JFK and PT-109, 80 years later

Transcript

Music

Jake:
[0:04] Welcome to Hub History where we go far beyond the Freedom Trail to share our favorite stories from the history of Boston. The hub of the universe.
This is episode 281: JFK and PT-109.
Hi, I’m Jake.
This week, I’m talking about an incident that took place on the far side of the world and may have helped to create a US president 80 years ago this month on a tiny Pacific Island. A legend was born.
This is one of those stories that’s probably gonna reveal some generational differences among our listeners.
It seems like people of a certain age know everything there is to know about Camelot.
The larger than life legends surrounding the Kennedy administration.
I’m guessing that people who are just a bit older than me and then up to my parents’ age will say to themselves, well, why would you ever bother writing an episode about PT 109?
Everybody knows about PT 109.

[1:04] People my age and younger probably have a vague sense of the story at best, but hopefully you’ll care enough to listen, what our parents or maybe your grandparents remember is that the wartime service of Lieutenant Jack Kennedy was an integral part of the myth making that launched his political career.
But before we talk about PT 109, I just want to pause and say a big thank you to Eric G Mason.
A and to everyone who supports Hub History on Patreon, these are the listeners who sign up to contribute $2.05 dollars or even as much as $20 a month to offset the cost of making hub history.

[1:45] As you can probably imagine. I listened to a lot of podcasts before deciding to start one of my own.
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Now it’s time for this week’s main topic.

[3:05] If you tuned into last week’s extra long episode, you’ll recall that I queued up three classic stories about Bostonians and their adventures on the Pacific Ocean.
You might also recall that I set up that rerun episode because I gotten bogged down and not finished another script that I was working on a script about an incident that happened 80 years ago in the South Pacific involving another Bostonian, or at least a part time Bostonian, in August, 1943 that part time Bostonian was in command of one of the most famous small craft in US Navy history.
In a 1952 letter Kohei Hami who had commanded the Japanese destroyer, Amari nearly a decade before described what he experienced in the wee hours of August 2nd, in one of the night battles in early August 1943 I sighted a bold enemy boat of small size that was heading directly toward my destroyer of a larger type, having no time to exchange gunfire as the ships came so close to each other.
My destroyer had to directly hit the enemy boat slicing it in two to my great surprise.
This boat happened to be the boat which was under your command.

[4:17] That boat was PT 109 and the skipper that night was a 26 year old lieutenant junior grade by the name of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
The patrol torpedo boat number 109 was part of a new class of naval vessels that were designed to move fast and engage larger ships in quick hit and run attacks mostly using torpedoes.
I’m gonna be quoting from an official history of PT 109 that was compiled in 1961.
A good bit in this episode, starting with the ship’s construction motor torpedo boat 109 was built by the Elko Naval Division of the Electric boat company in Bayonne, New Jersey.
She was delivered to the Navy on the 10th of July 1942 and completed fitting out in the New York naval shipyard where she was placed in service under the charge of Nant Bryant L Larson.

[5:08] Now, as I started reading through that history, I learned that PT 109 was both larger than I had assumed yet, also somehow flimsier.
The legend that’s grown up around JFK and his PT boat service places so much emphasis on the small and maneuverable nature of his craft that I was caught off guard by the size of the ship.
From the legends. I had somehow assumed that a PT boat was maybe just a bit bigger than the sort of speed boat that you’d see towing water skiers on Lake Winnipesaukee in the summer or maybe like an oversized Boston Whaler running around Boston Harbor.
The truth is somewhat larger as our official history relates, motor torpedo boats, contrary to some beliefs did not go 70 MPH nor did they launch torpedoes at high speed.
Pt 109 was a Plywood boat measuring 80 ft in length and had a maximum beam of 20 ft.
Her maximum draft was 6 ft and she was powered by 3 12 cylinder Packard engines.
Each of which developed 1350 horsepower.
She could carry as many as 4 21 inch torpedoes and originally mounted 4 50 caliber machine guns and two twin turrets.
1 20 millimeter cannon was mounted on the fantail and small arms included Tommy guns, Springfield rifles and riot shotguns.

[6:30] 80 ft is a bit large for Lake Winnipesaukee.
The largest private boat I’ve ever been on was 44 ft long and I think it had something like three bedrooms.
Uh I guess, I mean cabins plus, of course the galley and the head if I’m getting the nautical terminology correct.
At the same time, PT 109 was a Plywood boat. And I’ve always envisioned modern warships as being steel hulled.
I know that if I was going into battle against the Imperial Japanese navy on the high seas, I’d want something more substantial between myself and enemy deck guns than a flimsy piece of birch after its construction in New Jersey and outfitting in New York.
PT 109 was stationed in Panama as part of the defense of the canal zone.
After us, marines landed in Guadalcanal and Tulay on August 7th, 1942 the PT squadron was given warning orders to get ready for transport to the combat zone in the Pacific.

