PT-109, a United States Navy patrol torpedo boat, was operating in Blackett Strait, between the islands of Kolombangara and Gizo in the Solomon Islands, when it was sunk during World War II. At the time, the Solomon Islands were an important battleground in the Pacific campaign, and American forces were attempting to disrupt Japanese efforts to reinforce their positions in the region.
At the helm of PT-109 was Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, the future 35th President of the United States.
The boat's mission was part of a larger effort by American PT boats to intercept and attack Japanese vessels operating in the area, particularly the fast destroyers used to supply and reinforce Japanese forces. The Japanese supply network became known to the Americans as the “Tokyo Express.”
In the early morning hours of August 2, 1943, PT-109 was operating with a group of other American PT boats when it was struck by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri. The much larger destroyer cut PT-109 nearly in half. The collision threw several members of the crew into the water and killed two men, Andrew Jackson Kirksey and Harold W. Marney.
The situation was extremely dangerous. The damaged PT boat was leaking fuel, and Kennedy ordered the crew to abandon the vessel because of the possibility that it would catch fire or explode.
Kennedy himself was thrown into the water but survived. He then helped organize the surviving crew members and began swimming toward a nearby island. Kennedy had been a member of the swimming team at Harvard, and his swimming ability proved crucial. One of the men, Patrick McMahon, had suffered serious injuries and was unable to swim effectively. Kennedy took McMahon's life jacket strap in his teeth and towed him through the water.
The survivors eventually reached a small island that became known as Plum Pudding Island, although the men did not initially know exactly where they were. Kennedy continued to search the surrounding waters for missing crew members, eventually locating the survivors and helping bring them together.
The ordeal was far from over.
The men were stranded without adequate food or fresh water, and they were unsure whether Japanese forces might discover them. Kennedy repeatedly ventured into the surrounding waters in an attempt to locate passing American vessels. The survivors eventually moved to Olasana Island, where they encountered two Solomon Islanders, Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana.
Gasa and Kumana played a crucial role in the rescue. Working with the islanders, Kennedy and his men were eventually able to establish contact with Allied forces. Messages were carved into a coconut shell, which helped communicate their location and became one of the most famous artifacts associated with the episode.
On August 7, 1943, six days after the sinking, Kennedy and the surviving crew members were rescued by the American PT boats PT-157 and PT-171.
Kennedy's actions during the ordeal earned him the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism. He also received the Purple Heart for injuries sustained during the incident. His conduct as a young naval officer would later become an important part of his political biography.
The story of PT-109 was subsequently popularized by journalist and author John Hersey, whose 1944 The New Yorker article helped establish Kennedy as a wartime hero. After Kennedy entered national politics, the PT-109 story became an important element of his public image.
The episode followed Kennedy throughout his political career. During his presidency, he reportedly kept a coconut shell paperweight on his desk in the Oval Office, a reminder of the ordeal that had nearly cost him his life.
PT-109 therefore became more than the story of a patrol boat lost in the Pacific. It became part of the mythology surrounding John F. Kennedy: a young officer confronted with an extraordinary crisis, forced to assume responsibility for the survival of his men under extremely difficult circumstances.
The reality was certainly dramatic enough on its own. But the episode's later political significance was equally important. The story of PT-109 helped transform Kennedy's wartime experience into one of the defining elements of his public identity, contributing to the image of courage, youth, and leadership that would follow him into the White House.
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