Harman Patil (Editor)

The Search for Kennedy's PT 109

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
7.6
/
10
1
Votes
Alchetron
7.6
1 Ratings
100
90
80
71
60
50
40
30
20
10
Rate This

Rate This

Initial release
  
16 November 2003

7.6/10
IMDb

Director
  
Robert Ballard

Similar
  
PT 109, Caroline and Jackie, The Kennedys, JFK: Reckless Youth, Secrets of the Titanic

The Search for Kennedy's PT 109 is a National Geographic television special and video on DVD, directed by Peter Getzels. It documents the true story of John F. Kennedy's PT-109 from World War II, and the project of Dr. Robert Ballard's successful search for the wreck of the boat.

The wreckage of PT-109 was located in May 2002, when a National Geographic Society expedition headed by Dr. Ballard found a torpedo tube from wreckage matching the description and location of Kennedy's vessel in the Solomon Islands. The boat was identified by Dale Ridder, a weapons and explosives expert on the U.S. Marine Forensics Panel. The stern section was not found, but a search using remote vehicles found the forward section, which had drifted south of the collision site. Much of the half-buried wreckage and grave site was left undisturbed in accordance with Navy policy. During the expedition, they meet and interview Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, the original two natives who found Kennedy's shipwrecked crew when the Navy had given them up for dead. Max Kennedy, JFK's nephew, who joined Ballard on the expedition, presented a bust of JFK to the two men.

A DVD of the National Geographic television special and book of the expedition were released.

References

The Search for Kennedy's PT 109 Wikipedia