Solomon Islander who helped JFK save PT-109 crew dies

Boston Globe ^ | 8/6/2014 | Claire McNeill

[Borges]

On a moonless night in August 1943, on a pitch-black strait in the Solomon Islands, two vessels collided.

A fireball bloomed, and the Navy gave up John F. Kennedy’s PT-109 crew for dead. But Lieutenant Kennedy fought, swimming for hours with his 10 remaining crewmembers, pulling one along by holding his life jacket strap in his teeth.

Kennedy’s heroics may have been for naught without Eroni Kumana and Biuku Gasa, two Solomon Islanders. They found Kennedy and his crew six days after the wreck, subsisting on coconuts on a small island.

[X Fretensis]

actually it was a B-24 bomber, not a transport plane. McArthur recognized that LBJ was in theater as a spy for FDR. Being very politically savvy, McArthur put LBJ in for a Silver Star based on a supposed combat mission he was an observer on. The bomber in question actually aborted the mission due to generator problems and returned to base before they encountered any Japanese fighter aircraft.
The medal was awarded for heroism in an event that never happened. Just McArthur greasing the political skids.

[N. Theknow]

I read that somewhere.

[eartrumpet]

I once read an account by a crew member that they told the two natives where to go to get a rescue party and the natives understood and were ready to go. Then JFK said wait and grabbed a coconut and started hacking on it while everyone waited patiently. He finally gave them the unnecessary message on the coconut and off they went. The crew member was surprised to see the coconut displayed on the Oval Office desk years later. That’s forward thinking.