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22 de feb. de 2011 · Yet American newspapers and magazines reported the PT-109 mishap as a triumph. Eleven of the 13 men aboard survived, and their tale, declared the Boston Globe, “was one of the great stories of heroism in this war.”
August 2023. Naval History Magazine. Profiles in Command. View Issue. Comments. In April 1943, Lieutenant (junior grade) John F. Kennedy assumed command of an 80-foot, 40-ton Elco motor torpedo boat (MTB) at Tulagi in the Solomons. His command of PT-109 lasted less than four months, ending on the night of 1–2 August when the boat was cut in ...
Lieutenant John Kennedy joined the front lines in the South Pacific as he pointed the bow of PT-109 toward the small PT boat base off Rendova Island. It was July 1943, in the Solomon Islands. His small patrol, torpedo or “PT” boat was about 80 feet long, made of wood, and armed with torpedoes and some light guns.
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In a harrowing ordeal, JFK helped ensure the survival of his men, taking actions that would earn him a Navy and Marine Corps Medal and a Purple Heart in World War II.
John F. Kennedy’s heroics during World War II earned him a Navy and Marine Corps Medal and a Purple Heart—he is the only U.S. president to have earned either of those honors. Kennedy’s political supporters made a big deal of JFK’s military honors, but when asked exactly how he became a war hero, Kennedy famously said, “It was involuntary. They sunk my boat.”
The experience that distinguished Kennedy was a mission that in many ways, went terribly awry and cost the lives of two of his sailors.
Kennedy
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- Dave Roos
John F. Kennedy and PT-109. Lieutenant John F. Kennedy's encounter with a Japanese destroyer on the night of August 1, 1943, may be the most famous small-craft engagement in naval history, and it was an unmitigated disaster. At a later date, when asked to explain how he had come to be a hero, Kennedy replied laconically, "It was involuntary.
Since the pitch-black night of 1-2 August 1943, when the Japanese destroyer Amagiri rammed and sank the PT-109, debate has flared over precisely what happened. Did John F. Kennedy “allow” the 109 to be rammed because he ran a slack ship and failed to take timely action?
October 28, 2023 10:01:49 AM EDT. This folder consists of materials maintained by President John F. Kennedy’s personal secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, prior to and during his presidency, and concerns the history of PT-109, its sinking, and its crew.
