Scarce hand-addressed and signed mailing envelope, 8.25 x 4, addressed by the young Kennedy to fellow PT-109 survivor John E. Maguire at the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Training Center, "J. E. Maguire RM 2/C, M.T.B.S.T.C., Melville, R.I.," and signed in the return address area, "Lt. J. F. Kennedy, PT Shakedown, S.C.T.C., Miami, Fla." Postmarked at Miami, April 26, 1944. In very good to fine condition, with light soiling, creasing, and rough edges, none of which affects the signature.
In the early morning of August 2, 1943, Lieutenant Kennedy’s PT-109 was struck by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri in the Blackett Strait of the Solomon Islands. Following a miraculous 3.5-mile swim to shore, Kennedy and his ten surviving crew members—of which included Radioman, Second Class John E. Maguire—were rescued from Olasana Island a full six days later. Kennedy returned to the United States in January 1944, and soon transferred to Miami’s Submarine Chaser Training Center for a period of three months, where he was assigned to shakedown detail—a period of training and equipment testing on new or reactivated Patrol Torpedo boats. Still ailing from a back injury, Kennedy entered the Naval Hospital in Chelsea, Massachusetts, in May, and retired from the US Naval Reserve on physical disability less than a year later. Maguire later worked in Kennedy's congressional and presidential campaigns, and when Kennedy was elected president, Maguire was commissioned US marshal for the Middle District of Florida, a position he held for nine years until Nixon became president. Maguire once said of Kennedy: 'He was my commanding officer, my president and my friend. I'll never forget him.'
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