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Joe got his aircrew killed when the electronics officer said the aircraft was unsafe and refused to fly.

My understanding is that Joe volunteered for a very dangerous mission along the lines of “load an airplane full of explosives, set it on a course for occupied France, and bail out at some opportune time”. Obviously something didn’t go as planned and he died. In my mind, he’s a hero who died fighting for his country.

Although I don’t have direct, incontrovertible evidence of any of this, I think a man who dies in uniform while his country is at war, is due not a small amount of deference.

Ah, sometimes. Joe got the co-pilot killed too. This is a Kennedy trait, one that thinks them taking chances will A. work, and B. others killed is not their charge or responsibility.

My understanding that the electronics/weapons officer refused to fly that day, and that Joe, with no particular educational training or understanding of electrical theory, practice, equipment decided to fly never the less.

If that is true, Captain Kennedy ignored critical information on the most dangerous and risky element of his aircraft from the person best able to judge, which hard as a Kennedy finds that others are more knowledgeable.

Anyways, with out writing a book, it seems that Kennedy males are great risk takers when they don’t know what they are doing. Like Ted with immigration, health care, a sexual dalliance, flying aircraft or aircraft or boats in combat zones. Both, in my opinion, JFK and Joe got subordinates killed, unnecessarily, due to poor judgement. Not my kind of officer.