Pt 109 Movie

An encounter with Kennedy, PT-109 repaired by McCook veteran

The one story he had shared, though, his "claim to fame" as he referred to it with a chuckle, is when he met a young sailor by the name of John F. Kennedy.

While Loop was assigned to LST-448, the ship spent several months operating out of Townsville, Australia. Loop recalls that the Allied forces believed Japan wanted to take Australia and were afraid they were already on their way, "so they tried to head them off," said Loop.

His ship worked its way from island to island, starting with a little spy island they called "Meadowlark island," then on to New Guinea for two months and eventually Guadalcanal.

"We first arrived in Guadacanal in about July 1943. The PT (Patrol Torpedo) boats were coming in there about the same time. They were building a base for the PT boats on Rendova Island," said Loop. The base wasn't completed yet so ships such as Loop's LST were supplying the construction crews.

The PT boats were small and designed to go in real fast, drop torpedos and get out, Loop said. "There were only about eight guys on the PT boats, it was so crowded, more crowded than submarines. That's why they had to have a base to operate out of; they couldn't stay on there for very long," said Loop.

Loop believes there was a connection between the personnel officer on his ship, LST-448, and the commander of PT-109, Lieutenant John F. Kennedy. "We had our personnel officer on our ship that was from Massachusetts, that I think knew Kennedy prior, maybe that's the reason they came. I just got a hunch that's right," said Loop.

"When the 109 tied up beside us, the skipper (Kennedy) went right to our officer's stateroom and stayed there. The officer come out and down to the electric shop and wanted to know if I would look at their PT boat, he said it was hard to start. I went down and looked at it, it had a bad battery cable, so I made a new battery cable for 'em and put it on," said Loop.

Loop says the reason he remembered it was 109 was because they had a log book they tracked materials they used in and he remembers writing down 109.

SCALE MODEL NEWS: REVELL CLASSIC KIT - PATROL TORPEDO BOAT PT-167

The US Patrol Torpedo Boat is a kit that has appeared in various forms over the years, including one branded under the ‘McHale’s Navy’ name, from the US TV series that ran from 1962-1966. This new Classic Kits release features another boat, PT-167, and a bonus is that it comes in 1:72 standard model scale, matching similar water-borne craft from Airfix. When assembled, PT-167 is 334 mm (13.15 in) long, a size that’s suitable for display on virtually any shelf or desk. PT-167 is noted for surviving a Japanese dive-bomber attack off the Soloman Islands in 1943, including a torpedo hit that went straight through the tough mahogany double-hull - fortunately without exploding! As displayed in the cover art, the kit should be painted in a black and white dazzle finish, which the instructions show in detail, and - this is unusual with model kits - there are useful photographs of a built-up and painted model. The kit can also be built as the famous PT-109, commanded from April 23, 1943, by Lt. John F. Kennedy until it was cut in two and sunk by a Japanese destroyer little more than three months later, on August 2. Four figures are included with this kit, and they are suitable for either PT boat, though whether you think one of them looks much like a youthful John F. Kennedy, some 18 years before he became the 35th US President is a matter of choice - or maybe a magnifying glass! All in all, this is a neat kit that wears its years well. It captures the handsome lines of the original Elco-built boat, and if you’re a finish-freak, that splinter camouflage represents a satisfying challenge to get just so. Like other reissues in the Classic Kits range, the production run is set at 5000, so don’t hang around too long if you want one.

Beachheads Secured Volume II

Past imperfect, history according to the movies

PT 109, John F. Kennedy in World War II

PT 109 (Film)

Sailing on the silver screen, Hollywood and the U.S. Navy