Comments on: John F. Kennedy's PT-109 Disaster

By: Ron in KC

Ron in KC — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 21:13:49 +0000

Well said. Tactics and operating procedures are constantly evolving in war. Idling the boat out of gear is one of the procedures the PT community changed after this event.

By: Ron in KC

Ron in KC — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 21:08:29 +0000

I just read the article and I agree with your assessment. The article was critical where criticism was due and complimentary where praise was due. I, too, wondered if some of the comments were by people who actually read the entire article.

By: Low Fat Missile

Low Fat Missile — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:45:31 +0000

Cuba Missile Crisis? The Kennedy brothers traded our missiles in Turkey for those removed from Cuba. Drunk and on painkillers an unqualified rich boy killed two American servicemen. Another Ted.

By: GeorgiaGirl

GeorgiaGirl — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 20:43:56 +0000

I knew Kirksey's son pretty well, well enough to not have a good opinion of him. I have to wonder: how could the two widows be in a better place to dispute the heroic account rather than the survivors who were actually there? Kirksey's widow had, for years, done all she could to get money from Kennedy: not just school tuition but living expenses, medical bills, even speeding tickets. I never heard mother or son say anything about the accounts not being true, but maybe they were simply too focused on riding their gravy train.

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 17:41:36 +0000

Right exactly on the mark, MaryCan. Well said. His chances of getting killed or badly hurt in the South Pacific on a PT Boat were very high, and he knew it. His chances of leveraging war-time service into a political career were much lower, and he knew that too. He served because he had the guts to serve. That's more than can be said for 95 percent of all the rich kids of the era.

By: Admiral

Admiral — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 03:58:55 +0000

Say what you will. Its easy to hate, but every one of his actions are the reason he became president and stood up toRussia in the Cuba Missle Crisis and avoided WWIII

By: Jerry

Jerry — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 11:29:52 +0000

Lots of back and forth here and yet all of it is mere speculation.
I do have a couple of questions for you tho Waldo.
Have you ever stood a mid watch at sea? Especially an upper deck look out watch?
And did you ever stand a look out watch about 4 or 5 hours after you left the beer hall where you had a few with your buddies? If you ever had I think you might be surprised how easy it is to not, shall we say, pay full attention to your duties.
Closed eyes behind those binoculars, an inattentiveness since it's too dark to see anyway, and an oh so powerful longing to lay your head down.
But you can't.
So you go through the motions, like a somnambulist and try to get through your watch.
That could have happened on PT109. And it might have been JFK or any and all of his crew who was sooo sleepy.

By: Waldo

Waldo — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 04:33:07 +0000

The notion that either Kennedy or his crew was sleeping seems plain foolish to me. This was not some routine patrol. They were sent to look for and engage destroyers that intelligence said were going to be making a run of the Tokyo Express. The destroyers had already made the run in and some PT boats had attempted to engage them. Kennedy knew all this. He was ordered to try to engage them on the return voyage which everyone knew was going to be that night because the destroyers needed to get as far away from US airpower as possible before daylight. The Blackett Strait is very narrow–only a few miles wide. the notion that Kennedy or his crew would have been sleeping knowing that Japanese destroyers were coming their way sometime in the night and that their lives depended upon being alert is simply dumb. If Kennedy wanted to take a nap, then he should have taken his boat out of the area where the Japanese were known to travel. The fact that his boat was right where a Japanese destroyer was traveling says he was in the right place to engage the enemy, doing his duty. Perhaps the crew assigned to look out were not alert, but even if that were the case, that'd would not be a command failure. Given lots of examples of ships failing to spot one another in the night in the solomons and the survivors statements that everyone was alert, I tend to believe that the crew did their job.

By: Jan Ellsworth

Jan Ellsworth — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 15:03:10 +0000

Very well said, Major! Finally, a voice of reason, and I applaud and salute you!

By: Bob

Bob — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 18:55:50 +0000

That, sir, is not an argument.