• Man who saved John F. Kennedy's life during WWII dies
    6 replies, posted
[url=http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/08/06/solomon-islands-man-who-saved-jfk-life-during-wwii-dies/?intcmp=latestnews]Source[/url] [quote]One of two Solomon Islands residents who saved the life of late President John F. Kennedy during World War II has died. Eroni Kumana died Saturday at the age of 93, the BBC reports. “He did not feel like he was someone special,” said his grandson, Rellysdom Malakana. “But people from overseas, people from America, they are the ones who told my grandfather that he was a special man -- that he was the hero who rescued John F Kennedy." In August 1943, Lt. John F Kennedy, then 26 years old, was stationed on a PT-109 boat off the coast of the Solomon Islands on a mission to intercept a convoy of Japanese ships that were transporting soldiers to fight American forces in the Pacific. As the Japanese boats arrived, the U.S. boats fired their torpedoes but missed their targets. Some boats went back to base, but Kennedy’s boat stayed in the area and was hit overnight by a Japanese destroyer, causing it to sink. In the ensuing days, Kennedy and his crewmates swam miles to various islands, living off of coconuts, until they spotted Kumana and his friend Biuku Gasa in a canoe, according to the BBC. Both men worked with the Coastwatchers, a network of agents across the Pacific that relayed positions of enemy forces to the Allies during WWII. The men paddled 35 miles through waters controlled by the Japanese to deliver a message from Kennedy – written on a coconut – to a nearby Australian Coastwatcher, which led to the Americans’ rescue. Malakana told the BBC that Kumana and Gasa were invited to Kennedy’s inauguration, but was told by his grandfather that they were not allowed to go because they did not speak English.[/quote]
Makes you wonder what would've happened if he hadn't helped save Kennedy. Kennedy would likely have died, and this man would just have been another 'nameless' fisher.
Thank god for this guy Kennedy sounds like a right badass during world war 2
Jesus that sounds like a grand pa simpson story
[QUOTE=007JamesBond007;45612099]Thank god for this guy Kennedy sounds like a right badass during world war 2[/QUOTE] bunch of presidents and shit did crazy badass shit in ww2 like bush senior [quote] Bush piloted one of four Grumman TBM Avenger aircraft from VT-51 that attacked the Japanese installations on Chichijima.[6] His crew for the mission, which occurred on September 2, 1944, included Radioman Second Class John Delaney and Lieutenant Junior Grade William White.[1] During their attack, the Avengers encountered intense anti-aircraft fire; Bush's aircraft was hit by flak and his engine caught on fire. Despite his plane being on fire, Bush completed his attack and released bombs over his target, scoring several damaging hits.[1] With his engine ablaze, Bush flew several miles from the island, where he and one other crew member on the TBM Avenger bailed out of the aircraft;[7] the other man's parachute did not open.[1] Bush waited for four hours in an inflated raft, while several fighters circled protectively overhead until he was rescued by the lifeguard submarine USS Finback.[1] For the next month he remained on the Finback, and participated in the rescue of other pilots.[/quote]
It's weird to think that a fair few of the US's presidents were out there fighting in the Second World War. It kind of reminds me of how Hitler, Stalin and Karl Marx (or something like that) were all living in the same city at the same time for a few months.
[QUOTE=Spetsnaz95;45611447]Makes you wonder what would've happened if he hadn't helped save Kennedy. Kennedy would likely have died, and this man would just have been another 'nameless' fisher.[/QUOTE] Wonder how the whole Cuban Missile Crisis would've played out. Kennedy was one of the only people on Capital Hill not in favor of starting a war.
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