Where two history buffs go far beyond the Freedom Trail to share our favorite stories from the history of Boston, the hub of the universe.
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episode 281: JFK and PT-109, 80 years later
80 years ago this month, on a tiny Pacific island, a legend was born. In the darkness before dawn on August 2, 1943, a Japanese destroyer rammed and sank a small, plywood boat commanded by a 26 year old Lieutenant Junior Grade named John Fitzgerald Kennedy. In the hours and days that followed, young Jack Kennedy would prove to be a true American hero, swimming mile after mile through shark and crocodile infested waters, while towing an injured crew member by a strap clenched in his teeth. In the ensuing decades, PT-109 has become one of the most famous small craft in US Navy history, largely due to Kennedy’s actions. However, it also became a craven political ploy, when JFK and his father Joseph Kennedy used the story of PT-109 to launch a political career that would carry Jack Kennedy to the Oval Office.
Full show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/281/
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PT-109- A 2015 history of PT-109 from the US Navy History and Heritage Command
- “Survival,” by John Hersey
- Letter from Kohei Hanami, via JFK Presidential Library
- August 1943 memo by the survivors of PT-109, via JFK Presidential Library
- A 1961 history of PT-109 by the US Navy Division of Naval History
- Joseph Kennedy’s correspondence about PT-109, via JFK Presidential Library
- “Kennedy Lauds Men, Disdains ‘Hero Stuff’,” Boston Globe, Jan 11, 1944
- “Kennedy’s Son Is Hero In Pacific As Destroyer Splits His PT Boat,” New York Times, Aug 20, 1943
- Ambassador Caroline Kennedy marks 80 years with a mile swim.
- All photos public domain as works of the US government