“He always kept after me to let him go out on one of the boats when the Navy did their check rides,” Ernest recalled. “One day we heard that Joe Kennedy’s son was going to test one of the PT boats and would be out on it all day in the St. Johns [River] and the Atlantic. Harry J. pestered me to let him go out this time. I went to the construction supervisor to see if I could get Harry J. on the boat. I told him that Harry J. was a good apprentice, a hard worker and had asked to go out numerous times, and well, they let him go out.
“I remember warning him that he’d better get himself a hat and a jacket or something and cover up real good,” Uncle Ernest said. “He had such light skin I knew he would get himself sun-cooked out there all day.”
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