Remembering PT-109: Three Young Officers Took Torpedo Boat Into Combat During World War II

World War II in the Pacific was less than a year old when a small torpedo boat was launched from the Electric Boat Company factory in Bayonne, New Jersey on June 20, 1942. She was among the newest type of American naval vessels. Measuring only eighty feet in length, constructed of wood and designated PT for patrol torpedo, her main weapons were torpedoes and speed. Made famous by her final commanding officer, John F. Kennedy, PT-109 was destined to become one of the most celebrated warships in American history. Kennedy, however, was third in a string of three young officers to take the small boat into battle.

A naval reserve officer who volunteered for PT boat duty, Bryant Larson took the boat to the front lines of the South Pacific in late 1942 where the U.S. Navy was struggling with Japanese forces for control of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Rollin Westholm then chose PT-109 as his flagship while commanding a squadron of torpedo boats in the area. The two officers immediately began taking PT-109 on night patrols into Iron Bottom Sound, a body of water in the Solomons aptly named for the large number of warships - both American and Japanese - sunk in the battle.

PT-109 prowled the waters of the South Pacific for the next eight months. During the time she fought Japanese warships in a series of furious night clashes, survived attacks from the air, and conducted routine security patrols. It is a tale that has been around since ancient times - brave sailors using small boats to attack larger adversaries. The foe was heavily armed Japanese destroyers using the cover of darkness to deliver troops and supplies to the front lines of Guadalcanal. The

Americans dubbed these nocturnal runs the Tokyo Express.

When the opposing forces met it was often a horrific night battle with the PT boats racing into close quarters to launch torpedoes and then using speed and darkness to slip away into the night. Westholm and Larson knew it was hazardous work - a single hit from a destroyer's main battery guns could blast their wooden PT boat to pieces - but bravely ventured out night after night in search of the enemy.
Under Westholm and Larson's command PT-109 participated in a series of naval battles in Iron Bottom Sound. The action culminated in a final fight around the embattled island on February 1, 1943. PT-109 survived the battle that saw three PT boats sunk and ended with Guadalcanal firmly in American control about a week later.

Changes came to PT-109 shortly after the Guadalcanal victory. Rollin Westholm was promoted to an administrative position and Bryant Larson transferred back to the United States for more training as part of a normal rotation of officers. On April 25, 1943 John F. Kennedy assumed command of PT-109. Kennedy was a former ambassador's son who traded a desk job for a trip to the front lines. Although he would later ascend to the presidency, in 1943 Kennedy was just another young officer fighting a war thousands of miles from home.

The first undertaking for the new boat captain was to rebuild the crew, many of whom had recently transferred out to other duties. Kennedy then took his boat north following American amphibious forces leapfrogging up the Solomon Islands deeper into Japanese held territory.

The early morning hours of August 2, 1943 found PT-109 idling through the waters of Blackett Strait near the island of Kolombangara. It was another dangerous night patrol in enemy-held territory. Kennedy was at the helm with the boat slowly plodded through the inky black night when the Japanese destroyer Amagiri suddenly emerged out of the darkness. He had only seconds to react before the warship rammed PT-109 slicing the wooden torpedo boat in two.

The damage was catastrophic. Two crewmen were killed instantly. The struggle for survival had only just begun for Kennedy and the sailors who lived through the horrifying event. It was the start of an ordeal that would find them shipwrecked and stranded for nearly a week before rescue.

The time spent aboard PT-109 would be defining moments in the lives of Westholm, Larson, and Kennedy. Each would carry the experience into their post-war worlds - Westholm as a career naval officer, Larson as a successful businessman, and Kennedy as a rising politician. Kennedy would sum up his feelings decades later. "I firmly believe that as much as I was shaped by anything, so was I shaped by the hand of fate moving in World War II."