PT 109: John F. Kennedy in World War II

In the early morning darkness of August 2, 1943, a Japanese destroyer sliced an American PT boat in two, leaving its crew for dead in a flaming sea. The boat's skipper was John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Swimming into darkness and seriously injured, Kennedy led his men through a grueling three miles to the safety of a small island, towing one badly burned crewman the whole way. Over the next three days, he repeatedly risked his life to summon help until he finally secured his crew's rescue. He lost only two men.In PT 109, journalist Robert Donovan vividly re-creates these events, as well as a later daring night operation in which Kennedy, skippering another boat, braved heavy enemy gunfire to pluck fifty men from the water and carry them to safety.This audio of Donovan's classic includes a new foreword from Daniel Schorr, a new preface by the author, and a new afterword by World War II naval historian Duane Hove. Here for a new generation is a compelling glimpse of the values of service and duty that characterized America during the war years, as fresh and timely now as when it was published forty years ago.