This famous book was written by Robert J. Donovan, and I happened upon the fortieth anniversary edition in the library. The first two sentences of the front cover convinced me I should read it. “In the early morning darkness of August 2, 1943, in the waters of Blackett Strait in the Solomon Islands, the Japanese destroyer Amagiri (Japanese for “Heavenly Mist) sliced an American PT boat in two, leaving its crew for dead in a flaming sea. The boat’s skipper was a gaunt, boyish lieutenant from Boson named John Fitzgerald Kennedy.”

I found myself having difficulty remaining interested in the somewhat lengthy Foreword, Prefaces, and even the early chapters of the book. I’m certain they contributed to setting up for the easy to read and interesting parts of the book. The early chapters certainly made it clear that JFK’s experiences were similar to those of most sailors and soldiers who were in the South Pacific in World War II. There were the easygoing days, weeks, and months of training, watching, waiting, and being bored while trying to make an uncomfortable life more bearable. All of that certainly came to an end as JFK and his PT boat were assigned to a forward position. “For months war had seemed comfortably distant most of the time. Now the air was heavy with it. Uneasiness and fear lay just below the surface everywhere.”

Any doubt JFK had about why he and his comrades were in the South Pacific would have been eliminated when he say a large billboard on a hillside that had been ordered to be installed by Admiral William R. Halsey. It said:

Kill Japs. Kill Japs.
Kill More Japs.
You will help to kill the yellow
bastards if you do your job well.

I have a complaint and compliment about the detailed descriptions of the islands around which the Patrol Torpedo (PT) boats captained by young JFK patrolled. The complaint is that it was difficult to follow the detailed descriptions of one island after another, especially since many or most have multiple names. The compliment is that the physical descriptions of the islands and the ocean around them are poetic. Pick up a copy of the book from your library and read the descriptions on page 88 of the Solomon Island called Lumberi at dusk and how the peaceful setting is interrupted as the three powerful engines on each of fifteen PT boats cough and thunder as they are started. The boats are being prepared to ove into position to try to intercept the “Tokyo Express,” the Japanese warships and barges that moved at night to supply men and materials to an air strip and base at a place called Vila Plantation that was under frequent assault by Allied forces. Many of the PT boats were commanded by young Ivy Leaguers like JFK, because many had grown up in wealth and had the luxury of owning boats.

JFK’s first real brush with the enemy came when a Japanese plane dropped bombs that narrowly missed the boat. “Fragments in the form of Ford car door handles, safety razors, faucets and other scrap that Japan had been importing from the United States for years before the war, sliced into 109 and her rigging from bow to stern.” Two crew members were injured.

Chapter Seven begins the story of PT 109’s last day. One of the crew members is morose and tells everyone he has a promotion that he will be dead soon. He and another member of the crew are killed when the Japanese destroyer appears out of the dark and cuts the plywood-constructed boat in half. One man who had been tending the engines is pulled down into the depths as the back of the boat is dragged under by the weight of the massive engines. He somehow makes it to the surface. Ten others survive, some with terrible burns and other injuries. They float for a while on the front half of the boat that has waterproof compartments intact.

The survivors decide they are not safe floating on the remaining part of the boat. Nine of them arrange themselves on two planks they have lashed together, JFK puts the strap of a life preserver supporting a badly injured sailor in his mouth to tow him, and they all begin the three and a half mile swim to Plum Pudding Island. Kennedy swam back to the stretch of open water they had crossed the first night with a light and revolver. He expected that PT boats would be on patrol there perhaps on a rescue mission. Nothing arrived. He ordered another officer to repeat the feat the next night with the same result.

There is no good explanation why other PT boats did not search for 109 either the night it was sunk or in following days. The eventual rescue of Kennedy and the others was possible because of the large organization of Australian and New Zealand coast watchers and their network of Micronesian natives. Two of the natives happen upon the stranded sailors in a canoe several days after PT 109 was sunk. The eleven stranded sailors could very easily have been discovered and killed by the Japanese or died from exposure if they had not been found by those two natives who alerted the a coast watcher. A rescues vessel arrived within a couple of days.

JFK was told that any officer shipwrecked could go home to select another assignment. He requested to be put in command of another PT boat. He had a few more combat encounters, but none anything close to the one on PT 109. One has to wonder about the changes in history if JFK had been killed. His oldest brother, Joe Jr. was reported missing on a bombing mission over Belgian on August 12, 1944, and was never seen again.

The book gives good details about the sailors who served with him before and after the sinking of PT 109. I can only imagine the memories of the people who served with a man who became President of the United States.

There is no definitive proof that the captain of the Amagiri intentionally rammed PT 109. The author concludes that the “…case for an accidental ramming is difficult to sustain.” Logic says that the warship intentionally sank a boat that was on patrol with the intention of to sink her with torpedoes if it had the opportunity.