In 1974 I was a Social Security claims rep in Tulsa. One day and old guy applied for retirement. He was really pleasant and we ended up talking.
It turned out that he was a PT boat capt. and even more unusual his boat was one in the same squadron as Kennedy.
We talked a lot about their boats were well maintained and Kennedy may have something to do with it. Kennedy was well liked and wanted to be a hero. He even had a 75mm cannon mounted on the bow sort of jerry rigged.
He also said Kennedy performed well after his boat was rammed but being rammed was considered the worst thing that could happen to a PT boat. The thing which could you court marshaled. But like I said, they all liked him.
37mm.
It was a lightweight 37mm cannon taken from a derelict P-39 Airacobra. A lot of the PT’s were retrofitting cannons to be able to engage armed Japanese barges. The barges had too shallow a draft to be attacked by torpedo. So the PT’s were slowly becoming gunboats. Similar thing happened with the PT Boats operating in the Mediterranean Theater.