In August 1943, a Japanese destroyer cut John F. Kennedy's PT-109 in half in the Solomon Islands. This episode strips away the Hollywood version to look at what really happened: a young officer classified 4F for a bad back, ulcers, and asthma, who used family connections first to land a safe naval intelligence desk job and then to force his way into PT boat combat in the Pacific.

The conversation examines the mahogany-hulled boats with no armor, the notoriously defective Mark VIII torpedo, the chaotic ambush in Blackett Strait, and the collision with the Amagiri. It follows Kennedy towing a badly burned crewman by a life-vest strap clenched in his teeth, the days stranded on Plum Pudding Island, the carved coconut message, and the Solomon Islander scouts Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana who paddled through enemy waters to bring help. It closes w ...