PT 109 by William Doyle

Author:William Doyle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-09-02T16:00:00+00:00

Jesus loves me, this I know,

For the Bible tells me so;

Little ones to Him belong,

They are weak, but He is strong.

Yes, Jesus loves me; yes, Jesus loves me . . .

According to Liebenow, “We really had a celebration. We broke out the medical brandy, they were all shaking hands and patting our crew on the backs and the natives were screaming [songs] at top of their voices. I thought the Japs would hear them.”

Weather-beaten flag flown by the PT 109 before the crash. (Frank J. Andruss, Sr.)

“Let’s try to keep it quiet!” Liebenow called out firmly.

At 5:15 A.M. on Sunday, August 8, 1943, Lieutenant William Liebenow docked the PT 157 at Rendova with the rescued PT 109 survivors aboard.

It was six days and three hours since the Amagiri had destroyed Kennedy’s boat. “Kennedy’s friends and the crew’s friends came and some cried, they were so happy to see them,” Eroni Kumana recalled. “They gave everybody food. A ship came for us and one for the crew. We all stood up and shook hands all round.”

Kennedy already felt a powerful bond with the two natives who saved his life. He told Gasa and Kumana that he planned to get another boat to command, and if he managed to not get killed, he would seek them out in the Solomons sometime later and spend time visiting them. He owed them everything, but the two men were leaving soon. So in lieu of awarding them a medal, Kennedy presented Gasa with a gold coin his friend Clare Boothe Luce, wife of Time-Life publishing titan Henry Luce, had given him. Kennedy later wrote to Mrs. Luce to inform her the good-luck piece “did service above and beyond its routine duties during a rather busy period.”

Gasa recalled the scene of the festivities: “We had a big feast. The three of us [Gasa, Kumana, and Kari] sat with Kennedy and his crew at one table. Kennedy made a speech thanking us. He said that if he had good luck he would try to come and see us again. Kennedy gave me a ‘dime,’ and said it was the only thing he could give me at that time. I was also given a ribbon with seven colors, and a Colonel gave me a medal and commended my courage. A canoe from the Wana Wana lagoon came for us and took us home.” Years later, Biuku Gasa proudly described his marathon journey through enemy waters by canoe, foot, and barge to rescue John F. Kennedy and his fellow PT 109 survivors as “the quickest and most far-ranging journey ever made by a Solomon Islander in the Western District.”

Before they left, Kennedy pulled Kumana, Gasa, and Kari aside and emphatically and repeatedly thanked them for saving his life and the lives of his crewmen. He promised the scouts he would always think of them and would never forget their help and that of Ben Kevu and his colleagues.

In the decades that followed, some PT boat veterans criticized Kennedy’s performance during the battle that resulted in the sinking of the PT 109.

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