PT 109 SURVIVORS ARE RESCUED
Solomon Islands (JFK+50) On August 7, 1943, Lt. John F. Kennedy and 11 survivors of the PT 109 were rescued by PT-157*. They were met first by Reginald Evans who radioed this message to Lumberi...
"Eleven
survivors PT boat on Gross Is X Have sent food and letter advising
senior come here without delay X Warn aviation of canoes crossing
Ferguson"
Robert J. Donavan writes that Evans dispatched seven scouts by canoe to retrieve the senior member of the 109 crew from Olasana. Lt. Kennedy was hidden in the canoe and covered with dead palm fronds as the natives paddled out into Blackett Strait.
When they reached shore, JFK stuck his head out of the palm fronds and said to Evans "Hello, I'm Kennedy."
*PT-157
was launched on Nov 4, 1942 & assigned to the South Pacific.
It was struck from the naval register on Nov 28, 1945.
"PT 109: John F. Kennedy in WWII," by Robert J. Donovan, McGraw-Hill Publishers, New York, 1961 and 2001.
"PT 157," NavSource Online, Motor Torpedo Boat Photo Archive, www.navsource.org/
PT 157 and Crew
