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PT-109 redirects here. For the movie starring Cliff Robertson, see PT 109. For the Jimmy Dean song, see PT-109 (song). United States Ship PT-109 was a PT boat commanded by Lieutenant (j.g.) John F. Kennedy (later United States President) in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Kennedy's actions after the sinking of the PT-109 both solidified his "war hero" status in his political career, and may have contributed to his long-term back problems. The boat and infamous incident would become a cultural phenomenon inspiring many books, movies, television series and collectible objects and toys far beyond its modest military historical impact. Interest would peak during the JFK presidency, but interest continues in the 2000s with the discovery of the wreck by Robert Ballard. The PT Boat The PT-109 belonged to the PT 103 class, of which hundreds were completed between 1942 and 1945 by the Elco Naval Division of Electric Boat Company at Bayonne, New Jersey. The Elco boats were the largest U.S. PT boats during World War II, longer than many famous sailing ships such as the Golden Hind. They had strong wooden hulls of 2 inch thick mahogany planks, not plywood. Three 12-cylinder 1500hp (1100kW) Packard gasoline engines (one to a propeller shaft) generated as much horsepower as a B-17 bomber. Their designed top speed was 41 knots. It could accommodate 3 officers and 14 men, with the crew varied from 12 to 14, but the PT 59 would pick up several dozen men from a sinking landing craft. At full load, the PT 109 displaced 56 tons. The 109 had one 20mm anti-aircraft gun at the rear with "109" painted on it, two open rotating turrets (designed by the same firm that produced the Tucker automobiles), each with twin .50-caliber (12.7mm) anti-aircraft machine guns, at opposite corners of the open cockpit, and a smoke generator on her tail. These guns would be effective against various aircraft, including a B-25 which had been instructed there were no friendly boats in the vicinity of some PT-boats, crashed upon being hit, and survivors picked up by the same PT-boat . While torpedoes were sometimes effective against large ships, they could not return large caliber gunfire carried by destroyers. A direct hit in the engine compartment to boats witnessed by Kennedy sometimes resulted in a near-total loss of boat and crew. She was fitted with four 21-inch (53cm) torpedo tubes, with troublesome Mark 8 torpedoes. Aerial versions of the torpedoes weighed about 2000 lbs each. The day before the fateful last mission, Kennedy's PT-109 fitted a 37mm single shot anti-tank cannon the crew had commandeered and bolted to the foredeck. Although the gun would be placed where the small life raft would normally be, the timbers would later help save their lives as a float. PT boats were often seen in the context of David and Goliath, pitting wooden boats filled with gasoline against steel destroyers with large caliber shells. A less optimistic remark used in the movie referred to them as plywood coffins. Crew A standard uniform would be blue with white cap for enlisted sailors, brown khakis and caps for officers. At battle stations, all would wear dark blue kapok life vests and helmets. The skipper's helmet would have a shield and star, while the other officer would be labled "XO". The crew aboard PT-109 on its last mission: The "Battle of the PT-109" According to the movie and the book by Donovan, Kennedy used his family influence to get into the war quickly rather than avoid it. The Allies were in a campaign of island hopping since capturing Guadalcanal in a bloody battle in 1942. Kennedy was assigned the PT-109 upon arriving at the island of Tulagi. By August, the Allies had captured Rendova and moved PT boat operations there. The US Army was driving the Japanese out of Munda airfield at New Georgia by August. All of the islands around Blackett Strait were still held by the Japanese. In an action considered too inconsequential by military historians to even have a formal name, the PT-109 was sent out north on a night mission through Fergeson Passage to Blackett Strait. It was one of 15 boats sent to intercept the Tokyo Express, a convoy of destroyers employed as fast transports and an escort on a night resupply mission to avoid air attack. In what would be later considered to be a textbook example of one of the most poorly planned and uncoordinated PT boat attacks in the war, 15 boats loaded with 60 torpedoes scored only a few observed explosions. Flashes when torpedoes were launched would give away their positions, many torpedoes exploded prematurely or ran at the wrong depth, so no enemy ships were sunk. The boats were ordered to return when their torpedos were expended, but the boats with radar shot their torpedoes first. When they returned, the remaining boats such as the PT-109 were left without radar. The PT-109 patrolled the area in case the enemy ships returned. Around 0200, on a moonless night, Kennedy's boat was idling on one engine to avoid detection of its wake by Japanese aircraft which had previously killed a PT officer in a night attack. But with only ten seconds warning, they were not anticipating that they would be virtually parked straight in the path of their target, which was returning from Vila, Kolombangara after offloading 912 soldiers and supplies, heading back towards Rabaul. The crew spotted a destroyer bearing down on them at speeds reported by some sources as high as 30 or 40 knots, though most Japanese destroyers did not travel this fast. Others believe it might have been as slow as 23 knots. With no time to get the engines up to speed to maneuver for a torpedo shot, they were rammed by the Japanese destroyer ''Amagiri'' on August 2, 1943 in the Blackett Strait between Kolombangara and Arundel in the Solomon Islands near . The PT-109 was cut in two. Seamen Andrew Jackson Kirksey and Harold W. Marney were lost. For such a catastrophic collision, explosion and fire, it was a low loss rate compared to other boats hit by shellfire. Conflicting statements have been made as to whether the destroyer captain had spotted and steered towards the boat, but author Donovan who interviewed many of the destroyer crew believes that the collision was not an accident. Damage to the propeller slowed the destroyer's trip home. The PT-109 was gravely damaged, with watertight compartments keeping only the forward hull afloat in a sea of