Captain:
I want to express our very great appreciation to you, Captain, to Electrician's Mate Olsen, and to all of you for this presentation, and also for the model of the ship.
The ship, the Kennedy, means a good deal to all of us. My sister took part at the commissioning. My father and mother attended it. It was built in Fall River, Mass. My brother, Robert, served on it as a seaman in the Caribbean in 1944 and 1945. My father and mother have visited it on several occasions when it was stationed in the Mediterranean. It was, of course, as you know, named after my brother who had a distinguished combat record in the Second World War, and it's been the greatest source of satisfaction to all of us that you officers and men have maintained the extremely high standard which every captain and every officer and man on this ship has maintained over a period of 17 years. So I was particularly happy when we heard that this ship was here, and I know that I speak on behalf of Mrs. Kennedy and all of us who were your guests today, the Members of the Congress, our visitors from abroad, members of the press, in expressing our very warm thanks to you, our very best wishes to you.
We realize that whatever may come for this country and for the Navy, that the U.S.S. Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., will be playing an important and forward part.
Thank you very much.
Note: In the President's opening remarks he referred to Capt. Nicholas Mikhalevsky, Commander of the U.S.S. Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., and Electrician's Mate, first class, Gilbert M. Olsen, who presented the President with the model of the ship, together with a folder and schematic of the Kennedy bearing the signatures of all its officers and crew members.
APP NOTE: In the fourth sentence of paragraph two, the text incorrectly reads, "Fall River, Mass." The correct location of the ship building is "Fore River" as communicated to the APP by an archivist at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. The error is contained in the published text of the Public Papers of the Presidents and it is the policy of the American Presidency Project to republish original texts as published.
John F. Kennedy, Remarks Aboard the Destroyer Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., off Newport Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/236858
