In fact, John F. Kennedy had bypassed his own father and instead contacted Walsh through his maternal grandfather, John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, former mayor of Boston. Having later learned of Kennedy’s debilitating health problems, Harllee remembered, “Jack Kennedy’s pulling strings to get into combat, was, of course, one of the most vivid examples of his stubborn, indomitable courage. But the military’s standards of physical fitness for men going into combat are set not so much for the sake of the man himself as for others who might depend on his physical capabilities in a tight situation.
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