FWIW, I think the criticisms of Kennedy in the lead-up to the collision are generally unfair and lack an appreciation for just how dark it can get at night away from all the lights. They also don’t seem to “get” things like fuel economy when they chastise Kennedy for idling engines in a combat zone.
MarArthur is supposed to have been in the “they should have court-martialed the little snot” camp, but then MacArthur wasn’t a naval officer and his experience with PTs was limited to abandoning his men in one and getting a Medal of Honor for it, even as he would go on to attempt to block the man he left in charge from getting a MoH on the grounds that “losers don’t deserve medals.” Because it was totally the fault of the guy he left holding the bag on Corregidor that he couldn’t hold out for three year, isolated from resupply against the Japanese.
The father had probably heard of the Kennedy family, but might have been asking the question as “Who the hell is John F. Kennedy to have a street named after him?”
Possibly. For a fictional example, a key point towards the end of The Caine Mutiny (novel), the protagonist sets his Bronze Star for one thing next to his reprimand for another thing (the titular “mutiny”) and leaves them together in the same shoe box and sort of thinks on that. Of course the incidents are separate. And fictional (but written by a former naval officer with relevant experience).
Anyway… I have heard (but can’t confirm) that the Tactical Action Officer (TAO) on watch aboard USS Stark when it was struck by a pair of missiles and took no action in self-defense received a reprimand for being a shitty TAO, but a medal for his actions in assisting with damage control efforts.
But that may be apocryphal (the medal—it’s pretty much guaranteed about the reprimand, given how the investigation turned out and seeing as how the CO was fired), and if it happened, it probably had more to do with the Navy’s tendency to cover up embarrassing incidents by throwing a bunch of medals around and saying “No, look, this wasn’t a disaster brought about by incompetence, it was a heroic effort to save the ship!” Depending on the order in which things happen (when does the Navy feel pressured to spin something into a “good news story” versus when does the investigation get finalized), it’s at least possible.
She was sunk, but then refloated. USS West Virginia (BB-48) - Wikipedia
As far as the OP, the line was an attempt at humor (i.e. Everyone in 1985 knows who John F. Kennedy is, but not in 1955) but I think it falls flat for two reasons.
As mentioned, Kennedy was a U.S. Senator and the descendant of a well known family. However, it can be explained that perhaps Mr. Baines did not follow politics and therefore did not know him. I think it would be similar to something being called Lindsey Graham Drive today and someone barking “Who in the hell is Lindsey Graham?”
Probably not very knowledgeable but not impossible.
My largest issue is the reaction. Streets and bridges and highways are named after people all of the time, usually for some local politician or a guy killed in Iraq, or a fallen state trooper. I haven’t heard of most of the people that streets are named after, so I think it is rather forced to have him react that way.
IIRC, Marty asks him where Riverside Drive is. He says it’s on the other side of town, a block past Maple. Marty thinks and says that street is JFK Drive. In that situation, I would have probably said that I had never heard of John F. Kennedy Drive and that I where I was talking about was Riverside.
The line “Lorraine if you ever have a kid like that I’ll disown you” was pretty cringeworthy and forced IMHO.
MacArthur did not “abandon” his men in the Philippines. He was ordered by Roosevelt to proceed to Australia and assume command of all United States troops in the Southwest Pacific. The order was drafted by the President, the Secretary of War, and the US Army’s Chief of Staff. No one wanted MacArthur to fall into Japanese hands.
Yeah, sure, and he was pissed at Wainwright for surrendering because he “totally expected” to arrive in Australia, assemble an army, and then turn back around in a couple of months and relieve the defenders, but that darn Wainwright pooped out before he could.
No one wanted MacArthur to fall into Japanese hands, sure, but least of all MacArthur. And he certainly had no reservations about accepting the Medal of Honor as his men were death-marched to captivity. And, again, he wrote to Marshall in Washington in an effort to deny the same medal to the man he left behind to continue the defense.
How many people do you think can name more than a handful of US Senators (if that) in 2020? Most people probably can’t even name more than a few (if that) of the top contenders for the 2020 Dem POTUS nomination.
The destroyer Amagiri was much larger (2,000 tons and 390’ vs 56 tons and 80’), created a foamy white “bone in its teeth”, and they saw the much smaller boat just fine (the ramming was on purpose, not an accident, per Amagiri’s captain, Lieutenant Commander Kohei Hanami). The USN generally is not nice to those not politically connected who lose commands without a fight.
At night, IJN lookouts regularly spotted USN vessels before being detected visually or with radar. If an IJN destroyer was so easy to spot at night from the 6’ deck height of a pitching PT, then PTs might have sank more than 1 of them.