellow PT skipper Ensign George Ross with his boat out of commission joined Kennedy aboard the 109. The group engaged several Japanese destroyers firing their complement of torpedoes and withdrawing, but due to the unreliability of American torpedoes in the early stages of the war the attack did not affect much damage. Kennedy and crew on the 109 stayed in reserve with a few other boats to protect against counterattack by lingering as the attacking boats withdrew. Kennedy kept his speed to a crawl hoping to keep the wake and noise to a minimum in order to avoid detection. At 2 a.m. Kennedy noted a vague silhouette of vessel approaching in the darkness. His first thought was another friendly PT boat slowly approaching. Soon he realized it was the massive Japanese destroyer Amagiri traveling at 40 knots. Kennedy attempt to steer his boat into a firing position but before he could react, the massive destroyer slammed broadside into the much smaller wooden boat cutting the PT 109 in two in ten seconds. Ironically the Japanese destroyer didn’t even realize that they had struck an enemy vessel and kept motoring forward soon out of earshot. The tremendous impact had thrown Kennedy into the cockpit where he landed on his bad back. As the chaos and short lived ensuring flames doused by the destroyer’s wake subsided, Kennedy and 4 of his sailors clung to some wreckage of the 109. He called out into the darkness and could hear 5 other members of his crew somewhere in the darkness of the now quiet sea. Sadly two of his sailors were killed upon impact with the destroyer. Kennedy, a champion swimmer from his time at Harvard made his way to his forlorn crew pulling them all to the relative safety of the floating wreck of the 109. Confident that his crew was safe and secure, Lieutenant JG John Kennedy and his friend Ensign George Ross knew they had one more exhausting swim to make. They set out for yet a third trek this time to the tiny Island of Nauru several miles away faintly seen on the horizon where they were confident they would find local friendly natives. The locals of Naru must have been stunned when they witnessed the two American men wade ashore. The natives were trusting towards Americans after witnessing poor treatment at the hands of the Japanese. They were willing to help. Kennedy couldn’t risk attempting to canoe with the natives for fear of being seen by a Japanese patrol boat or plane. He instead cut a message on a coconut that read "NAURO ISL…COMMANDER…NATIVE KNOWS POS'IT…HE CAN PILOT…11 ALIVE…NEED SMALL BOAT…KENNEDY". He then handed the coconut to one of the natives and said, "Rendova, Rendova!," The next morning the natives returned with food and supplies. Kennedy discovered along with the provisions a letter from the coast watcher commander of the New Zealand camp. The letter directed for Kennedy to return with the natives whereby the New Zealand forces would unite him with U.S. forces. Not long after their rendezvous, Kennedy’s feeling of elation must have been immense as he watched the PT-157 rumble over to greet him. Shortly after picking up Kennedy, his crew of 10 sailors saw the 157 roaring towards their little island. After six long days, their skipper came through and they were going home.  After a few months of healing up in the rear but still wanting to stay in the fight, Lieutenant JG Kennedy requested another PT boat. In October 1943 he took command of PT-59. Kennedy, possibly doubtful of the Mark 8 and Mark 14 torpedoes’ abysmal performance decided to discard her torpedo tubes and convert her into purely a gunboat. He had two 40-millimeter anti-aircraft guns installed along with an additional array heavy machine guns. Reflecting on his battle experiences Kennedy did ballistics tests on heavy armor plating he had mounted along with his gun positions to ensure his crew’s survivability. Kennedy’s venerable PT boat proved its valor when the 59’s crew sprinted towards Choiseul Island. Fifty US Marine of the 1st Marine Parachute Regiment were clinging to a beach head with an overwhelming Japanese force on the verge of over running them and pushing them into the sea. Kennedy and his crew roared in with guns blazing long enough to provide suppressing fire as the Marines made their way to the 59. The Navy crew loaded all Marines aboard, including several wounded. Kennedy had a severely wounded Marine taken to his bunk. Small arms rounds were hitting the wooden boat and bouncing off the armor plates Kennedy had installed. Kennedy gunned her engines and roared away from Choiseul. To his dismay the wounded man taken to his bunk had expired due to his wounds. He carried the rest of the grateful Marines to safety. 

Kennedy later had the coconut shell encased in wood and plastic and used it as a paperweight on his desk in the Oval Office. John F. Kennedy was promoted to Lieutenant and continued as the skipper of the PT-59 but by 1944 the injuries sustained with the collision with the Japanese destroyer sent him stateside to receive treatment and physical therapy at Castle Hot Springs, a military hospital in Arizona. Sadly older brother Joe was killed in action piloting a British Mosquito night fighter in a top secret operation. John was honorably discharged in 1945. He would later undergo back surgery as a young U.S. Senator 8 years later. For his service in World War II, John F. Kennedy received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal (the highest non-combat decoration awarded for heroism) and the Purple Heart. He also kept and had preserved the coconut shell with his inscrption: "NAURO ISL…COMMANDER…NATIVE KNOWS POS'IT…HE CAN PILOT…11 ALIVE…NEED SMALL BOAT…KENNEDY"

Kennedy became the 35th President of the United States.

Courtesy of nps.gov

Dad didn't talk much about the war, but he felt strongly enough about the need to defend his country that he joined the US Army Reserves even after the horrors of combat. He retired at the rank of Lt. Col. in 1974. While he was most proud of his CIB and claimed that his Bronze Star was a mistake, his Bronze Star commendation from Col. Oliver Hughes, September 22, 1944, reads differently.

116th Infantry on D- Day

B-17 pilot. He and his brother left the farm to go serve their country.

Leo Kepka was a radioman for the US Navy in the Pacific theater. He was part of the 5th Division aboard the USS Hansford, Leo's job was to set up communications and to radio out to the line of departure as to how things were going, On Imo Jima, Kepka and his group went ashore on CATS that were like small tanks, they were treaded and would go from the water up unto the shore. His group was to land on Beach Red against heavy shelling. His tank was hit and went down however, Kepka made it to beach and reunited with part of his group.

Leo and two other communication men were in a shell hole with sand bags around the top, working to get a message out, that the Lieutenant in charge had been killed and to send in a new person to command. A mortar exploded on or near the foxhole killing Kepka's two partners and severely wounding him. Dr. Richard Haw the medic that tended to Kepka describes what he found. "Kepka told me to tend to the others first. They looked bad and I would hate to have to describe them to either of their families. Leo had part of his helmet blown away. The shell fragments had gone through and he was bleeding profusely. I put pressure on what I presumed was his carotid artery from the area of the wound. Part of his ear was gone but I couldn't control the bleeding so I took a clamp and put on the carotid artery. That slowed things down." Leo was taken back to the ship. The medic presumed he did not make it but Leo did live and returned home, married and had a family.

See more of Leo Kepka story in attached documents.