Kennedy’s health, however, was increasingly precarious. His weight was plunging toward 150 pounds, his chronic back trouble was intensifying, and he was limping around with a cane. The Navy needed live bodies in action, and he qualified, just barely. After a routine medical exam required for promotion to full lieutenant on October 20, he wrote to a friend: “I looked as bad as I could look . . . [but] I passed with flying colors, ready ‘for active duty ashore or at sea’ anywhere, and by anywhere they mean no place else but here. They’d give you twenty-twenty with no strain. Everyone is in such
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