JFK friendship with Battle stemmed from World War II

When the PT-109 float neared the reviewing stand during his Jan. 20, 1961, inaugural parade, President John F. Kennedy looked over his shoulder.

Kennedy's gaze found William C. Battle, the man who had managed the Kennedy campaign in Virginia.

"I didn't even know Jack knew I was in the stands," Battle told The Richmond News Leader in 1961. "But when he saw the boat coming around the bend, he immediately turned around to put his eye on me and motioned me down."

Battle, a Charlottesville native who died in 2008, watched with the president as a World War II-era patrol torpedo boat passed in the parade.

As stand-in for the sunken craft Kennedy commanded during the war, the PT boat had been repainted with "PT-109" on its hull, and on its deck surviving members of Kennedy's old crew saluted their former skipper.

"He was as enthusiastic as a kid," Battle said.

. . .

The friendship between Kennedy and Battle dated to 1943, when both were in the Navy and commanded PT boats in the South Pacific on missions to torpedo Japanese destroyers.

On an August night that year, a Japanese warship rammed Kennedy's PT-109, slicing it in two and instantly killing two of the 13 men on board.

Kennedy and his surviving crewmen were left stranded on Japanese-occupied islands for more than a week. Battle was in charge of one of the two boats that finally located and rescued PT-109's survivors.

After the war, Kennedy and Battle remained friends. While Kennedy pursued politics, Battle studied law at the University of Virginia and established a law practice. In the spring of 1960, Kennedy asked Battle for help with his stalled campaign in the West Virginia Democratic presidential primary.

Battle's prior political experience was limited to helping his father, John S. Battle Sr., win the 1949 gubernatorial race. But in addition, he was the grandson of an eminent Southern Baptist minister.

His participation in the West Virginia campaign helped allay fears of Kennedy's Catholicism prevalent in the Protestant-stronghold state. With Battle's help, Kennedy decisively won the pivotal primary over Hubert Humphrey.

Three days after Kennedy delivered his July 15 acceptance speech at the 1960 Democratic National Convention, he named Battle director of his Virginia campaign. "I got into this thing just to help a friend," Battle told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

. . .

The following month, Battle came to Richmond to address the West End Junior Chamber of Commerce on Kennedy's behalf.

Questions from the audience focused on concerns that Kennedy was too liberal. "Certainly he is more liberal than the Democratic Party in Virginia, but he is not a wild-eyed liberal," Battle responded. "He's going to be progressive."

It was not the answer most Virginia Democrats of 1960 wanted to hear.

Though Battle's efforts failed to win Virginia, Kennedy rewarded Battle's loyalty after the election. On Jan. 2, 1961, Kennedy's inaugural committee named Battle one of six civilian marshals for the parade. The role placed Battle in close proximity to Kennedy throughout the inaugural festivities.

Kennedy's and Battle's friendship did not diminish after the inauguration. In 1962, Kennedy named Battle as ambassador to Australia. He was in Australia when Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. He resigned in 1964.

Battle returned to Virginia and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1969. In 1990, seven years after his retirement as an industrial executive, Battle told The Times-Dispatch: "My life would be quite different if I hadn't been a good friend of a popular president. You can't downplay that."