Did you know John F. Kennedy is our only president to receive the Purple Heart?
On August 2, 1943, Kennedy‘s boat, PT-109, was performing nighttime patrols near New Georgia in the Solomon Islands, when it was rammed by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri. Kennedy gathered his surviving crew members together in the water around the wreckage, to vote on whether to “fight or surrender.” Kennedy stated, “There’s nothing in the book about a situation like this. A lot of you men have families and some of you have children. What do you want to do? I have nothing to lose.”
Shunning surrender, the men swam towards a small island. Kennedy, despite re-injury to his back in the collision, towed a badly burned crewman through the water with a life jacket strap clenched between his teeth. He towed the wounded man to the island, and later to a second island, from where his crew was subsequently rescued.
When JFK was asked how he became a war hero, he replied, “It was involuntary, they sank my boat.”
Please leave me a log about your experience. I will do any necessary maintenance. "How shall we then live?" Getting outdoors, being kind, practicing CITO. All good.
Congrats to Team ML for the FTF