I heard this story mentioned on a podcast and thought, ‘Wow, I HAVE to explore this further.’ A lot of people have written about it, so it’s really not some undiscovered gem.
But I’m so glad went into this.
Long before John F. Kennedy became president, a simple coconut husk played a remarkable role in keeping him and ten other American sailors alive during World War II.
In the early hours of August 2, 1943, Kennedy was commanding PT-109, a small patrol torpedo boat operating in the Solomon Islands. During a dark nighttime patrol, the Japanese destroyer Amagiri suddenly appeared and slammed into PT-109, tearing the boat apart. Two of Kennedy’s 13 crewmen were lost. The remaining 11 were left in the water amid wreckage and fuel.
Kennedy, who had injured his back, helped organize the survivors and personally towed badly burned engineer Patrick McMahon by clenching the strap of McMahon’s life jacket between his teeth. The men eventually made a roughly 3½-mile swim to a small island. With little food or fresh water and Japanese forces nearby, Kennedy repeatedly ventured into the surrounding waters hoping to find help.
Lt. John F. Kennedy, center, with members of the PT-109 crew during World War II. Kennedy commanded the patrol torpedo boat when it was struck and destroyed by a Japanese destroyer in August 1943.
Days later, Kennedy and his men encountered two Solomon Islanders, Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, who were working as scouts for the Allies. Because communication was difficult, Gasa showed Kennedy how to scratch a message into the husk of a green coconut.
Kennedy carved:
‘NAURO ISL
COMMANDER… NATIVE KNOWS
POS’IT… HE CAN PILOT… 11 ALIVE
NEED SMALL BOAT… KENNEDY’
The coconut husk bearing Kennedy’s handwritten rescue message was later preserved and turned into a paperweight. JFK kept it on his desk as a reminder of the PT-109 ordeal.
The islanders carried the message through dangerous territory to Allied forces. The discovery eventually led to a rescue operation, and Kennedy guided PT boats back to his stranded crew. By the morning of August 8, all 11 survivors had reached the American base at Rendova.
But the story of the coconut didn’t end there.
After the war, the husk was returned to Kennedy. His family had it encased in plastic and mounted in wood, turning the object into a paperweight. Kennedy kept it on his desk during his political career and eventually placed it on his desk in the Oval Office while serving as president of the United States.
The battered coconut was more than a presidential conversation piece. It was a reminder of six desperate days in the Pacific, the men Kennedy had commanded, and the Solomon Islanders who risked their own lives to help rescue them.
John F. Kennedy served as a U.S. Navy lieutenant in the Pacific during World War II, years before becoming the 35th president of the United States.
Kennedy later gave a famously understated explanation when asked how he had become a war hero:
‘It was involuntary. They sank my boat.’
The original coconut paperweight survives today in the collection of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
Original article
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