News-Info-Alerts

Re: PT 109 Found After 59 Years Missing

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: July 11, 2002

"JFK's wartime torpedo boat found deep in sea, explorer says

HARTFORD, Conn. - (AP) -- The undersea explorer who discovered the Titanic announced Wednesday that he has found PT-109, the torpedo boat commanded by John F. Kennedy during World War II.

Robert Ballard said the wreck is in 1,200 feet of water in the South Pacific, near the Solomon Islands, where the boat went down in 1943 after being rammed by a Japanese destroyer.

Ballard announced in May that he had found the remains of a vessel that might be PT-109 but that he needed more time to confirm the boat's identity.

The Navy said that based on the location and type of weaponry found, the wreck is probably that of the famous vessel.

Ballard said the wreck will be left where it is.

''We have an understanding with the Kennedy family as well as others who lost loved ones -- there were two people lost from the boat -- that we will not disturb the site and we will not dig it up,'' he said.

Eventually, the site might become part of Ballard's planned network of underwater museums accessible over the Internet. But he said it would probably be years before that happens, given the technology required.

PT-109 was rammed early on the morning of Aug. 2, 1943. The destroyer was believed to have struck Kennedy's 80-foot boat amidships, slicing it in two.

But Ballard said it appears PT-109 was actually struck a glancing blow that sheared off only a portion of the stern.

The 11 surviving crewmen clung to the slowly sinking bow, then swam to a small island.

Kennedy towed an injured crewman to shore by swimming with a strap from the man's life jacket in his teeth.

The future president was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal and a Purple Heart.

The episode was dramatized in a 1963 movie.

Ballard, who has also explored such shipwrecks as the Bismarck, the Lusitania and the Yorktown, searched the bottom of the sea with a remotely operated vehicle and found a loaded torpedo tube and a few pieces of gear jutting from the sand.

The torpedo and launching tube are exact matches for equipment used only on PT boats until 1944, a Naval Historical Center expert said.

''A check of Navy records indicates that no other PT-type vessels were lost in this location,'' the Navy said in a statement. ``This information combined with the physical evidence suggests that this is likely the wreck of the PT-109.''

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said Ballard and the National Geographic Society should be commended for the research.

''Finding PT-109 is especially meaningful to the members of my family, but we also believe it represents the story of all the brave young men who fought with such courage in the South Pacific to ensure victory during World War II,'' Kennedy said in a statement."