flames. Survival Kennedy and his men had to choose carefully where to go since all of the large islands had Japanese camps on them. The survivors chose the tiny deserted Plum Pudding Island, southwest of Kolombangara island. They placed their lantern, shoes and nonswimmers on one of the timbers used as a gun mount and began kicking together to propel it. Kennedy had swum at Harvard University. It took 4 hours for the survivors to reach Plum Pudding island 3.5 miles (six kilometers) away, braving the possibility of encountering native sharks and crocodiles. Using a life jacket strap he clenched in his mouth, Kennedy towed McMahon, who was badly burned. The island is only a hundred yards in diameter with no food or water. The crew had to hide from passing Japanese barge traffic. Kennedy swam about 4 km more, to Naru and Olasana islands in search of help and food. He then led his men to Olasana Island, which had coconut trees and water, though the coconut milk made some of his men sick. The men who found Kennedy The explosion on August 2 was spotted by Australian coastwatcher Lt. Arthur Reginald Evans, who manned a secret observation post at the top of the volcano on Kolombangara Island; over ten thousand Japanese troops were garrisoned in the southeast. While the Navy and its squadron of PT boats held a memorial service for the crew of the PT-109 after reviewing the large explosion, Evans dispatched Solomon Islanders Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana in a dugout canoe to look for possible survivors after decoding news that the explosion he had witnessed was probably from the lost PT-109. These Solomon Islands canoes were similar to those used for thousands of years by people in the Pacific and by Native Americans. In retrospect, these were by far the oldest technology and smallest manned craft used by the Allies in WWII compared to the powerful radar and torpedo armed PT boats of the Americans, but they could avoid detection by Japanese ships and aircraft. Kennedy and his men survived for six days on coconuts before they were found by the scouts. The two men had disobeyed an order by stopping by Nauru to investigate a Japanese wreck, from which they obtained fuel and food. They first fled by canoe from a shouting stranger who would turn out to be Kennedy. On the next island, they pointed their tommy guns at the rest of the crew since the only light-skinned people they expected to find were Japanese, and they weren't familiar with either language or people. Gasa would later say "All white people looked the same to me." Kennedy convinced them that they were on the same side. The small canoe wasn't big enough for passengers. Though the Donovan book and movie depict Kennedy offering a coconut inscribed with a message, according to a National Geographic interview, it was Gasa who suggested it and Eroni who climbed a coconut tree to pick one. On it, Kennedy cut the following message:
This message was delivered by risking death and capture, rowing 35 miles through hostile waters patrolled by the Japanese to the nearest allied base at Rendova. Some coastwatchers natives who were caught had been tortured and killed. A later canoe returned for Kennedy, where he went to the coastwatcher to coordinate the rescue. American PT boats where able to pick up the remaining survivors, and gave the scouts a lift home. The signal would be 4 shots, but since Kennedy only had 3 shots in his pistol, Evans gave him a rifle for the fourth signal shot. The scouts remembered that the swift boats felt like flying. The marines sang "Yes Jesus Loves Me", an unusual military anthem to pass the time. The pair would receive little notice or credit in military reports, books or movies until 2002 when they were interviewed by National Geographic shortly before Gasa's death. The destroyers finish the job Three nights later on August 6, in the Battle of Vella Gulf, American destroyers were given the same task of stopping the Tokyo Express as the unsuccessful PT boats. Unlike the previous disorganized attack, which did not coordinate the use of radar, the destroyers used lessons learned in previous battles. They did not reveal their presence with gunfire until their torpedoes were in the water. Three Japanese destroyers were sunk, killing 1,500 Japanese with no US losses. This ended the Tokyo Express. Kolobangara could no longer be resupplied and the allies bypassed the huge garrison of 12,400 there. Although the Battle of Vella Gulf was deemed important enough to have a formal name, the battle is far less famous than the story of JFK's PT-109. PT-59 see main article PT 59 The PT-59 was one of the first PT boats converted to a gunboat primarily tasked with hunting down targets their own size or smaller, and was also led by Kennedy and those from the PT-109 who chose to stay in the war rather than go home. The PT-59 would rescue ambushed marines, a gravely wounded officer died in Kennedy's bunk. The movie included this story, but as the PT 109. Aftermath
Popular culture
The Search for Kennedys PT 109 see main article The Search for Kennedy's PT 109 The wreckage of PT-109 may have been located; a May 2002 a National Geographic expedition headed by Dr. Robert Ballard found what appears to be a torpedo tube from wreckage matching the description and location of Kennedy's vessel in the Solomon Islands. However, under current Navy policy, the wreckage is a gravesite and may not be disturbed. What happened to the coconut? The coconut was kept in a preserved glass container by Kennedy on his desk during his presidency. It is now on display at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, Massachusetts as one of the most famous and notable coconuts in the world. Survivors Gerard Zinser, the last survivor of the PT-109, died in 2001. Both Solomon Islanders Biuki Gasa and Aaron (Eroni) Kumana were alive when visited by National Geographic in 2002, both being presented with a gift from the Kennedy family. Biuki Gasa died late in August 2005, his passing noted only in a single blog by a relative. According to Time Pacific magazine, Gasa and Eroni were invited to Kennedy's inauguration. However, the island authorities tricked Gasa into giving his trip to more important local officials. Gasa and Eroni gained a little fame only after being identified by National Geographic, but are today are among the most famous Solomon Islanders who ever lived. See also
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