Posted on 05/29/2002 1:15:23 AM PDT by kattracks
SYDNEY, Australia, May 29, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Shipwreck hunter Robert Ballard said Wednesday he has found the World War II patrol boat commanded by John F. Kennedy in the Pacific Ocean off the Solomon Islands.
The remains of the wooden boat, PT 109, were lying on the seabed in the Blanket Strait near Gizo in the New Georgia group of islands, Ballard told Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corp. radio.
Gizo is 235 miles northwest of the capital of the Solomons, Honiara.
Ballard, who led a team that found the Titanic shipwreck in 1985, said he located the wreckage of Kennedy's boat last week after searching for about a week. He did not provide further details of the discovery, citing contractual obligations over film and magazine rights to the search.
The radio report said a National Geographic documentary will be released in November. Members of the National Geographic team in the Solomon Islands did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
The PT 109 sank in August 1943 after it was hit by a Japanese warship.
It is unknown how much of the boat remains besides the engines. Water is expected to have caused extensive damage to the hull.
Ballard, who found the wreck of the Titanic and other historic ships, had planned to use remote cameras to search for the boat.
The late president's brother, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, and daughter, Caroline Kennedy, agreed to the expedition after being assured that the site would not be disturbed. Two members of Kennedy's crew died when the boat was hit.
In a 1999 interview, Ballard said PT 109 is "not lost, just misplaced." But he added searching for the vessel in an area full of unexploded ordnance would be "no fun."
Kennedy was commanding a patrol in August 2, 1943, when the boat was hit and cut in two by a Japanese destroyer.
Kennedy and 10 other survivors swam 15 hours to reach a nearby island. He towed one injured survivor, engineer Patrick Henry McMahon, by swimming with a strap from McMahon's lifejacket in his teeth.
They later swam to another island where there were coconuts to eat. Kennedy carved a message into one coconut and gave it to a native islander to take to rescuers.
Patrol torpedo boats, such as the PT109, had mahogany hulls. Plywood was used for the internal structures, chart houses and gun turrets. They were 80 feet long and powered by 12-cylinder gasoline engines.
The boats were used primarily to attack surface ships, but they also were used to lay mines and smoke screens, to rescue downed aviators and to carry out intelligence operations.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
I just saw a show on this the other night. Evidently, JFK and his older brother were opposed to the war, but joined because it was what their father wanted, and he got what he wanted always. (At least until his stroke.)
Anyway, after JFK was awarded a medal (not sure which one) his elder brother was so depressed that he went to his room and CRIED, and was determined to earn a more prestigious medal. He figured he had his chance when he was asked to make that flight in which his plane blew up.
JFK had no interest in politics but it was what daddy wanted so he did it.
Very interesting show. It was called 'The Kennedys: The curse of power'.. or something like that.
Good point! Maybe he and tne others took turns towing the guy? Yep, Ol' Joe to the rescue, again!
Well I know a little more than Jack Squat about being at sea and being at sea on small gunboats...Nam '65-'66, PCF's. If Kennedy hadn't had the Kennedy name he would have been court martialled. Heck, we ran aground in a storm in the middle of the night and bent a shaft and damaged a screw and rudder on our boat and the whole dang crew had to go to Saigon for an inquirery. I thought we were all going get jail time.
So you can study Navy history all you like, but unless you have a little combat salt water in your socks, you really don't know what you are talking about.
I'll bite. What would you call it?
The conditions for the end of the boom were set, IMO, in the mid-60's by LBJ, who wanted to have a war in Vietnam and a war on poverty, but didn't really care to pay for either one. Probably the last piece of the puzzle would be the oil price shocks in the early 1970's, combined with the later fiscal mismanagement of the Jimmuh Cartuh period. Stagflation, sky-high interest rates, you know the drill.
If I recall correctly, he volunteered for a secret mission in England, which was to pilot one of several bombers that were packed with explosives, and then once airborne, bail out just before the plane left the English coast.
One the pilot bailed, the planes were supposed to be piloted by radio control clear across the English channel and into fortified bunkers housing giant German costal cannon.
His plane exploded by accident before he bailed.
I believe other planes in this mission did hit their targets, however it was later discovered that the Germans had long since removed the guns from the bunkers, so the whole effort was for nothing anyway.
How ironic that swimming someone to safety may have brought Jack the presidency, and the lack of doing the same may have cost Teddy it.
Maybe he's referring to the usual court of inquiry that's held whenever a naval vessel was sunk or damaged.
I'm glad that we have that reality thing straightened out. I suppose I should have simply wrote that Reagan was in the military and served his country.
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