PT boat captain met Kennedy

[BridgeTheGap]

(Foster is also a Democrat, having served as State Representative and was very involved with the state Democratic Party).

As a PT boat captain in the Navy during World War II, Foster Ockerman sailed the Pacific theater, patrolling islands and protecting troops. He was involved in the battles of Guadalcanal and Vella Lavella in the Solomon Islands, and even met John F. "Jack" Kennedy. A native of Nelson County, Ky., Ockerman entered the service in August 1942, midway into his second semester of law school at the University of Kentucky. His deployment was delayed until he completed his studies and passed the bar exam. The retired lawyer, now 90, lives part time on Longboat Key with his wife, Joyce, of 60 years.

'I was sent to the Pacific in 1943, to the Ellice Islands. Our duty there was to patrol in our PT boat around this atoll called Funafuti. We would take turns going out and patrolling to see what was going on, if there were any Japanese ships. That was not particularly dangerous, even though we patrolled at night.

We stayed there for a few months, and then I was sent to the Solomon Islands.

We had our quarters on the boat. The boat was 80 feet long and had two small cabins for officers. There were 18 enlisted men aboard, four torpedoes that we carried, and two sets of twin .50-caliber machine guns. We had a 20 mm on the stern and a .30-caliber up on the bow.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110225/ARCHIVES/102251008/0/todayspaper