Eighty several years in the past, then-US Navy lieutenant and long run US President John F. Kennedy heroically swam involving Pacific islands to enable help you save the crew of his torpedo boat that had been wrecked by a Japanese warship throughout Entire world War II.
Kennedy’s heroism as the commander of PT-109 helped set the foundation for a armed forces and management history that would support get him elected the United States’ 35th president in 1960.
On Wednesday, his daughter Caroline Kennedy, now US ambassador to Australia, recreated a part her father’s feat, swimming about three quarters of a mile (1.2 kilometers) in some 30 minutes concerning two very small palm-fringed islets in the Solomon Islands.
“It gave me a renewed appreciation of the heroism of my father and his crew,” the ambassador reported in a submit on the US Embassy’s account on Twitter, now acknowledged as X.
Kennedy, 65, built the swim with her son, the late president’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg.
“I have a great deal of appreciation and admiration for what my grandfather did, and the perseverance it must have taken to endure,” Schlossberg said in a Twitter write-up.
JFK’s PT-109 was struck by a Japanese Imperial Navy destroyer in the early early morning darkness of August 1, 1943. The picket-hulled smaller boat was ripped open up by the Japanese ship and capsized. Kennedy collected his surviving crew – 11 of the 13 aboard PT-109 – and established them out on a 3.5-mile (5.6-kilometer) swim to very small Plum Pudding Island, which is now named soon after him.
In subsequent times, in accordance to an account from his presidential library, JFK and his crew would swim to nearby islands, like Olasana and Naru, in research of foodstuff and rescue. The swim involving Olasana and Naru, which her father produced a number of moments, was recreated by Ambassador Kennedy on Wednesday.
Inevitably, the PT-109 crew would get enable from two islanders, Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, who were being scouts for the Allies and put Kennedy in call with the US Navy.
‘Responsibility of leadership’
On August 8, 1943, a week right after the PT-109 was misplaced, its surviving crew were being safely back again in US Navy hands. Kennedy was later awarded the Navy and Marine Corps medal “for his bravery and leadership,” according to the presidential library account.
In a speech on Kennedy Island on Tuesday, the late president’s daughter saluted her father as very well as Gasa and Kumana, whose families had been in attendance.
“My son and I are honored to be able to thank you in individual for what your fathers did 80 a long time back,” she explained to them.
“My father owed his daily life to their courage, their willingness to set on their own at threat, and to provide their country in the fight for freedom,” the US ambassador stated.
And she discussed why the Solomon Islands retains a unique location in her coronary heart.
“This position built President Kennedy the male he was. It is in which he initially expert the obligation of management – the information that the life and security of his crew depended on him. He risked his have life to save theirs. That turned the way he lived his life,” Caroline Kennedy stated.
JFK was assassinated in Dallas in 1963 and later buried at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery in Virginia.
On Monday, Caroline Kennedy explained to how 15 a long time back she got word that Kumana experienced created a tribute he wished to be laid on the president’s grave.
“It turned out to be a rare and precious illustration of ‘kustom money’ that experienced been in the family members for additional than 100 several years. Carved from a large clam shell in means that are not absolutely recognized by Western anthropologists, the shells are utilized in important ceremonies, which includes formal tributes to honor one’s chief,” the US diplomat explained.
Gestures like Kumana’s make connections that stand the examination of time, she reported. And she had a present for the islanders’ family members in return.
“As a modest token of our gratitude, I would like to present you with the final two PT Boat pins that I have, that belonged to President Kennedy,” she explained.