[7:32] According to another us navy history of the ship, this one from 2015, the move happened just in time for Thanksgiving.
Six of the Elco boats PTS 109 through 1.
14 were transferred to motor torpedo boat squadron two on the 26th of October 1942 and prepared for deployment to the Solomon Islands.
The boats were loaded onto cargo ships and sailed west, arriving at Sasae Tulay Harbor at the end of November there.
The Elco boats joined the earlier boats which had established the motor torpedo boat base at Sasae in October to form motor torpedo boat flotilla.
One under commander Alan P Calvert.

[8:15] Our ship’s history from 1961 describes what combat operations were like in the months after the PT squadron was deployed.
The Sound between Florida Island and Guadalcanal which came for obvious reasons to be known as Iron Bottom Bay was geographically favorable for PT action.
The two western entrances were relatively narrow and the strait was less than 35 miles across.
It became a regular practice on the nights when the Tokyo Express, Japanese warships were reported heading down the slot or the broad passage of water between New Georgia and Santa Isabel and between other islands running to the northwest to place the PTS as scouts in the entrance channels or even outside the entrances to the west.
Other motor torpedo boats waited inside Iron Bottom Bay ready to move to either passage.
When the enemy was reported, the confinement of Japanese ground forces on Northwest Guadalcanal Island left little doubt as to the ultimate destination of enemy ships.

[9:17] The PT boats ran combat patrols nearly every day under a series of commanders until Lieutenant junior grade.
Kennedy took command of the boat on April 24th, 1943.
Our other us navy history, the one from 2015 notes in between regular security patrols.
Pt 109 underwent several short maintenance periods which included the installation of a surface search radar set as radar sets were not issued with this class of PT boats.
The device was undoubtedly a scrounged item and it’s unclear how long it lasted.
Starting in late April, the motor torpedo boat increasingly conducted patrols in the Russell Islands area.
And on June 16th, pt 109 shifted with the other boats to a bush birth on Rendo Island in support of these forward operations.

[10:07] In the meantime, young John F. Kennedy was trying to find a way into the war.
He was caught up in the same patriotic fervor that had swept the country after Pearl Harbor.
But he had the additional pressure of a very political and very public father Joseph Kennedy, who had bet on the wrong horse in the pre-war years, as a business leader and then later as US ambassador to Britain, he backed Chamberlain’s policy of attempting to appease the Nazis.
He tried to keep the US out of the war and he even tried to set up a personal meeting with Hitler to try to patch up relations between our countries.

[10:44] Not that the US had entered the war on Britain’s side. He encouraged his sons to join the military in order to shore up the family’s patriotic bona fides.
Before the war was over. Joseph Junior would be a naval aviator and Robert would join the Naval reserve.
Years later, baby brother Ted would serve a brief stint in the US Army and that’s where it looked like Jack was headed at first too.
He applied to the army’s officer candidate school in 1940 before the war began, but he eventually washed out because of chronic lower back injuries.
Joe Senior used his political connections to lean on senior navy leaders to accept Jack as an officer of the US Navy and he used sympathetic doctors to provide falsified medical records that allowed Jack to qualify for active duty in a war zone.
Daddy Kennedy also pulled some strings to get young Jack assigned a PT boat duty calling influential friends and promising them that the son of the ambassador would bring much needed attention to the PT boat program.

[11:46] Much like PT 109 itself. Lieutenant Junior Greg Kennedy started out his career in Panama.
He arrived there in December 1942 about a month and a half after his future boat had left, after just a few months commanding PT 109 in Gulf Waters, note from the editing room, it was actually PT 101 JFK got bored and again, called on his father’s contacts, managing to have a Massachusetts congressman Wrangler transfer to the South Pacific for him.
In April of 1943. He took command of PT 109, being assigned first to a base on Tulay and then later to a forward operating base on Rendo Island before they could take on any other duty under Kennedy.
The crew of PT 109 had to repair all the damage that the boat had sustained during months of nearly nightly fighting by May.
The boat was ready for service and started combat patrols.
The battle that began on the evening of August 1st saw 14 PT boats ordered into the Blacket Strait to try to intercept the nightly Japanese convoy that would run down the narrow passage to resupply Japanese positions and to shell American positions in the contested islands.
These 14 patrol boats were divided into sections with PT 109 assigned to the fourth section under Lieutenant HJ Branham.

[13:12] A memo dated August 22nd, 1943 is the closest account we have of the sinking of PT 109.
It’s addressed to the commander of the PT boat flotilla and it’s signed by the survivors of PT 109.

[13:27] The memo describes the order of battle on the night of August 1st lieutenant branding Ham’s boats were further subdivided into two sections.
PT 1 59 radar equipped operating with PT 1 57 while PT 1 62 under the command of Lieutenant Jr Lowry was the lead boat of the second section with PT 109.
Following PTS 1 59 and 1 62.
Both carried TB Ys for inter boat. Communications instructions were issued to Lieutenant junior grade Jack Kennedy, captain of PT 109 to follow closely on PT 1 62 starboard quarter, which would keep in touch with the radar equipped PT 1 59 by TB Y.
Our official history of the ship continues the story painting the picture of a routine combat patrol that was uneventful up to a point.
Lieutenant Kennedy and PT 109 patrolled without incident until gunfire and search lights were seen in the direction of the southern shore of Columbo Gara.
He had received no radio message or other warning of enemy activity.
And it was not possible for him to ascertain whether the search light came from the shore or from ships close in.
He intercepted PT 1 62 to inquire as to the source of the firing and was informed that it was apparently from shore batteries.

