Wednesday, March 1, 2017

William Liebenow, the skipper...

...of the PT boat that famously rescued John F. Kennedy in World War II, died at age 97. From his obit in the Times:

Under the cover of darkness on Aug. 7, 1943, Lt. William Liebenow skippered his patrol torpedo boat into enemy waters in the South Pacific. His mission was to rescue the sailors of PT-109 who had survived for days on inhospitable islands after a Japanese destroyer had rammed their boat, splitting it in two and killing two crewmen.

The crew members who survived the collision and ensuing explosion clung to a section of the hull and eventually swam for Plum Pudding Island, about three and a half miles away.

Plum Pudding Island? Seriously? Is that anywhere near the Big Rock Candy Mountain?

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