JFK's epic Solomons swim -just TRY to picture Bush

[Rose Siding]

Sixty years after it helped turn him into a war hero, a swim made by former US President John F Kennedy in the Solomon Islands is being re-enacted.
snip>

Danny Kennedy, no relation to JFK, told BBC News Online the participants would have to negotiate sharks and an ocean swell, but not enemy troops.

In contrast, John F Kennedy was swimming for his life - rescuing his men and trying to avoid being spotted by the Japanese, who were occupying the Solomons in an attempt to extend their rule to nearby Australia and New Zealand.

His adventure began when the patrol boat he was skippering against Japanese convoys off Ghizo island in the Solomons was rammed by a Japanese destroyer.

Kennedy's PT109 sank, and the future president, who swam at Harvard University, spent 30 hours helping the survivors to nearby Plum Pudding Island - later renamed Kennedy Island - six kilometres (3.5 miles) away.

more......................

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3107103.stm

I'd heard of the PT109 before but hadn't known details of the incident. This is something.

Wasn't DeLay just telling the young rethugs to try to picture a Kennedy in a flight suit?

[outinforce]

1. Rent the Video or DVD

There was a movie made in the late 1960's starring Cliff Robertson as John F. Kennedy.

It was called "P.T. 109", and it showed this whole story.

Rent the video or DVD if you can.

You really had never heard of the details of the P.T. 109 incident???!!!

Did they teach history where you went to school?

[ElementaryPenguin]

2. *'s men would have all drowned - but his rubber duckie would've saved him!

eom

[aquart]

3. For Bush, the most amazing thing about the PT 109 story

Would be that Kennedy didn't have cameras getting the whole thing down.

[madrchsod]

4. one of the discovery channels

last week had a history of the operation..really badly planned action. after reading in lasest kennedy book about his illness ,it`s amazing that he did this. pictures of kennedy at that time show him as a very thin looking man ,not the picture of a man who could do what he did. our great leader ran away from his date with "profiles of courage"...that`s the defintion of cowardise.....

[tom_paine]

5. Yeah, I could picture Emperor Chimpy* in that situation

1) I could see him bargaining with the Japanese for his freedom by turning over his men and any classified equipment.

2) I could see him swimming to freedom and forgetting to tell his rescuers that his men were marooned (perhaps because they saw him masturbating to Playgirl Magazine or calling his 14 year old girlfriend arranging the abortion, etc.)

[Bridget Burke]

6. Picture Bush, Senior

Bailing out of his fighter/bomber and leaving his two crewmen to die.

[tom_paine]

7. Exactly what I am picturing

A Bush would sell-out (or order killed) a regular human being if they stood in his/their way.

Such as Bush the Smarter and the crewmen he bailed out on. Perhaps they were in the way of his escaping and saving his own skin.

Sorry fellas, like so many I have no doubt your last thoughts were about what treasonous scum the Bushes were.

One wonders if Carnahan and Wellstone had these thoughts?

[frylock]

8. contrast that with ghwb's heroic efforts in wwii..

Mierzejewski, who is also a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, told the "New York Post" that he saw "a puff of smoke" come out of Bush's plane and quickly dissipate. He asserted that after that there was no more smoke visible, that Bush's "plane was never on fire" and that "no smoke came out of his cockpit when he opened his canopy to bail out." Mierzejewski stated that only one man ever got out of the Barbara II, and that was Bush himself. "I was hoping I would see some other parachutes. I never did. I saw the plane go down. I knew the guys were still in it. It was a helpless feeling."


Mierzejewski has long been troubled by the notion that Bush's decision to parachute from his damaged aircraft might have cost the lives of Radioman second class John Delaney, a close friend of Mierzejewski, as well as gunner Lt. junior grade William White. 'I think could have saved those lives, if they were alive. I don't know that they were, but at least they had a chance if he had attempted a water landing," Mierzejewski told the "New York Post."

[tom_paine]

9. A Bush does not think about Worthless Peasants

such as Delaney and White.

If they had wanted to be treated like Real Human Beings (according to a Bush) then their last names would well have been Bush (or at least Pierce or Walker).

So Bush bailed out on two Worthless Peasants and left them to die. So what? He probably swatted a couple flies that day, too.

A Bush is characterized by their callous disregard for anyone not Bushevik.

Hitler was a Bushevik. Perhaps the most notable Bushevik EVER (at least until Bush the Smarter and Emperor Chimpy revived his legacy of Propaganda).

[JHB]

10. They meant Teddy Kennedy...

...Of course, TK did serve in his youth, something Delay can't claim, so he has to conjur up "pictures".