[14:49] Suddenly, he intercepted a terse radio message. I am being chased through Ferguson passage have fired fish at this time.
Pt 1 69 came alongside to inquire and reported her engine out of order.
She lay two with PT 109 and PT 1 62 to await developments.
While instructions were requested from base orders were received to resume normal patrol station and PT 1 62 being uncertain as to its position, requested Lieutenant Kennedy to lead the way back to patrol station, a few minutes later believing he’d arrived back at their starting point.
Lieutenant Kennedy ordered the throttles to be cut and kept a single engine turning over just at idle speed at the time.
The crew of PT 109 numbered 12 plus the skipper besides Kennedy.
The other officers on board were JFKS executive officer Anson, Leonard Tom and Anin Barney Ross who was along as an observer after his assigned PT boat had been sunk.

[15:55] There are also four machinists mates to keep the engines running two torpedo men’s mates to operate the vessel’s primary weapons and a gunner and gunner’s mate to man the 20 millimeter anti-aircraft gun, the dual 50 caliber machine guns or the 37 millimeter deck gun as needed.
Rounding out the crew were a radio man and a quartermaster and cook along with our Brookline born Kennedy Gunner’s mate.
Bucky Harris was from Watertown and Machinist mate William Johnson was from Dorchester of the crew of 13, Only machinist mate Pappy mcmahon was below deck as that August 1943 memo notes, the time was about 2 30 cent.
Ross was on the bow as a lookout, Incent Tom was standing beside the cockpit.
Lieutenant Kennedy was at the wheel and with him in the cockpit was mcguire as radio man.
Marty was in the forward turret. Mauer, the Quartermaster was standing beside Incent Tom Albert was in the after turret and mcmahon was in the engine room.

[17:01] I’ve only been on the open ocean at night a couple of times, but for somebody like me who’s not used to it, the pure inky darkness is disorienting.
Imagine the panic that the crew must have felt when that darkness suddenly coalesced into the shape of a ship.
A ship that was closing on the small boat way too fast.

[17:21] In 1944 John Hersey published an article in the New Yorker about Kennedy and the PT 109 incident titled Survival where he wrote Kennedy was at the wheel and he saw Ross turn and point into the darkness.
The man in the forward machine gun turret shouted ship.
At two o’clock, Kennedy saw a shape and spun the wheel to turn for an attack.
But the 109 answered sluggishly.
She was running slowly on only one of her three engines. So as to make a minimum wake and avoid detection from the air in their memo, the crew of the PT boat described how they suddenly realized the oncoming ship was not a friend.
Suddenly a dark shape loomed up on PT 109 starboard bow 200 to 300 yards distant.
At first, this shape was believed to be other PTS. However, it was soon seen to be a destroyer identified as of the Hebei group of the Fuki class bearing down on PT 109 at high speed.
The 2015 official history of PT 109 that I’ve been using, describes how the commander of the oncoming ship spotted the small Plywood boat first and ordered his ship to ramming speed.

[18:33] Unknown to them, the Japanese destroyer Amari was returning north after completing a supply mission to Kala Manara and it spotted the torpedo boats at a range of about 1000 yards rather than open fire and give away their position.
The destroyer captain, lieutenant commander Kohei Hanai turned to intercept and closed in the darkness at 30 knots.
The survivor’s memo continues, the 109 started to turn to starboard preparatory to firing torpedoes.
However, when PT 109 had scarcely turned 30 degrees, the destroyer rammed the PT striking it forward to the forward starboard tube and shearing off the starboard side of the boat.
A including the starboard engine, the destroyer traveling at an estimated speed of 40 knots, neither slowed nor fired as she split the PT leaving part of the PT on one side and the other on the other side, scarcely 10 seconds elapsed between the time of sighting and the crash in survival.
John Hersey could take some poetic license that wouldn’t be appropriate for an official military document.
Here’s how he described the moment of impact.
The 13 men on the PT hardly had time to brace themselves.
Those who saw the Japanese ship coming were paralyzed by fear in a curious way, they could move their hands but not their feet.

[19:58] Kennedy whirled the wheel to the left but again, the 109 did not respond.
Ross went through the gallant but futile motions of slamming a shell into the breach of the 37 millimeter anti tank gun which had been temporarily mounted that very day wheels and all on the four deck.

[20:15] The urge to bolt and dive over the side was terribly strong but still no one was able to move all hands froze to their battle stations.
Then the Japanese destroyer crashed into the 109 and cut her right in two.
The sharp enemy forefoot struck the PT on the starboard side about 15 ft from the bow and crunched diagonally across with a racking noise.
The PTS wooden hull hardly even delayed the destroyer, Kennedy was thrown hard to the left in the cockpit and he thought this is how it feels to be killed.
In a moment. He found himself on his back on the deck looking up at the destroyer as it passed through his boat.

