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PT 105
Admittedly small and vulnerable, PT boats were, nevertheless, fast-the fastest craft on the water during World War II-and Dick Keresey's account of these tough little fighters throws new light on their contributions to the war effort. As captain of PT 105, the author was in the same battle as John F. Kennedy when Kennedy's PT 109 was rammed and sunk. The famous incident, Keresey says, has often been described inaccurately and the PT boat depicted as unreliable and ineffective. This book helps set the record straight by presenting an authentic picture of PT boats that draws on the author's experience at Guadalcanal, New Georgia, Bougainville, and Choiseul Island. Action-filled, his account describes evading night bombers, rescuing coast watchers and downed airmen, setting down Marine scouts behind Japanese lines, engaging in vicious gun battles with Japanese barges and small freighters, and contending with heat, disease, and loneliness. First published in 1996, the book has been hailed for telling an exciting yet fully accurate story.
232 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
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October 6, 2023
Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey once said, "There are no great men, there are only great challenges, which ordinary men like you and me are forced by circumstances to meet." Dick Keresey, in his book, PT-105, tells the story of such "ordinary men" who were forced by circumstances to meet great challenges. A graduate of Dartmouth College, class of 1938, Dick Keresey had aspirations of a career as a Foreign Service Officer. To fill the gap between graduation and being accepted into the Foreign Service, he went to Columbia Law School, graduating with the class of 1941. While at Columbia, he made two life changing - and life determining - decisions. First, he decided to pursue a career in Law rather than the Foreign Service. His second decision was guided by circumstances completely beyond his control. In 1940, following the Surrender of France to Nazi Germany, President Roosevelt declared a state of national emergency and Congress passed the first peacetime military draft in the history of the United States. Dick Keresey knew he preferred not to be drafted into the army - and after "learning that the FBI would have none of me," he visited the Navy Recruiter and joined the Navy as an officer candidate. When he reported for duty to begin his training September 15, 1941, like millions of his fellow "ordinary" citizens, Dick Keresey believed that the current emergency would pass; maybe he would serve a period of time as an officer in the Naval Reserve; and then, life would return to normal. Three quarters of the way through his training, he and his entire generation were presented with the greatest challenge of their lifetimes. Dick Keresey, like the vast majority of his fellow "ordinary" citizens, not only never saw the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor coming, they were not even aware that such a place existed, and much less why the Japanese would attack the United States there. Such is the nature of great challenges presented to ordinary men and women. He would complete his training and be commissioned an Ensign, U.S. Navy (Reserve) (USNR) in January 1942. The U.S. Naval Academy takes 48 months to train and educate naval officers. Keresey and his officer candidate classmates were trained in 120 days. They were in effect "Citizen Sailors" who were being forced by the circumstances of a global crisis to meet the greatest challenge of their lifetimes. In less than six months, Dick Keresey would be the Captain of a Patrol Torpedo Boat (PT). PT Boats were the smallest warships in the U.S. Navy; made of wood, fast and heavily armed, eighty feet long, and fifty tons with a crew of sixteen. Dick Keresey, his crew, and PT-105 were heading to war in the South Pacific.
PT-105 is Dick Keresey's story of his experience in rising to meet the greatest challenge of his lifetime. Honest and engagingly written - at times, raw and subtly stream of thought - PT-105 not only draws the reader into the author's experience, but also enables the reader to sense - and imagine - what it was like. The hasty and inadequate training and preparation; the primitive living conditions; lack of resources; the necessity to create effective tactics, techniques and procedures by learning through the hard and unforgiving school of combat experience. Keresey gives the reader a realistic - and human - feeling of what it was like to go on patrol night after night in boats with limited radio communication, either no radar or only rudimentary radar, limited navigation capability, and little if any capability to tell friend from foe in the darkness of the South Pacific. The confusion, fear, uncertainty, and sometimes paralyzing despair imposed by life in remote forward operating bases and locations are made real for the reader. The reality that some men met these challenges better than others; and that some could not meet them at all.
