in any country." U.S. Navy Kennedy left before his final year of law school at Harvard to enlist in the US Naval Reserve on June 24, 1941. He entered flight training to be a naval aviator, received his wings, and was commissioned an ensign on May 5, 1942. He was assigned to Patrol Squadron 203 and then Bombing Squadron 110. In September 1943, he was sent to Britain and became a member of Bomber Squadron 110, Special Air Unit ONE, in 1944. He piloted land-based PB4Y Liberator patrol bombers on anti-submarine details during two tours of duty in the winter of 1943–1944. Kennedy was appointed a lieutenant on July 1, 1944. He had completed 25 combat missions and was eligible to return home. He instead volunteered for an Operation Aphrodite mission. Operations Aphrodite and Anvil Operation Aphrodite made use of uncrewed, explosive-laden Army Air Corps Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Navy Consolidated PB4Y-1 Liberator bombers that were deliberately crashed into their targets under radio control. These "drone" aircraft could not take off safely on their own and so a crew of two would take off and fly to before they activated the remote control system, armed the detonators, and parachuted from the aircraft. After trials, the first mission took place on August 4, 1944, against targets including the Fortress of Mimoyecques, an underground military complex under construction in northern France. The U.S. Navy also participated in Operation Aphrodite, with its portion referred to as Operation Anvil. Kennedy had been appointed a lieutenant on July 1. After the US Army Air Corps operation missions were drawn up on July 23, Lieutenants Wilford John Willy and Kennedy were designated as the Navy's first Anvil flight crew. Willy, who was the executive officer of Special Air Unit 1, had also volunteered for the mission and pulled rank over Ensign James Simpson, who was Kennedy's regular co-pilot. Anvil accident and death On August 12, Kennedy and his co-pilot Willy flew a BQ-8 "robot" aircraft (a converted B-24 Liberator) for the Navy's first Aphrodite mission. Initially, two Lockheed Ventura mother planes and a Boeing B-17 navigation plane took off from RAF Fersfield, Norfolk, England at 1800 on Saturday, August 12, 1944. Then the BQ-8 aircraft, loaded with of Torpex explosive, took off to be used against the suspected V-2 development site at Mimoyecques. Following them in a USAAF F-8 Mosquito to film the mission were