JFK's PT-109 Crew Members First Day Cover Signed by 9 crew members

Kennedy First Day of Issue postmarked May 29, 1964 autographed by 9 crew members, including. "Barney" Ross , Ensign (ENS) On board as an observer after losing his own boat.

Attempted to operate the 37 mm gun. But suffered from night blindness. "Bucky" Harris , gunner's mate 3/c (GM3) (Watertown, Massachusetts). William Johnston , Motor Machinist's Mate 2/c (MM2) (Dorchester, Massachusetts).

Maguire , Radioman 2/c (RM2) (Dobbs Ferry, New York). Edman Edgar Mauer , Quartermaster, cook, 3/c (QM3) St. "Pappy" McMahon , Motor Machinist's Mate 1/c (MM1) (Wyanet, Illinois). Only man in engine room during collision, was badly burned, but recovered from his wounds. Only member of the crew besides Kennedy mentioned by name in the song.

Zinser , Motor Machinist's Mate 1/c (MM1) Erroneously called "Gerald" in many publications, Zinser remained in the Navy for a career following the end of World War II, eventually retiring as a Chief Petty Officer. The last living survivor of PT-109 , he died in Florida in 2001. This FDC is in excellent overall condition, and has a blank back. Please see scan to see a detailed view of the FDC.

You seldom see signed FDC's with 9 crew members! PT-109 belonged to the PT-103 class, hundreds of which were completed between 1942 and 1945, by Elco.

1942, as the seventh motor torpedo boat. (MTB) of the 80-foot-long (24 m)-class built by Elco, and was launched on.

And delivered to the Navy on. 1942 to be fitted out in the New York Naval Shipyard. PT-109 could accommodate a crew of three officers and 14 enlisted men, with the typical crew size between 12 and 14. The Elco boats were the largest PT boats operated by the U. At 80 feet (24 m) and.

They had strong wooden hulls, constructed of two layers of 1-inch (2.5 cm) mahogany planking, excellent for speed, but provided very limited protection in a firefight or torpedo attack. Powered by three 12-cylinder 1,500 horsepower (1,100 kW) Packard.

Gasoline engines (one per propeller shaft), their designed top speed was 41 knots. To conserve space and improve weight distribution, the outboard or wing engines were mounted with their output ends facing forward, with power transmitted through V-drive. Gearboxes to the propeller shafts. The center engine was mounted with the output flange facing away from the boat or aft, and power was transmitted directly to the propeller shaft. The engines were fitted with mufflers on the transom. (extreme rear of boat) to direct the exhaust underwater, which had to be bypassed for anything other than idle speed. The mufflers were both to mask the engines' noise from the enemy and to improve the crew's chance of hearing enemy aircraft.

PT-109 design with forward and aft guns, two twin (double-barrelled) 50s near center by cockpit on circular mounts, note four torpedo tubes, two on each side on deck edge, August 1943. S design diagram at left, the boat had a single. Anti-aircraft mount at the rear with "109" painted on the mounting base, two open circular rotating turrets designed by the same firm that produced the Tucker. Automobile, each with twin M2. Anti-aircraft machine guns at opposite corners of the open cockpit, and a smoke generator on her transom (stern, or extreme rear in diagram).

The M2's could be effective against attacking aircraft. The smoke generator was essential when operating at close range to enemy vessels. The day before her final mission, PT-109. S crew lashed a U.

Army 37 mm antitank gun. (front), replacing a small, two-man life raft. Timbers used to secure the weapon to the deck later helped save their lives when used as a float although given the events that occurred, the original life raft would have been more useful. The principal offensive weapon was her torpedoes. She was fitted with four 21-inch (53 cm) torpedo tubes.

They weighed 3,150 pounds (1,430 kg) each, with 386-pound (175 kg) warheads and gave the tiny boat a punch believed at the time to be effective even against armored ships. The Mark 8, however, was both inaccurate and ineffective until its detonator was recalibrated by the Navy at the end of the war. A major issue was that even in the unlikely instance they hit their target, they rarely detonated, particularly when they hit at a 90 degree angle. In contrast, the Japanese type 93 destroyer torpedo, later called the "long lance", was faster at 45 knots (83 km/h; 52 mph), had an accurate range of 20,000 yards (18,000 m), was far more powerful with 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of high explosives, and unlike the Mark 8, its detonator usually worked when it hit a target. One naval officer explained that 90% of the time, when the button was pushed on the torpedo tube to launch a torpedo, nothing happened or occasionally the motor spun the propeller until the torpedo motor exploded in the tube, showering the deck with metal fragments.

For safety, a torpedo mate was frequently required to hit the torpedo's firing pin with a hammer to get one to launch. Kennedy and contemporary writers noted that torpedo mates and other PT crew were inadequately trained in aiming, and firing the Mark 8 torpedoes, and were never informed of their ineffectiveness and low rate of detonation. Ahead of the torpedoes on PT-109 were two depth charges. Omitted on most PTs, one on each side, about the same diameter and directly in front of the torpedoes.

Though designed to be used against submarines, they were sometimes used to confuse and discourage pursuing destroyers. With Kennedy's squadron commander, Lt. Alvin Cluster, at the wheel in storm conditions, PT-109. Depth charge was knocked through the foredeck unexpectedly by an inadvertent launch of the port forward torpedo.