PT-105 is not just a story of one man's wartime experience. It is a story of ordinary men, inadequately trained and prepared, who were forced by circumstances to meet great challenges - in being so, it is also a story of character. Of the approximately eighty types of vessels employed by the U.S. Navy in World War II, none were more often and more closely engaged in close quarters combat with the enemy than the PT Boats. The officers who commanded these boats were overwhelmingly "Citizen Sailors" like Dick Keresey. In the spring of 1943 when he arrived in the South Pacific Area, the outcome of World War II, in both Europe and the Pacific was still not certain. The United States had gone on the attack in North Africa only in November of 1942. In the Pacific, the long hard fight through the South and Southwest Pacific and the Central Pacific had only just begun at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands in August 1942. PT-105 is an inspiring and captivating story of Dick Keresey and his fellow PT Boat Captains, who with their crews, were thrust into combat that was so desperate that their survival was not expected - by the very nature of these circumstances, their mission and assignments implied that they were expendable. PT-105 is a story of how Dick Keresey and his fellow captains and their crews, learned to trust, and rely and depend upon each other. They built confidence and proficiency, and hardened their determination to succeed and survive by learning hard lessons. They learned to train and prepare as well as possible under the circumstances, regardless of the limitations - you test fire weapons to ensure they do not fail in combat; and, if necessary, even the chaplain creates diversions to "acquire" needed supplies. They learned the fundamental lesson that you leave no one behind; you always go back for your comrades. Whether it was LT(jg) John F. Kennedy, Captain of PT-109, going back to tow Dick Keresey and his crew off of an uncharted reef; or LT(jg) Keresey risking the safety of his boat and crew to lay a smokescreen for the withdrawal of a damaged and partially disabled PT Boat and its crew after a fierce engagement with the enemy; or LT(jg) Kennedy leading his crew to safety and evading capture in an enemy controlled area for seven days after their PT-109 was rammed and sunk by a Japanese Destroyer; or, LT Kennedy, three months after his and his own crew's rescue - and having declined medical evacuation to the United States and in command of PT-59 - led his own and other PT Boats over a period of five days on repeated missions to evacuate Marines from Choiseul Island under intense enemy fire. No one was left behind.
Throughout the pacific war, it was common practice for the U.S. Navy not to assume the risks of rescuing Japanese soldiers or sailors at sea. There were two primary reasons for this. First, navy ships were not equipped to handle prisoners of war. Second, it was believed that the enemy had been indoctrinated with a level of fanaticism that posed a inordinate risk to the safety of any U.S. personnel who sought to rescue them. In October 1943, while on combat patrol, Dick Keresey made the decision to rescue 70 survivors of a sunken Japanese warship. During the transfer of the prisoners ashore, one of the prisoners seized a pistol from an American sailor and shot him. Guards then shot and killed the Japanese assailant, and two other prisoners were killed in the crossfire. A few weeks later, Keresey was told that all of the remaining prisoners had been shot trying to escape during a bombing raid on the base where they were being held. While he never regretted his decision to rescue the Japanese sailors, for the next 47 years, Keresey believed that the effort and sacrifice had been in vain. In November of 1990, Keresey learned that the remaining prisoners he and his crew had rescued had survived as prisoners of war in the United States and had been repatriated to Japan after the war. One of those survivors was Minoru Takahashi. He had been a school teacher prior to the war, and after returning to Japan he resumed his profession and completed a full career as an educator. In the summer of 1993, Dick Keresey, who had taken the risk - and carried the burden of responsibility for the consequences - of rescuing 70 Japanese sailors from certain death at sea, met Minoru Takahashi in San Antonio, Texas. Two old men, in the autumn of their lives, embraced and thanked one another; Minoru Takahashi thanked Dick Keresey for taking the risk to rescue him and his fellow sailors, and Dick Keresey thanked Minoru Takahashi for trusting him to do so. The story Dick Keresey tells in PT-105 is fundamentally a story of character. Character counts, because it not only creates, nurtures, and guides our thoughts, words, and actions, but it also keeps us connected to our humanity - even in the midst of circumstances beyond our control that force us to meet great challenges. Our character tells us that it is not just a matter of whether we can or should say or do something, but it is also a matter of what we will think of ourselves tomorrow if we do, or we don't - our character tells us it's also a matter of conscience.
PT-105 is much more than an engagingly written personal story of World War II in the Pacific. It is a reminder that we do not - and cannot - know the future. But each day, in ways known and unknown, we are preparing ourselves to meet that future. It is the story of the character that ordinary citizens brought with them as they met the greatest challenge of their lifetimes. Indeed, the story of character - and conscience - Dick Keresey tells might paraphrase, and even subtly amplify, Hemingway's thoughts on the human experience of war; 'Today is but one day of all the days that will ever be, but what you do today - why you do it and how you do it - will make the difference in all of your days yet to come.' PT-105 is a must read for anyone interested in leadership and the human experience in war, or in World War II in the Pacific in general. It should be required reading for all Naval Academy and Naval ROTC Midshipmen, and Naval Officer Candidates.
PT-105 is Dick Keresey's story of his experience in rising to meet the greatest challenge of his lifetime. Honest and engagingly written - at times, raw and subtly stream of thought - PT-105 not only draws the reader into the author's experience, but also enables the reader to sense - and imagine - what it was like. The hasty and inadequate training and preparation; the primitive living conditions; lack of resources; the necessity to create effective tactics, techniques and procedures by learning through the hard and unforgiving school of combat experience. Keresey gives the reader a realistic - and human - feeling of what it was like to go on patrol night after night in boats with limited radio communication, either no radar or only rudimentary radar, limited navigation capability, and little if any capability to tell friend from foe in the darkness of the South Pacific. The confusion, fear, uncertainty, and sometimes paralyzing despair imposed by life in remote forward operating bases and locations are made real for the reader. The reality that some men met these challenges better than others; and that some could not meet them at all.
