Saving Lieutenant Kennedy

The heroic story of the Australian who helped rescue JFK
By Brett Mason

Published by NewSouth

RRP $34.99 in paperback | ISBN 9781742237879

On a moonless night in August 1943, a US torpedo boat commanded by Lieutenant John F Kennedy, on patrol in Solomon Islands, was rammed by a Japanese destroyer.

Left clinging to wreckage within sight of Japanese encampments, the eleven surviving members of Kennedy’s crew of thirteen eventually struggled ashore on a small uninhabited island.

Missing behind enemy lines, with no food or water, and with several injured, the future looked bleak for the shipwrecked Americans when they realised other USN PT boats in the area assumed they were all dead and did not mount a search effort.

Fortunately, Australian coast watcher Lieutenant Reg Evans witnessed the immediate aftermath of the collision from his nearby jungle hideaway.

Eventually Evans and two Solomon Islander scouts — Eroni Kumana and Biuku Gasa — located Kennedy and his crew and ensured their rescue.

Public interest in this story has continued over the years as part of the heroic JFK legend.

Did his wartime exploits pave his way to the White House?

In writing this book, Brett Mason is not only recounting the details of an heroic rescue, he is also ensuring Reg Evans’ role in the rescue is remembered, given that earlier coverage of the event has either not acknowledged his role or misidentified him completely.

In a twist of fate, Kennedy’s two Solomon Islander rescuers lived long lives, unlike the man they rescued who died at the hands of a lone assassin a little more than twenty years later.