John F. Kennedy‘s daughter Caroline Kennedy and grandson Jack Schlossberg honored the late president and the anniversary of his survival during World War II. Caroline, 65, and Jack, 30, went to the Solomon Islands on August 2 to mark 80 years since the sinking of PT109, which left JFK and his fellow sailors stranded for a week. To honor their late relative, Caroline and her son did a one-mile race in the same waters that JFK swam three miles in to get to safety in 1943.
“It was just amazing,” Caroline said in an interview with TODAY. “And I think it really gave me a great appreciation for the heroism of my father and his crew and also the Solomon scouts who rescued him. It was especially meaningful to do it with Jack.”
Ambassador Caroline Kennedy along with her son Jack Schlossberg completed a special swim to honor President John F. Kennedy and the 80th anniversary of the miraculous survival story that made him a war hero. pic.twitter.com/2bA4ae97eH
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 2, 2023
Jack, who is one of JFK’s three grandchildren, told TODAY that the swim “was pretty difficult,” but he still went through with it to honor his grandfather’s legacy. “I have a lot of appreciation and admiration for what my grandfather did and the perseverance it must have taken to survive,” Jack said.
JFK and the other sailors survived on an island for one week, without food and water, before they were rescued by two Solomon men. “It’s really a story of great courage and bravery on all sides,” Caroline said. Jack acknowledged that he wouldn’t be alive today if not for the men who saved JFK.
“I’ve been training all my life for this moment,” Jack added about the one-mile swim he did with his mom, who is the US Ambassador to Australia. “I’m so happy to be able to do it with my mother — who beat me in the race,” he also said with a laugh.
Jack is Caroline’s only son and the only grandson of the legendary JFK, who was infamously assassinated in public in 1963 at the age of 46. He has two older sisters, Tatiana and Rose. Jack looks like his late grandfather but he chose to pursue a career in law rather than politics. Still, he’s continued to honor JFK’s remarkable legacy by being a political activist alongside his mother.
Jack made headlines in July for denouncing his cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr, 69, who is running for president on the Democratic ticket in 2024. Jack made an Instagram video where he criticized Robert’s COVID-19 conspiracy theories and endorsed President Joe Biden for the next election. “I’ve listened to him. I know him. I have no idea why anyone thinks he should be president,” Jack said about his cousin. “What I do know is his candidacy is an embarrassment. Let’s not be distracted, again, by somebody’s vanity project.”