There are many reasons to dislike Mr. Kennedy, his wartime service was not one. The Solomon Islands were a tough area to fight in, (i wrote my Master's thesis on Operation CARTWHEEL to include Solomons operations) either on land or sea. The PT Boats (most without radar) were tasked that night to be pickets during a dark and foggy night to identify and engage Japanese destroyer traffic.
Murphy's law struck when he was unlucky enough to be idling in the path of a speeding destroyer. He lost one crewman, got the rest to safety, with a badly injured back. He did well to get them back, and credibly commanded a second boat after getting out of the hospital. His was one of 99 PT Boats lost in the war, 8 of whom were rammed.
I am not a fan him, or his Presidency, but his wartime service was credible.
JFK volunteered and was in the thick of it. Pre-ramming he was generally not a diligent officer, and somewhat of a screwup. His actions post-ramming were heroic.
He got a lot of political traction from the PT-109 story. I’m just wondering how he would have done without that pin to hold up an otherwise empty (or negative) portfolio. The man Obama’d a Senatorial seat! More fairly, Obama JFK’d one.
It would be an interesting thesis to track the career trajectories of the other seven rammed boat skippers, if any of them lived.
Also, IIRC from a recent book on the incident, the PT’s in Kennedy’s squadron that night were being used for something they were not suited for. The PT’s best asset is speed, idling at night in a narrow strait negates that advantage.