page_title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109
section_title: Kennedy's transfer to the Pacific
hierarchical_section_title: Patrol torpedo boat PT-109 / Early operations / Kennedy's training in motor torpedo boats / Kennedy's transfer to the Pacific
caption_attribution_description: LTJG John F. Kennedy aboard the PT-109
context_page_description: PT-109 was a PT boat last commanded by Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, future United States President, in the Pacific theater during World War II. His actions to save his surviving crew after the sinking of PT-109 made him a war hero. PT-109's collision with a Japanese destroyer contributed to Kennedy's long-term back problems and required months of hospitalization at Chelsea Naval Hospital. Kennedy's postwar campaigns for elected office referred often to his service on PT-109.
context_section_description: In January 1943, PT-101 and four other boats were ordered to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 14 (RON 14), which was assigned to patrol the Panama Canal. He detached from RON 14 in February 1943, while the squadron was in Jacksonville, Florida, preparing for transfer to the Panama Canal Zone. On his own volition, Lieutenant Kennedy then contacted family friend and crony, Massachusetts Senator David I. Walsh, Chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee, who diverted his assignment to Panama, and had him sent to PT combat in the Solomon Islands, granting Kennedy's previous "change-of-assignment" request to be sent to a squadron in the South Pacific.  His actions were against the wishes of his father who had wanted a safer assignment, but demonstrated Kennedy's independence and exceptional courage.
  The Allies had been in a campaign of island hopping since securing Guadalcanal in a bloody battle in early 1943. Kennedy transferred on 23 February 1943, as a replacement officer to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 2, which was based at Tulagi Island, immediately north of Guadalcanal  in the Solomon Islands. Traveling to the Pacific on Rochambeau, Kennedy witnessed a fierce air strike against his ship that killed the captain, and found Kennedy helping to hand shells to supply a large gun on board, giving him his first taste of battle.  He arrived at Tulagi on 14 April and took command of PT-109 on 23 April. Considerable repairs were required on the boat, and Kennedy pitched in to help the crew get his ship seaworthy.  On 30 May, several PT boats, including PT-109, were ordered to the Russell Islands in preparation for the invasion of New Georgia.
  After the capture of Rendova Island, the PT boat operations were moved north to a crude "bush" berth there on 16 June. The Rendova base held the potential for its residents to contract a host of unpleasant diseases like malaria, dengue, dysentery, and elephantiasis. The Navy men stationed there also contended with cockroaches, rats, foot diseases, ear fungus, and mild malnutrition from the monotonous and mostly canned food.  On his first desk assignment with the Navy after his return to the States, Kennedy suffered from the aftereffects of malaria, colitis, and chronic back pain, all caused or aggravated by his experiences in combat or during his stay at the Rendova base.
  From their crude base on the northern tip of Rendova Island, on a small spit of land known as Lumbari, PT boats conducted daring and dangerous nightly operations, both to disturb the heavy Japanese barge traffic that was resupplying the Japanese garrisons in New Georgia, and to patrol the Ferguson and Blackett Straits in order to sight and to give warning when the Japanese Tokyo Express warships came into the straits to supply Japanese forces in the New Georgia–Rendova area.
  On 1 August, an attack by 18 Japanese bombers struck the base, wrecking PT-117 and sinking PT-164. Two torpedoes were blown off PT-164 and ran erratically around the bay until they ran ashore on the beach without exploding.
caption: LTJG John F. Kennedy aboard PT-109, 1943
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