[20:57] There was another loud noise and a huge flash of yellow red light and the destroyer glowed its peculiar raked inverted y stack stood out in the brilliant light.
And later in Kennedy’s memory torpedo’s mate, second class, Andrew Kirky and machinist mate second class Harold Marney were killed instantly by the force of the collision.
While the rest of the crew who were above deck were thrown into the water in all directions from his position in the engine room.
Pappy mcmahon had a very different experience of the crash from the men above as described in survival.
He had no idea what was up. He was just reaching forward to slam the starboard engine into gear.
When a ship came into his engine room, he was lifted from the narrow passage between two of the engines and thrown painfully against the starboard bulkhead.
After the boat’s auxiliary generator, he landed in a sitting position.

[21:55] A tremendous burst of flame came back at him from the day room where some of the gas tanks were.
He put his hands over his face, drew his legs up tight and waited to die, but he felt water hit him after the fire and he was sucked far downward as his half of the PT sank, he began to struggle upward through the water.
He had held his breath since the impact. So his lungs were tight and they hurt.
He looked up through the water over his head. He saw a yellow glow gasoline burning on the water.
He broke the surface and was in fire again.
He splashed hard to keep a little island of water around him.
In the seconds after the crash, a giant fireball enveloped the wreck of the boat and burning gasoline spread over the water for about 20 yards in all directions.
The fire could have been worse but the wake of the Japanese destroyer helped disperse the rest of the gas before it could explode.
And the fires died down. After about 15 minutes, the front half of the wreck kept floating.
And Lieutenant Kennedy, the two Inns and three other men climbed onto the remains of the hall.

[23:07] Meanwhile, two survivors were heard shouting from where they were floating about 100 yards to the southeast and three more were the same distance to the southwest.
One of the group of three to the southwest was Pappy mcmahon who is now badly burned. Over 70% of his body.

[23:25] Lieutenant Kennedy no longer had a ship but he still had a crew and in this moment of crisis, their commander would face one of the greatest challenges of his life.
The official history of PT 109 relates how the young lieutenant started to gather the survivors together and tried to turn them back into a functioning military unit.
Lieutenant Kennedy swam to the group of three where he found one man helpless because of serious burns, battling a strong current.
It took him an hour to get this man aboard.
Returning to the scene, he traded his life belt to a man whose waterlogged life jacket made swimming difficult together.
They towed the other crew member back to PT 109.
Meanwhile, Ince’s Tom and Ross towed the other two survivors back to the floating section.

[24:16] Hersey adds some possibly apocryphal details to the effort to gather the survivors back onto the remains of the PT boat.
Relating this moment of Boston’s strong bravado in the dark waters on the way in Harris said I can’t go any farther.
Kennedy of the Boston Kennedys said to Harris of the same hometown for a guy from Boston you’re certainly putting up a great exhibition out here.
Harris Harris made it all right and didn’t complain anymore.
After a herculean effort to get the crew organized. The Survivor’s August 1943 memo describes how it dawned on them that they were on their own.
And in a very precarious position during the three hours it took to gather survivors together.
Nothing was seen or heard that indicated other boats or ships in the area.
Pt 19 did not fire its very pistols or flare gun for fear of giving away its position to the enemy but blinked light until dawn.

[25:19] When the sun rose on the morning of August 2nd, 1943 all 11 survivors were clinging to the hull of PT 109 and it was starting to sink.
They’re about 40 miles from their PT boat base and surrounded by enemy occupied islands in survival.
Hersey describes the situation that they found themselves in to the northeast three miles off.
They saw the monumental cone of Kumara there.
The men knew 10,000 Japanese swarmed to the west five miles away.
They saw Vela Laa, more enemy troops to the south only a mile or so away.
They could actually see a Japanese camp on Gizo.
Kennedy ordered his men to keep as low as possible so that no moving silhouettes would show against the sky.
The listing Hulk was gurgling and gradually settling in the water.
Kennedy said, what do you want to do if the Japanese come out fight or surrender.
One said, fight with what? So they took an inventory of their armament.
The 37 millimeter gun had flopped over the side and was hanging there by a chain.
They had one Tommy gun, 6 45 caliber automatics and 1 38. Not much.

[26:42] The idea of landing on one of the Japanese held islands was off the table.
Since the enemy had captured the garrison at Manila in the Philippines, they had earned a reputation for mistreating prisoners which American propaganda stoked into an image of blood thirsty automatons who had torture and kill any American who fell into their clutches.
These particular Americans were in no position to put up a fight either not with a single revolver, six pistols and a single Tommy gun.

[27:13] At about 1 30 pm. The skipper ordered all hands to abandon what was left of their sinking ship together.
They’d swim for a tiny island about 3.5 miles to the southwest.

[27:25] There were other islands that were closer to the wreck, but they were too close to the Japanese garrison on Gizo.
And the crew was worried that they would be detected and captured Jack Kennedy had been on the swim team at Harvard.
So he would tow mcmahon as the August 1943 memo notes.

