PT-109 was an 80′ Elco PT boat (patrol torpedo boat) last commanded by Lieutenant (junior grade) John F. Kennedy, future United States president, in the Solomon Islands campaign of the Pacific theater during World War II. Kennedy’s actions in saving his surviving crew after PT-109 was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer made him a war hero. Back problems stemming from the incident required months of hospitalization at Chelsea Naval Hospital and plagued him the rest of his life. Kennedy’s postwar campaigns for elected office referred often to his service on PT-109.
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