Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-KN-C30566
President John F. Kennedy (center, looking through binoculars) and others stand on the deck of the United States Naval ship USS Observation Island (EAG-154), at sea off the coast of Florida. Left to right (in foreground): Commanding Officer of the USS Observation Island, Captain Roderick O. Middleton; unidentified military officer (in back); Naval Aide to the President, Captain Tazewell T. Shepard, Jr.; President Kennedy (wearing a windbreaker bearing the insignias of the USS Observation Island and the submarine USS Andrew Jackson, SSBN-619, presented as a gift from the crews of both ships); Military Aide to the President, General Chester V. Clifton (in back, mostly hidden); Deputy Commander of the Submarine Force of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, Rear Admiral Vernon L. Lowrance; and Senator George A. Smathers (Florida). The President sailed aboard the ship to view a Polaris A-2 missile launch demonstration from the submarine. [See also MO 75.704, “United States Naval Jacket”]