“In ‘43 They Put to Sea Thirteen Men and Kennedy”

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Today is a pretty significant day in American World War II history. It wasn’t then, 79 years ago, but the legend grew later, thanks to the 1960 presidential election. On August 2, 1943, a patrol torpedo, or PT, ship was rammed by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The fourteen-man crew was hit at what their skipper, LTJG John F. Kennedy, estimated a 40-knot speed on the forward starboard side, slicing the ship in two and causing an explosion. According to the Boston Globe account of the events, including the search and rescue, “Shafty” Kennedy (can’t make that nickname up!) helped get wounded rounded up, clinging to debris from the sunk boat. They floated with the current for twelve hours until they saw a small island. Kennedy towed a badly-burned sailor behind him as he swam to shore, with the other survivors swimming in groups. After two days, they’d eaten all the coconuts on the trees on the island and had to look elsewhere. They swam to another island, where they found more coconut trees…and what the paper described as “natives.” The natives helped the twelve survivors, giving them “real” food and aiding in signaling the rescue ship. After the Naval officer entered politics in the 1950s his past became better known. Once the former PT skipper became president, the story of his war heroics became the stuff of legend. AND a movie (where Cliff Robertson played JFK). AND a song. In 1962, Jimmy Dean recorded the song “PT-109,” written by Marijohn Wilkin and Fred Burch, about the dramatic story. It was released a year before the movie (which was in theaters five months before Kennedy’s assassination). In ‘43 they put to sea Thirteen men and Kennedy Aboard the PT-109 To fight the brazen enemy The exploits of the PT boats were already popular (the 1945 film They Were Expendable was about a PT squad). JFK’s presidency and the story of his heroics in the Navy made them legendary. The Jimmy Dean song “PT-109”: