This book was published in 1962, one year before President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963.

Without warning, the towering shape of the Japanese destroyer Amagiri loomed out of the black night. Frantically the crew aboard the fragile American patrol craft, PT-109, tried to steer their boat out of the destroyer’s path. But the menace moved relentlessly forward. Then came the inevitable crash, slicing the 80-foot torpedo boat in two.

The young skipper of PT-109, Lt. John F. Kennedy, quickly determined the casualties—two men missing, several men been badly hurt. Sighting an island in the distance, he decided the survivors should try to swim for it. While he towed an injured crewman, his men followed, clinging to a timber.

In John F. Kennedy and PT-109, Richard Tregaskis provides a vivid description of a nightmarish shipwreck and an incredible rescue, as well as a detailed account of PT-boat operations in the Solomon Islands phase of World War II. But essentially the book is a profile of John F. Kennedy's courage—a courage that enabled him to endure acute pain, fatigue and hunger to save his men; courage befitting a future President of the United States.

Illustrated with 12 pages of photographs.

From the dust jacket