Cluster had asked Kennedy for a turn at PT 109. S wheel, as he had only had experience with the older, Elco 77-foot (23 m) PTs. The torpedo stayed in the tube, half in and half out on a hot run , its propellers spinning, until Kennedy's executive officer Ensign Leonard Thom deactivated it.

PT boats had only experimental and primitive radar sets through 1943, which were at best unreliable and frequently failed to work. The crews sometimes abandoned their radar sets, if they were issued them at all, leaving them with little advanced warning of an approaching enemy craft, particularly at night or in fog conditions.

PT tankroom below deck, looking forward, shows exposed fuel tank on left. PT-109 was transported from the Norfolk Navy Yard. She arrived in the Solomon Islands. In late 1942 and was assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 2 based on Tulagi.

She participated in combat operations around Guadalcanal. 1943, when the Japanese withdrew from the island. Kennedy's training in motor torpedo boats. Despite having a chronically bad back and a history of other illnesses, John F.

Kennedy used his father Joseph P. S influence to get into the war. Army's Officer Candidate School had rejected him as 4-F, for his bad back, ulcers and asthma.

Kennedy's father persuaded his old friend Captain Allan Goodrich Kirk, head of the Office of Naval Intelligence, to let a private Boston doctor certify his son's good health. Kennedy started out in October 1941 prior to Pearl Harbor as an ensign. With a desk job for the Office of Naval Intelligence. He was reassigned to South Carolina in January 1942 because of his affair with Danish journalist Inga Arvad. On 27 July 1942, Kennedy entered the Naval Reserve Officers Training School in Chicago.

After completing this training on. Kennedy voluntarily entered the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons Training Center. In Melville, Rhode Island, where he was promoted to lieutenant (junior grade). In September 1942, Joseph Kennedy had secured PT Lieutenant Commander John Bulkeley's help in placing his son in the PT boat's service and enrolling him in their training school, after meeting with Bulkeley in a New York Plaza suite near his office at Rockefeller Plaza. Nonetheless, Bulkeley would not have recommended John Kennedy for PT training if he did not believe he was qualified to be a PT captain.

In an interview with Kennedy, Bulkeley was impressed with his appearance, communication skills, grades at Harvard, and awards received in small boat competitions, particularly while a member of Harvard's sailing team. Exaggerated claims by Bulkeley about the effectiveness of the PTs in combat against larger craft allowed him to recruit top talent, raise war bonds, and cause overconfidence among squadron commanders who continued to put PTs against larger craft. But many in the Navy knew the truth; his claims that PTs had sunk a Japanese cruiser, a troopship, and a plane tender in the Philippines were false. Kennedy completed his PT training in Rhode Island on. With very high marks and was asked to stay for a brief period as an instructor. He was then ordered to the training squadron, Motor Torpedo. To take over the command of motor torpedo boat PT-101 , a 78-foot (24 m) Huckins PT boat. Kennedy's transfer to the Pacific. In January 1943, PT-101 and four other boats were ordered to Motor Torpedo Boat. (RON 14), which was assigned to patrol the Panama Canal.

In February 1943, while the squadron was in Jacksonville, Florida, preparing for transfer to the Panama Canal Zone. On his own volition, Lieutenant Kennedy then contacted family friend and crony, Massachusetts Senator. Chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee. Who diverted his assignment to Panama, and had him sent to PT combat in the Solomon Islands.

Granting Kennedy's previous "change-of-assignment" request to be sent to a squadron in the South Pacific. His actions were against the wishes of his father who had wanted a safer assignment, but demonstrated Kennedy's independence and exceptional courage. The Allies had been in a campaign of island hopping.

Since securing Guadalcanal in a bloody battle in early 1943. 1943, as a replacement officer to Motor Torpedo Boat. Which was based at Tulagi. Island, immediately north of Guadalcanal. Traveling to the Pacific on Rochambeau. He arrived at Tulagi on. And took command of PT-109 on.

Several PT boats, including PT-109 , were ordered to the Russell Islands. In preparation for the invasion of New Georgia. After the capture of Rendova Island. The PT boat operations were moved north to a crude "bush" berth there on. The Rendova base held the potential for its residents to contract a host of unpleasant diseases like malaria.

The Navy men stationed there also contended with cockroaches, rats, foot diseases, ear fungus, and mild malnutrition from the monotonous and mostly canned food. On his first desk assignment with the Navy after his return to the States, Kennedy suffered from the aftereffects of malaria, colitis. And chronic back pain, all caused or aggravated by his experiences in combat or during his stay at the Rendova base. From their crude base on the northern tip of Rendova Island, on a small spit of land known as Lumbari. PT boats conducted daring and dangerous nightly operations, both to disturb the heavy Japanese barge traffic that was resupplying the Japanese garrisons in New Georgia, and to patrol the Ferguson and Blackett Straits. In order to sight and to give warning when the Japanese Tokyo Express. Warships came into the straits to supply Japanese forces in the New GeorgiaRendova area. An attack by 18 Japanese bombers struck the base, wrecking PT-117 and sinking PT-164.

Two torpedoes were blown off PT-164 and ran erratically around the bay until they ran ashore on the beach without exploding. The item "JFK's PT-109 Crew Members First Day Cover Signed by 9 crew members" is in sale since Thursday, May 28, 2020.

This item is in the category "Collectibles\Autographs\Historical". The seller is "1921acmepackers" and is located in Green Bay, Wisconsin. This item can be shipped to United States.

Modified Item: No
Original/Reproduction: Original
Autograph Authentication: Not Authenticated