Kennedy's PT Boat Found in Pacific

AP | 5/29/02

[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

[Shooter 2.5]

"They also serve, who stand and wait"

I tried to find that quote but couldn't remember the exact wording. Most of the real heroes that I met were just grateful that others were able to serve and just considered them lucky that they didn't have to go through the nightmares that they went through.

[newcats]

See my post #188 please......

[null and void]

Had I been drafted, I would have gone.

Had I been born 35 minutes later my draft lottery number would have been 18, and I would have been drafted.

Given a choice, by pure provedence, I choose not to fight in a war we weren't even trying to win, that was being needlessly prolonged and was costing us in terms of lives, money, respect, and national pride. Too many of my friends went, some died. For what? Just so Nixon gould get re-elected? Is that really a worthy cause?

Pick and choose? Call it what you will.

But, you should know I did worry about it. Every day. For the duration.

[scholar]

Those things were made out of plywood, for crying out loud.

And you think they should have been made of steel?? G-d Bless your soul!

[Robert A Cook PE]

You're claiming that qualifying and flying the hottest fighters we had at the time (not ground attack slowpokes - Bush's flights were too fast and so were set for anti-A-bomber mission in defense of the continent) is NOT 'experience" in the military?

You'vew got to compare Gore's "record" of 1/2 year at a rear press officer's station with a fighter pilot's position: at a time when 1 in 4 ejection seats WERE used to bailout. (In case you don't understand, that means over a ten year period, you've got a 1/4 chance of being killed while flying. Press officers in Vietnam who's father was a senator and assigned bodyguards to their darlings were pretty well protected in comparison.

Seems Kennedy screwed up (got ran over by a far less manuerable ship, far slower, far slower to accelerate!) in the dark ... while PT's next to him saw in time to avoid collision.

Granted, his recovery was good ... but surpassed by many other thousands in that war.

Sorry, you're typically blind, hysterical hatred for conservatives in showing through.

[MJM59]

You misunderstand. I am not saying anything about Gore, Bush, or even Quayle's service to their country not qualifying as service. What I am saying is that all three of them, and more, Democrat and Republican alike were able by whatever means to stay away from the forward areas of combat. My opinion is that the means that they all used is money and political clout. Means that the everyday 19 year old Joe did not have access to. They were the ones that were thrown into the meat grinder of war. They were the ones that too often came home in body bags. Not the Bush's or Quayles or Gores. Those three and many more like them were all pretty safe and sound, sleeping in a nice warm bed at night. While others slept in foxholes or even worse a POW camp.

And I do not hate conservatives, or liberals for that matter. Although there are some on both sides that could use some serious check up from the neck up.

One last thought on service to one's country. I think that everyone at age 18 should be made to give two years of their time to service of their country. I don't care if it is in the military or picking up trash on the highway. What I do hate is the whiney bunch of me mongers that this country is turning into.

[newcats]

Sorry, you're typically blind, hysterical hatred for conservatives in showing through.

As yours is also. But I guess that is okay, because yours is justified?

[ET(end tyranny)]

You remembered correctly!