Sunday, July 30, 2017
Russells
JFK shipped out PT109 and his crew from Tulagi bound for the Russells islands to New Georgia in the Solomons at dawn. The target for the invasion was a Japanese airstrip on Rendova, one of the western most islands in the New Georgia archipelago.
Kennedy, along with Lt. (jg) Pat Munroe who was the skipper of PT 110, both had wanted to go with a smaller assignment of 6 PT boats to New Guinea, where the rumor was there would be more action for the crews.
With only one spot available, Munroe had pulled a coin and asked Kennedy to call it in the air. He called tails. The flip came up heads and JFK went to his rendezvous with history.
One consolation before his crew left for their new assignment was a small dinghy that his crew had scrounged up the night before. They stowed the boat under a tarpaulin and used it as a “pleasure boat” in their new posting.
[47, p. 41-2]