John F. Kennedy was the youngest president to ever take office when he was sworn in at the age of 43. He was known as a healthy middle-aged man, and the autopsy report reflects this idea for the most part. It does, however, mention several scars on the president's body.
One was on his right thigh, and another was an eight centimeter "McBurney abdominal incision," which was from an appendectomy. The final one was located on the president's back, "over the lumbar spine in the midline," according to the report. This one was larger measuring 15 centimeters. Kennedy was known to suffer from chronic back pain, but according to the Journal of Neurosurgery, the origins of where it came from are unclear. Kennedy himself cited a football injury he sustained while attending Harvard in 1937.
This back injury would prevent him from enlisting in the Army. It would take string pulling on the part of his father, Joseph P. Kennedy who was the U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain, to get him into the Navy Reserves. (He's pictured above, standing far right, with his crew on PT 109.)
Kennedy's back pain was made worse during his time in World War II, and it lead to his first of three back surgeries, one of which was responsible for the large scar. Despite these surgeries, the back pain would continue to plague the president for his entire life.
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