About this item
In the early morning darkness of August 2, 1943, during a chaotic nighttime skirmish amid the Solomon Islands, the Japanese destroyer Amagiri barreled through thick fog and struck the U.S. Navy's motor torpedo boat PT 109, splitting the craft nearly in half and killing two American sailors instantly. The sea erupted in flames as the 109's skipper, John F. Kennedy, and the ten surviving crewmen under his command desperately clung to the sinking wreckage; 1,200 feet of ink-black, shark-infested water loomed beneath. 'All hands lost,' came the reports back to the Americans' base: no rescue was coming for the men of PT 109. Their desperate ordeal was just beginning -- so too was one of the most remarkable tales of World War II, one whose astonishing afterlife would culminate two decades later in the White House.
About the Author
I am a writer based in New York. My latest book is A MISSION FROM GOD: A MEMOIR AND CHALLENGE FOR AMERICA, the memoir of civil rights hero James Meredith. Last year I published A SOLDIER'S DREAM: CAPTAIN TRAVIS PATRIQUIN AND THE AWAKENING OF IRAQ. I also wrote INSIDE THE OVAL OFFICE: THE WHITE HOUSE TAPES FROM FDR TO CLINTON and AN AMERICAN INSURRECTION: JAMES MEREDITH AND THE BATTLE OF OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI, 1962.
