JFK’s redesigned PT – the model for Red’s PT 373

Less than four (4) months after PT 109 was rammed and split in half by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri in early August of 1943, and the dramatic events that followed the horrific night in the waters off the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, Lt. John F. Kennedy requested another command. 

Instead of taking a desk job or rotating out of active duty, Kennedy became the commanding officer (CO) of PT 59. The boat that was now Kennedy’s to command was in bad shape and in need of major repairs. With frenetic energy and a keen awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of PT boats, Kennedy transformed the 59. Instead of being weighed down by oversized torpedoes and depth charges, the boat became a sleek, heavily armed gunboat, bristling with deck weapons and a higher level of maneuverability than the average PT boat. 

PT 59 after her refurbishment by JFK

On November 1, 1943, PT 59 and another PT boat took part in a daring rescue mission on Choisul Island’s Warrior River in the Solomons where a detachment of Marines was pinned down and vastly outnumbered by Japanese troops. Both PTs drove onto the beach of the river. With their deck guns firing away, and sailors jumping onto the sand to assist the beleaguered Marines, ten of those Marines were pulled onto PT 59. The boats made their escape while continuing to pour heavy fire on the enemy.

Onboard PT 59 on that fateful day were five (5) sailors who had served with JFK on PT 109. Their desire to serve on the crew of the 59 under their former skipper is a powerful testimony to the courageous leadership that Kennedy had exhibited and continued to demonstrate during his time on active duty. On their return to the base, one of the badly wounded Marines–that Kennedy had placed in his bunk– died before the 59 made it back. The crew reported that Kennedy was inconsolable and wept openly at the loss of this young Marine from Illinois.

Two years later, the in late winter and Spring of 1945, Red Stahley was a part of PT Squadron (Ron) 27 based at Samar in the Philippines. His assignment to PT 373–a boat that had already made a name for itself by being the first US Navy surface vessel to enter Manila Bay–would bring Red and his considerable radio skills onto a heavily armed, powerfully mobile PT boat that followed the design of PT 59. Red’s boat was fitted out for close-in fighting with an entrenched enemy concealed in dense jungles located on shallow rivers. And in July 1945, that is exactly where PT 373 and PT 359 found themselves. Their mission was to take out a heavily defended enemy communications station.

It became a night of terrifying fighting. It took the life of a fellow sailor on PT 359–the only married man among the crew.  

Like JFK, Red Stahley knew well what the PTs could do. And like JFK he did his duty, going directly into harm’s way and never counting the cost. I can still not fathom the sheer bravery and valor of those young men.

PT 373 in Manila Bay in early spring 1945,

Post Script: John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a patriot, a war hero, and he lived a life of service to his country–in the military and as an elected official. He deserved better than to be publicly executed while in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas, on November of 1963. His death was a result of a coup that involved high level officials from the US Military and Intelligence Services among other right-wing fanatics who were determined to murder him. If this sounds personal, it most certainly is. The volume of concealed materials that have been and are being declassified is–finally–filling in the gaps in a story that is long overdue to the American public.

You don’t have to take it from me. Do a little bit of homework and, if you’re brave enough, and you will quickly learn that the Warren Commission Report is pure, unrefined bullshit. Lee Harvey Oswald was made the fall guy and Jack Ruby was a pawn of organized crime and shadowy American intelligence organizations. And that is just for starters. The evidence that has already emerged is just too strong to refute–and it is in the public record.

So what? You may ask. It was too long ago. Why stir things up now?

How about the loss of millions of innocent Vietnamese people? How about 55,000 dead Americans in Viet Nam? JFK was determined to pull American advisors OUT of Viet Nam and to seek peace with the Soviet Union and Cuba in his second term. His first tentative moves to end segregation and promote civil rights angered reactionary bigots in positions of power, but Kennedy persisted. The right-wing fanatics and the war mongers in government and business decided that JFK got in the way of their plans. So he had to go.

Is this personal for me? As the son of a PT veteran whose PTSD lasted until his dying day, you can bet it’s personal as hell. The loss of JFK went deep for so many of us, especially those of us whose fathers served with him on the PT boats of WWII.

The truth will out.