[27:43] At 1400 Lieutenant Kennedy took the badly burned mcmahon in tow and set out for land intending to lead the way and scout the island in advance of the other survivors.
And since Ross and Tom followed with the other men, Johnson and Mauer who couldn’t swim were tied to a float rigged from a two by eight which was part of the 37 millimeter gun mound, Harrison mcguire were fair swimmers but Zinser Starkey and Albert were not so good.
The strong swimmers pushed her to the float to which the non swimmers were tied.
The swim took four hours through waters that both sharks and giant saltwater crocodiles called home, but they all made it without further injuries.
Kennedy with mcmahon Toe arrived first and the skipper left the injured machinist clinging to the reef while he went ashore at his underwear to make sure that the island was unoccupied.
It was known as plum pudding island.
It was hardly worth anyone’s time at just 100 yards in diameter.
The sandy island had six coconut palms, some scraggly brush and a dangerous reef completely surrounding it.
Not exactly a temping military objective.
The skipper went back and helped mcmahon ashore while the rest of the survivors finally struggled across the reef.

[29:06] They quickly took cover in the underbrush to try to stay out of sight while they also started trying to get their strength back.
Kennedy had already made several tough swims, spending a total of about 15 hours in the water after the crash, he also swallowed a lot of seawater as he breast stroked with mcmahon’s life vest strap clutched in his teeth.
Besides mcmahon, two of the crew were still debilitated from having ingested and inhaled massive quantities of gasoline.
In the moments after the collision, one head, minor burns and another was black and blue from head to toe.
After the Japanese destroyer’s wake had tumbled him over and over in the water as they rested.
The survivors took stock as the August 1943 memo describes, Lieutenant Kennedy was dressed only in skivvy and in Tom coveralls and shoes and in ross trousers and most of the men were dressed only in trousers and shirts.
There were 6 40 fives in the group, two of which were later lost before rescue.
1 38 1 flashlight, one large knife, one light knife and a pocket knife.
The boat’s first aid could have been lost in the collision. All of the group, with the exception of a man who suffered considerably from burns were in fairly good condition, although weak and tired from their swim ashore.

[30:30] Kennedy later told the New York Times how mcmahon suffered while the skipper and crew hid in the bushes and gathered their strength.
You could see that he was suffering such pain that his lips twitched and his hands trembled and, and Tom added, you’d watch him and think if you were in his place, you’d probably be yelling.
Why doesn’t somebody do something?
But every time you asked Mac how he was doing, he’d wrinkle his face and give you a grin.

[30:58] As Lieutenant Kennedy rested. He slowly realized that Ferguson passage, a narrow channel between two small islands was just on the far side of the next island.
And for the past several nights, that’s how the PT boats had gotten from their base into the action.
Soon he hatched a plan as related by the official US Navy history of PT 109.

[31:21] That night, he grabbed a salvaged battle lantern donned a life jacket and dove into the sea.
He made his way to a small island a half mile to the southeast.
Then along the reef, stretching into Ferguson passage where he attempted to intercept the PTS, seeing no sign of motor torpedo boats he commenced to return by the same route and became caught in a vicious current which swept him in a circle about two miles into Blacket Strait and then back to the middle of Ferguson passage, he started all over again this time stopping on a small island just southeast of home.
After sleeping to dawn, he rejoined the survivors in a state of complete exhaustion.
That night, the PT boats had gone the other way around an island leaving Lieutenant Kennedy flashing his battle lantern to nobody.
After he finally made it back to their tiny island outpost. Kennedy collapsed behind the bushes and slept for most of August 2nd that night, he swam about 3 to 5 miles.
Luckily, according to the survivor’s memo, Kennedy had a chance to catch up on his rest the next night.

[32:31] Nothing was observed on August 2nd or third which gave any hope of rescue on the night of the third in and Ross decided to proceed into Ferguson passage in another attempt to intercept PT patrols from Rendo, using the same route as Kennedy had used and leaving at about 1800.
Ross patrolled off the reefs of the west side of the passage with negative results, in returning, he wisely stopped on the islet southeast of home slept and thereby avoided the experience with the current which had swept Kennedy out to sea.
He made the final lap the next morning that night off from swimming in the dark shark and crocodile infested waters gave JFK a much needed chance to rest and gather his strength.
And according to our official history of the vessel, he would need all of his strength.
The following night, the survivors existed on coconut milk and meat, but this supply ran low on August 4th and they left this home for a small islet west of Cross Island.
Lieutenant Kennedy with the burned engineer in tow was the first to land.
The rest of the group had difficulty with the strong current but finally made the eastern tip of the island which offered brush for protection.

[33:45] That night. They had to swim about three and three quarter miles against a strong ocean current.
It’s amazing to me that any of them made it much less the injured mcmahon still being towed behind Kennedy by his life jacket strap.
Yet somehow they all made it intact. Their new refuge Oana Island, the August 1943 memo describes their new tropical paradise, which wasn’t that different from the last one.
Their new home was slightly larger than their former offered brush for protection and a few coconuts to eat and had no Japanese tenants.

