Originally posted by dwesolick
Hi Matt,
Sorry about the confusion, it's sort of my own (smarta**) inside joke. JFK doesn't appear as the commander of PT-109...at ANY stage in UV (even mid-43 when he most emphatically was). Instead, a Lt Westholm is always the commander. I (and others before me) have raised the question why he doesn't appear and have yet to receive an answer (other than speculation).
So we WERE talking about the same boat (PT-109), hit by Amagiri in 43 and commanded, of course, by JFK......except in UV!:p
PT 109 had several COs before JFK took charge. I think the UV database is hardcoded to assign the historic commanders as of May 42 or - in case of the unit deployed in the area at a later date - the commanding officer who was in charge upon deployment.
Re PT 109 from
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/p/PT-109.htm:
[...] The first action for PT-109, then commanded by Lt. Rollins E. Westholm, took place on the night of 7-8 December 1942, after reconnaissance planes reported eight Japanese destroyers moving down the "slot." Eight PTs split into three groups to meet this opposing force, with patrols off Kokumbona, another off Cape Esperance, and a four-boat division lay to [came to a stationary position] near Savo Island to act as a striking force. After initial contact took place off Cape Esperance, the striking group of four boats closed and unleashed a torpedo attack. In the ensuing running gun battle, the PTs weaved around the destroyers in a confused melee. Although PT-59 was hit by shellfire, and suffered minor damage, the Japanese withdrew, racing north with uncertain damage and without delivering their reinforcements.
[...]
Over the next few months, while the MTB flotilla regrouped on Tulagi, the Japanese devoted most of their efforts to strengthening their garrisons in the upper Solomons. There were few offensive operations by either side, a respite sorely needed by PT-109 and her sister boats. The flotilla was short on manpower, with barely enough men to man the motor torpedo boats, let alone repair those damaged in combat and maintain adequate base facilities. Indeed, the crews were exhausted and easy prey to malaria, dengue fever and other tropical diseases. During this trying period, Lt. Westholm left PT-109 to become operations officer for the flotilla, leaving Ensign Bryant L. Larson in command of the boat.
[...]
In between regular security patrols, PT-109 underwent several short maintenance periods, which included the installation of a surface search radar set. As radar sets were not issued with this class of PT-boats, the device was undoubtedly a "scrounged" item and it is unclear how long it lasted. Ensign Larson left the boat on 20 April 1943 and Ensign Leonard J. Thom, USNR, the executive officer, took charge until relieved by Lieutenant (jg) John Fitzgerald Kennedy, USNR, on the 24th. Starting in late April, the motor torpedo boat increasingly conducted patrols in the Russell Islands area and on 16 June, PT-109 shifted with other boats to a "bush" berth on Rendova Island in support of these forward operations. [...]
Btw, the author of "Japanese Destroyer Captain" is leading IJN torpedo tactician Tameichi Hara, skipper of Amatsukaze and Shigure, and later of CL Yahagi during the Yamato suicide mission.
