This Naval Reserve officer on temporary active duty and his family from Texas, plus some eight thousand others including The Secretary of Defense, Jacqueline Kennedy and her two children, the late President John F. Kennedy’s Mother Rose and some 40 other Kennedy family, national press, and numerous admirals were aboard that 7 September 1968 for the commissioning ceremony of USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier.
The Kennedy was scheduled for diplomatic visits to foreign ports. The ship’s engines were among the last built that burned fossil fuels. Perhaps a diplomatic decision based on foreign fears about admitting nuclear-powered vessels into their ports.
Another Naval Reserve press officer from Texan had traveled to Newport News, Virginia to perform his two-weeks summer duty. Lieutenant Commander Joe, an advertising executive most of the year, suggested to the Captain he needed a PT boat for his going ashore ‘gig’ boat in foreign ports the Kennedy would visit.
In 1968 many had seen the movie PT 109 and read about Kennedy’s heroics as torpedo boat commander in World War 2.
The Captain agreed. And Joe bragged at the end of his first week, he had located three PT boats that might be bought for the ship’s shore boat. Next week, he would secure one.
Joe’s PT Boat 1 was located in Florida…but the owner had rebuilt and turned his PT boat into a family cruiser.
PT Boat 2 was intact…but was supposed to be a secret, ready for emergency escape for the president in case Washington, D.C. was attacked.
Joe said, “Not to worry. There’s one in Hollywood.” True. But not suitable for the Captain’s launch. Joe discovered Hollywood’s PT Boat was wreckage left over from the movie ending. In life, and in the movie, Naval Officer Kennedy crashed PT109 into a larger enemy ship.
No PT boat to go ashore in foreign ports. And Joe went back to writing beer commercials in Texas.
Photo from Everett Collection at Shutterstock