[34:22] The night of August 4th was wet and cold and no one ventured into Ferguson passage. That night.
The next morning, Kennedy and Ross decided to swim to Cross island in search of food boats or anything else which might be useful to their party prior to their leaving for Cross Island.
Three, New Zealand P 40 S made a strafing run, seeing an allied plane shooting up this neighboring island may have deterred someone else from swimming over and exploring it.
But the crew of PT 109 was desperate.
They needed fresh water and substantial food, they needed medical attention, and most of all they needed rescue.
Our 1961 history of the ship relates how JFK and Barney Ross crossed the neighboring island on the night of August 5th, undaunted by the sight of a New Zealand p 40 strafing that island and the possibility of Japanese, they sneaked through the brush in search of food.
The two men made their way to the east side and peered from the brush onto a beach.
They spotted a small rectangular box with Japanese writing on the side pulled furtively into the bush.
It was found to hold 30 to 40 bags of crackers and candy.
A little farther up the beach was a native lean to with a one-man canoe and a barrel of water alongside about this time, a canoe with two natives was sighted, but they paddled swiftly off despite all efforts to attract their attention.

[35:51] Kennedy and Ross didn’t know it yet.
But those two natives were Melanesian coast watchers who had been recruited by the British and Australians who were also fighting in the area.
And they would eventually prove to be the deliverance of the stranded crew that night though they kept their distance.
Not knowing if the two disheveled men waving at them were Japanese Australian or from some other alien culture that had joined the fight that had little to do with them but was waged in their backyard, instead, while the two coast watchers paddled away, Kennedy and Ross decided to steal their small canoe in its 55 gallon drum of fresh water.
Seeing Kennedy return to Oana Island with plenty of drinking water and a crate of food must have been a huge morale boost for the PT 109 survivors.
But they still needed to find their way back to American minds.
The later navy history of PT 109 describes how JFK continued the search for allied forces that night.

[36:51] During the night of August 5th, Kennedy took the canoe into Ferguson passage but found no PT boats returning home by the way of Cross Island where he had picked up the food, he found the two natives there with the rest of the group.
And Tom after telling them in as many ways as possible that he was an American and not Japanese had finally convinced the natives to help the Americans.
The natives were then sent with messages to the coast watchers on Juana, Juana.
One was a penciled note written the day before by Incent Tom and the other a message written on a green coconut husk by Kennedy.

[37:30] The two coast Watchers were Baku Gaza and Aron Kuma unbeknownst to Lieutenant Kennedy, the two men had been searching for him for days.
The Australian officer who had recruited, the two men had witnessed the explosion after PT 109 was run down and had assigned several groups of local coast watchers to search for American survivors.
Kennedy and Tom had picked up some of the pigeon English that the Brits and Aussies used to communicate with the Solomon Islanders and they were able to convey that they were American survivors of PT 109.
That was the fulfillment of the men’s search and rescue mission.
Though the Americans didn’t yet know it.
Not realizing that the two men would certainly report their position and situation back to allied forces.
Lieutenant Kennedy used a pin knife to carefully carve into a green coconut husk.
The words 11 alive native nose position in reefs.
Nauru Island, Kennedy.

[38:30] He sent that message with Gaza and Kuma. The survivor’s 1943 memo relates that Kennedy and the crew weren’t yet ready to put all their eggs in one basket, after the natives left Ross and Kennedy remained on the island until evening when they set out in the two man canoe to again try their luck at intercepting the PTS in Ferguson passage.
They paddled far out into the passage, saw nothing and were caught in a sudden rain squall which eventually capsized.
The canoe swimming to land was difficult and treacherous as the sea swept the two officers against the reef on the south side of Cross Island, Ross received numerous cuts and bruises but both managed to make land where they remained the rest of the night.

[39:18] In his essay, Survival. Hersey describes how on the morning of August 7th, Kennedy and Ross were awakened early in the morning by a noise, they looked up and saw four husky natives.
One walked up to them and said in an excellent English accent.
I have a letter for you, sir.
Kennedy tore the note open. It said on his Majesty’s service to the senior officer, Nauru Island.
I have just learned of your presence on Nauru.
I am in command of a New Zealand infantry patrol operating in conjunction with us, army troops on New Georgia.
I strongly advise that you come with these natives to me.
Meanwhile, I shall be in radio communication with your authorities at Rendo, and we can finalize plans to collect the balance of your party.
Signed. Lieutenant Winco ps will warn aviation of your crossing.
Ferguson passage gas and Kuma must not have harbored much of a grudge over that stolen canoe because according to the survivor’s memo, they risk their lives to smuggle Lieutenant Kennedy to a friendly Australian base.

[40:31] That afternoon, Kennedy hidden under ferns.
The native boat was taken to the coast watcher arriving about 1600 there.
It was arranged that PT boats had rendezvous with him in Ferguson passage that evening. At 22 30.
Accordingly, he was taken to the rendezvous point and finally managed to make contact with the PTS.
At 23 15, he climbed aboard the PT and directed it to the rest of the survivors.

