| John F. Kennedy's Coconut | |
|---|---|
| |
|
Origin |
John F. Kennedy/PT-109/Cuban Missile Crisis |
|
Type |
Coconut |
|
Effects |
Allows anyone to be found when lost |
|
Downsides |
Can explode with the force of a nuclear weapon if cracked |
|
Activation |
Touch |
|
Collected by |
|
|
Section |
|
|
Aisle |
306614-8196 |
|
Shelf |
264549-7477-168 |
|
Date of Collection |
February 3, 1964 |
| [Source] | |
Origin[]
John F. Kennedy was the 35th American president and served from 1961 to 1963. Before being elected, he commanded patrol boats in the south Pacific during World War Two. One, PT-109, sankand Kennedy’s later rescue message led to the survival of the remainder of his crew and his recognition as a national war hero. The wreck of PT-109 was later found by sunken ship hunter/expert Robert Ballard in 2002.
Afterwards, he ventured into politics, defeating Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election. To this day, he has been the only Roman Catholic president and the only president to win a Pulitzer Prize. During his tenure, the United States government oversaw the failed invasion of Cuba’s Bay of Pigs and the resultant standoff with Soviet missiles stationed in Cuba, the beginning of the Space Race and Apollo space program, the construction of the Berlin Wall in divided Germany, and the escalation of the African-American civil rights movement and the military involvement in Vietnam.
On November 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated JFK in Dallas, Texas. Two days later, club owner Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald on national broadcast tv. The FBI and quickly formed Warren Commission decreed that Oswald was the lone shooter, but others may have known in advance about the plan.
Collection[]
The coconut was originally carved with Kennedy’s distress message after PT-109 sank into the Pacific:
NAURO ISL COMMANDER... NATIVE KNOWS POS'IT... HE CAN PILOT... 11 ALIVE NEED SMALL BOAT... KENNEDY.
It was later mounted and kept as a memento in the White House, including his Cold War struggles against the Soviet Union and Cuba. After his death, many of his personal effects were investigated by the federal government; a Warehouse agent working in the FBI was able to smuggle it out from the Commission once he learned of its destructive downside.
Effects[]
Allows whoever touches it to be found when lost, no matter where or for how long they were missing. It also absorbed the terror the Cuban Missile Crisis caused and will explode with the force of a nuclear bomb if cracked open.