USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.

USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. is a former United States Navy Gearing-class destroyer.

The ship was named after Lieutenant Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., a naval aviator, son of the former U.S. Ambassador to Britain, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., and older brother of future President John F. Kennedy. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. served, with interruptions for modernization, until 1973. Among the highlights of her service are the blockade of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the afloat recovery teams for Gemini 6 and Gemini 7. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. is on display as a museum ship in Battleship Cove, Fall River, Massachusetts. She was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989 as one of a small number of surviving Gearing-class destroyers.