[41:00] John Hersey’s article in the New Yorker injects some of the color that was missing from that dry memo back into the rescue after interviewing JFK.
And perhaps more importantly, many members of the crew.
Hersey wrote a moment later.
A PT came alongside, Kennedy jumped onto it and hugged the men aboard his friends.
In the American tradition, Kennedy held under his arm. A couple of souvenirs, one of his improvised paddles and a Japanese gas mask with the help of the natives.
The PT made its way to Bird Island.
A skiff went in and picked up the men in the deep of the night.
The PT and its happy cargo roared back toward base.
All the PT 109 crew members who survived the initial collision and explosion were still alive when they were picked up by PT 1 57 in the three nights between the sinking and his first encounter with Gaza and Kuma.
Lieutenant Kennedy swam at least 10 miles first.
He towed mcmahon about 3.5 miles to Plum Pudding Island.
Then somewhere between two and five miles as he was dragged around by the currents in Ferguson Strait, then another three and three quarter miles towing mcmahon to Oana Island.
Then the final half mile to Nauru where he finally stole a canoe.
Most of this was done at night with no lights and open water filled with terrifying predators.

[42:30] I used to swim at the local y a few mornings each week and a mile was the most ambitious workout that I would go for to put Kennedy’s accomplishment in perspective.
The swimming portion of the Iron Man Triathlon, one of the most grueling swimming events is 2.4 miles of open water.
In the daytime, there are marathon swimmers out there like Annette Kellerman who we profiled in episode 82 who tackle longer distances like say the eight mile Boston Light swim from Little Brewster Island in the outer harbor to the El Street bathhouse in Southie.
However, marathon swims are incredibly specialized events and any of the distances that JFK covered in those three nights are staggering, despite all the many laps that I put in at the Hyde Park Y I wouldn’t want to be the one that has to tow an injured machinist mate almost four miles holding a strap in my mouth.

[43:30] The 2015 history of PT 109 relates how the navy recognized jfk’s courage.
Lieutenant Kennedy was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps medal for extremely heroic conduct as a commanding officer of motor torpedo boat 109 following the collision and sinking of that vessel in the Pacific War area on August 1st to 2nd 1943.
Unmindful of personal danger. Lieutenant then Lieutenant junior grade Kennedy unhesitatingly braved the difficulties and hazards of darkness to direct rescue operations.
Swimming many hours to secure aid and food after he had succeeded in getting his crew ashore.
His outstanding courage, endurance and leadership contributed to the saving of several lives and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States naval service.

[44:24] His accomplishments didn’t come without a cost back on Rendo Island where his adventure began.
Lieutenant Kennedy spent about a month in the hospital recovering from a back injury and other minor injuries from the initial collision as well as a variety of tropical illnesses.
During that initial hospital stay, the young officer had a chance to catch up on news coverage of the war and he gave this quote to a reporter about what he saw as the overly casual coverage of the Pacific War in the US press, people get so used to talking billions of dollars and millions of soldiers that thousands of dead sounds like drops in the bucket.
But if those thousands want to live as much as the 10 I saw, they should measure their words with great, great care.
After his initial recuperation, Lieutenant Kennedy had the option to return to the States by navy tradition.
Any sailor whose ship went down was able to request stateside duty without being thought a coward.
Kennedy instead requested a return to his unit. And in September, he took command of PT 59.
He would only command the second PT boat for a couple of months as his deteriorating health had him pulled off the front lines by November and recuperating at the Chelsea Naval Hospital close to home by May 1944.

[45:50] Before that. However, the young lieutenant would participate in one more combat operation after spending over two weeks cut off from resupply on a small island where they were serving as a diversion.
A company of marine paratroopers were ready for a ride home on the night of November 1st, 1943 there are 87 marines and kept about 900 occupying Japanese soldiers tied down.
But now they were hungry low on ammunition and many of the men were wounded.
Three pt boats and a handful of landing craft motored 65 miles to the island where the marines were waiting.
And then Kennedy ordered his pt 59 to act as a shield, taking a position between the landing craft and Japanese batteries on the shore to try to protect the marines as they loaded and held their fire until the last American was on board.

[46:45] As they started to make the trip back.
One of the landing craft foundered on a reef and pt 59 picked up about 10 of the stranded marines in a letter dated November 2nd 1963 20 days before President Kennedy was assassinated.
One of those marines, an officer who retired as a colonel wrote to the president with his memories of that night at the very hour of this.
Writing 20 years ago, I found myself in my patrol pressed by Japanese troops or back to the sea.
The landing craft sent to evacuate us had already been driven off by enemy fire.
Even the weather turned against us as nightfall brought a tropical rain with it when all seemed lost.
You can well appreciate my relief to see the landing craft returning escorted by PT boats, one commanded by you within a half an hour.
I was again to appreciate the presence of your PT boat as the landing craft in which I was embarked lost power and my men and I transferred to your boat for a safe return to our base.
As I recall, we both had our hands full and there was little time for amenities.
Please again, accept my heartfelt. Thanks.

