Climb aboard the USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., a warship named for JFK's brother

"In the 2000 film "Thirteen Days" dramatizing the Cuban Missile Crisis, the USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. reprised the role of a lifetime. Back in 1962, the Gearing-class destroyer stopped a freighter heading toward Cuba that was suspected of carrying missile parts, sending a boarding party to inspect its cargo in a display of the US Navy's might. During the filming of " Thirteen Days," the USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. reenacted this pivotal mission, playing herself in a triumphant return to the open seas nearly 40 years later."

"Having served in the Korean War, Vietnam War, and the Cold War, the ship's ability to star in a movie is a testament to the work of museum staff and volunteers at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts, to keep it afloat. "There's always this constant desire to bring the ships back to their original configuration, and our volunteers are heavily involved in that," Christopher Nardi, Battleship Cove's chief operating officer, told Business Insider."

"The Gearing-class destroyer was named for John F. Kennedy's older brother, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. The ship is now a museum and war memorial docked at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts. I visited the ship - now a museum and war memorial - named for President John F. Kennedy's older brother. Take a look inside the USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., whose sailors affectionately called her "Joey P.""

USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. is a Gearing-class destroyer that served in the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War. The destroyer was named for John F. Kennedy's older brother, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. In 1962 the ship stopped a freighter heading toward Cuba suspected of carrying missile parts and sent a boarding party to inspect the cargo. The ship later reenacted that mission while participating in the 2000 film Thirteen Days. The vessel is now a museum and war memorial docked at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts, maintained and restored by staff and volunteers. Sailors affectionately called the ship "Joey P."

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