I thought his greatest hit was sausage.

CanyonAg77 said:

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Never heard that. It's hard to get real excited over Kennedy's heroics, knowing it was his screw-up that placed them in crisis.

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Was it his screw up? What I've read (and it's been awhile) was that visibility was poor, he hadn't been given any alert about destroyers in his AO, and he was idling his engines to prevent attracting aircraft attention.

tmaggies said:

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The whole Kennedy family was a screw up.

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Yeah, JFK was 4F, but his daddy wanted a command for him so he could run for office

CanyonAg77 said:

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I guess it's all Monday morning quarterbacking. But they were in the Strait to kill destroyers, so it seems he should have been aware they were in the area

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I got the impression that the PT boat squadron command was pretty lousy with little to no communication once their operations began. The crappy torpedoes they were given didn't help anything.

CanyonAg77 said:

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Never heard that. It's hard to get real excited over Kennedy's heroics, knowing it was his screw-up that placed them in crisis.

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I'm nearly totally ignorant on the subject, and don't have time to devote now. But, if you don't mind, I'd like to know of some references that I can read when I have more time (maybe when I retire or win the lottery, lol).

I don't have a book, just several articles that pop up with a Google search of PT-109 and the additional words like error, mistake, responsibility.

I think it's true that he worked his butt off to save the crew after the wreck. I've just always been amazed that no one saw or heard a freaking destroyer bearing down on them, even at night. Didn't have lookouts posted, no one was listening to the radio, and reports were broadcast.

Heck, even his big brother wrote him a letter asking what was wrong with him

At Close Quarters: PT Boats in the United States Navy by Robert Bulkley gives a history from development of the boats to the end of the war. It does tell the story of JFK.

I also read the crew was sleeping, engines turned, off, etc.- in a major shipping/supply lane.