[48:03] The young lieutenant’s father, Joseph P. Kennedy was not one to let a crisis go to waste.
When we’ve mentioned him on the podcast in the past, it’s been to talk about his roots as an alleged Boston Bootlegger or his politically expedient marriage to Rose Fitzgerald, the daughter of colorful Boston politician, Honey Fitz Fitzgerald.
He went on to a lucrative career in finance before getting involved in politics.
He also wasn’t shy about trying to set up his sons for careers in politics after the war though most of his attention at this point was on his eldest Joseph Junior.
If his second son was going to be decorated for heroism, Joe S was going to make sure the world knew about it.
He collected headlines about the PT 109 incident including the New York Times.
Kennedy’s son is a hero in Pacific as destroyer splits his PT boat, the Boston Globe, Kennedy lauds men disdains hero stuff, and an associated press story featuring Pappy mcmahon who was interviewed by a US Marine Corps war correspondent from Stoneham where mcmahon said I’m alive today because Kennedy is the most courageous skipper in the Pacific.

[49:19] Among the letters he sent was to Father Hugh o’donnell, who was the president of Notre Dame o’donnell soon wrote back that he had held a special mass of Thanksgiving for the young lieutenant’s delivery.
Joe Kennedy also started sending letters to companies to get quotes on embedding the coconut shell message in clear plastic, that plastic embedded coconut husk would later serve as an oval office paper weight.

[49:47] After Joseph Kennedy junior was killed on a secret mission over the English channel.
Jack Kennedy would be the one to carry the aspirations of the Kennedy political family.
In 1946 the Rascal King, James Michael Curley stepped down from the House of Representatives to run for mayor of Boston.
Again, this freed up the congressional seat in the Mass 11th district for Jack Kennedy who rented an apartment at 1 22 Bowden street across from the State House.
He made veterans affairs and especially veterans housing a key issue in his first congressional campaign.
And in turn, he also made his experience on PT 109, a staple of a stump speech.

[50:31] After he won that race and spent three terms in the house.
He ran for a US Senate seat in 1942 during a senate campaign.
He wrote to Koha Hannay who commanded the destroyer that sank PT 109.
The two exchanged accounts of the war and general pleasantries and Hami sent his well wishes for Kennedy in the election and is thought that JFK would be an advocate for closer ties between Japan and the US.
The Kennedys made this conversation public, of course, in hopes that appearing more diplomatic and worldly would help his chances.
It may have helped because JFK won while he was in the Senate, he had a series of back surgeries and while recovering, he wrote the book profiles and courage.
It was about senators who took what he considered to be brave stances that required personal courage.
It wasn’t a story about PT 109, but Kennedy’s reputation as a war hero certainly helped to sell books.
And in turn, the book raised its national profile to the point where it wasn’t ridiculous for him to consider a run for president. In 1960.
His war experience would be a cornerstone of that stump speech as well and his campaign handed out pt 19 tie tax to supporters again, it may have helped because he won that race too.

[51:57] As I was preparing for this episode, JF K’s daughter Caroline Kennedy, who is the ambassador to Australia and former ambassador to Japan posted on Instagram about her commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the PT 109 sinking, traveling to the Solomon Islands with her son, Jack, the ambassador, met with the Children and grandchildren of Buu Gaa and a Roni Kuma.
Thanking them for saving the lives of her famous father and his less famous crew.
Along with the pictures she posted in the interviews she gave the ambassador wrote my son and I are honored to be able to thank you in person for what your fathers did.
80 years ago, my father owed his life to their courage, their willingness to put themselves at risk and to serve their country in the battle for freedom.
Their legacy is the one we honor today. I wouldn’t be here if not for them.

[52:54] Our lives may be shaped by historical events and the times in which we live.
But it’s the connections we make to one another that define us and give our lives meaning.
It made me want to come here one day though, I never imagined that it would really happen.
Now, Jack and I are here to renew the bond of friendship and to thank you for all that you and your family have done.
We will carry this memory with us always and pass down the story that unites us across generations, space and time.
Then she and her son, Jack swam a mile in the same waters where JFK completed his marathon swims, giving them a small taste of the incredible effort that he put into finding help for his crew.

[53:39] To learn more about JFK and PT 109. Check out this week’s show notes at hub history dot com slash 281.
I have links to the news articles I quoted from in the Boston Globe and New York Times as well as John Hersey’s article from the New Yorker that made the incident famous and was later adapted into a feature film.
I’ll also link to a summary article and that 2015 ship’s history from the US Naval History and Heritage command.
The rest of the primary sources I quoted are from the Kennedy Presidential Library, including the 1961 ship’s history, the August 1943 survivors memo and correspondence with Hana.
They maintain a terrific online archive. If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email podcast at hub history dot com.
We are Hub history on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and still most active on Twitter.
If you’re on Mastodon, you can find me as at hub history at better dot Boston, or just go to hub history dot com and click on the contact us link while you’re on the site, hit the subscribe link and be sure that you never miss an episode.
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If you do drop me a line and I’ll send you a hub history sticker as a token of appreciation.

Music

Jake:
[55:09] That’s all for now. Stay safe out there listeners.
Yeah. For a guy from Boston, you’re certainly putting on a, a, for a guy from Boston.
You’re certainly putting up a great exhibition out here. Harris.
That was the worst Kennedy impression I’ve ever heard.