Official US Navy service card, 5 x 3, partially filled out and signed by Kennedy, "John F. Kennedy," December 26, 1944. The card reflects Kennedy's release from active service, which began at the Submarine Chaser Training Center (SCTC), Miami, Florida on June 11, 1944, and concluded with "Retirement Board, Wash, D.C., 12/26/44." Kennedy writes out his rank and home address at the "Hotel Bellevue, Boston." In fine condition.
On April 24, 1943, Kennedy took command of PT-109, based in the Solomon Islands. On the night of August 1-2, 1943, he commanded PT-109 in a group of fourteen other PTs sent to block four Japanese destroyers. During the resulting engagement, the PTs failed to inflict any damage, but PT-109 was cut in half by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri. Two crew members were killed, but Kennedy and ten others survived in the wreckage and managed to swim more than three miles to a deserted island. Kennedy clenched the strap of a badly burned crew member’s life jacket between his teeth and towed him to safety. Over the next week, Kennedy or the entire crew swam to additional islands looking for food and fresh water. On one, Kennedy found packages of crackers and a fifty-gallon drum of drinkable water left by the Japanese and a small canoe, which he paddled back to his starving crew. After native scouts found the crew and took a message scratched on a coconut shell to allied authorities, another PT boat rescued them on August 8. Kennedy later received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism for his actions in saving the crew.
He returned to duty for several months in the Solomon Islands before a doctor relieved him of command because of his back injuries. He was sent back to the United States in January 1944, and was soon stationed at the Submarine Chaser Training Center in Miami. From May to December 1944, Kennedy was hospitalized at the Chelsea Naval Hospital in Massachusetts for back surgery and recuperation, then released from active duty. After more therapy at a military hospital in Arizona, Kennedy retired from the Naval Reserve on physical disability and was honorably discharged with the full rank of lieutenant.
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