PT-105 is not just a story of one man's wartime experience. It is a story of ordinary men, inadequately trained and prepared, who were forced by circumstances to meet great challenges - in being so, it is also a story of character. Of the approximately eighty types of vessels employed by the U.S. Navy in World War II, none were more often and more closely engaged in close quarters combat with the enemy than the PT Boats. The officers who commanded these boats were overwhelmingly "Citizen Sailors" like Dick Keresey. In the spring of 1943 when he arrived in the South Pacific Area, the outcome of World War II, in both Europe and the Pacific was still not certain. The United States had gone on the attack in North Africa only in November of 1942. In the Pacific, the long hard fight through the South and Southwest Pacific and the Central Pacific had only just begun at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands in August 1942. PT-105 is an inspiring and captivating story of Dick Keresey and his fellow PT Boat Captains, who with their crews, were thrust into combat that was so desperate that their survival was not expected - by the very nature of these circumstances, their mission and assignments implied that they were expendable. PT-105 is a story of how Dick Keresey and his fellow captains and their crews, learned to trust, and rely and depend upon each other. They built confidence and proficiency, and hardened their determination to succeed and survive by learning hard lessons. They learned to train and prepare as well as possible under the circumstances, regardless of the limitations - you test fire weapons to ensure they do not fail in combat; and, if necessary, even the chaplain creates diversions to "acquire" needed supplies. They learned the fundamental lesson that you leave no one behind; you always go back for your comrades. Whether it was LT(jg) John F. Kennedy, Captain of PT-109, going back to tow Dick Keresey and his crew off of an uncharted reef; or LT(jg) Keresey risking the safety of his boat and crew to lay a smokescreen for the withdrawal of a damaged and partially disabled PT Boat and its crew after a fierce engagement with the enemy; or LT(jg) Kennedy leading his crew to safety and evading capture in an enemy controlled area for seven days after their PT-109 was rammed and sunk by a Japanese Destroyer; or, LT Kennedy, three months after his and his own crew's rescue - and having declined medical evacuation to the United States and in command of PT-59 - led his own and other PT Boats over a period of five days on repeated missions to evacuate Marines from Choiseul Island under intense enemy fire. No one was left behind.
Throughout the pacific war, it was common practice for the U.S. Navy not to assume the risks of rescuing Japanese soldiers or sailors at sea. There were two primary reasons for this. First, navy ships were not equipped to handle prisoners of war. Second, it was believed that the enemy had been indoctrinated with a level of fanaticism that posed a inordinate risk to the safety of any U.S. personnel who sought to rescue them. In October 1943, while on combat patrol, Dick Keresey made the decision to rescue 70 survivors of a sunken Japanese warship. During the transfer of the prisoners ashore, one of the prisoners seized a pistol from an American sailor and shot him. Guards then shot and killed the Japanese assailant, and two other prisoners were killed in the crossfire. A few weeks later, Keresey was told that all of the remaining prisoners had been shot trying to escape during a bombing raid on the base where they were being held. While he never regretted his decision to rescue the Japanese sailors, for the next 47 years, Keresey believed that the effort and sacrifice had been in vain. In November of 1990, Keresey learned that the remaining prisoners he and his crew had rescued had survived as prisoners of war in the United States and had been repatriated to Japan after the war. One of those survivors was Minoru Takahashi. He had been a school teacher prior to the war, and after returning to Japan he resumed his profession and completed a full career as an educator. In the summer of 1993, Dick Keresey, who had taken the risk - and carried the burden of responsibility for the consequences - of rescuing 70 Japanese sailors from certain death at sea, met Minoru Takahashi in San Antonio, Texas. Two old men, in the autumn of their lives, embraced and thanked one another; Minoru Takahashi thanked Dick Keresey for taking the risk to rescue him and his fellow sailors, and Dick Keresey thanked Minoru Takahashi for trusting him to do so. The story Dick Keresey tells in PT-105 is fundamentally a story of character. Character counts, because it not only creates, nurtures, and guides our thoughts, words, and actions, but it also keeps us connected to our humanity - even in the midst of circumstances beyond our control that force us to meet great challenges. Our character tells us that it is not just a matter of whether we can or should say or do something, but it is also a matter of what we will think of ourselves tomorrow if we do, or we don't - our character tells us it's also a matter of conscience.
PT-105 is much more than an engagingly written personal story of World War II in the Pacific. It is a reminder that we do not - and cannot - know the future. But each day, in ways known and unknown, we are preparing ourselves to meet that future. It is the story of the character that ordinary citizens brought with them as they met the greatest challenge of their lifetimes. Indeed, the story of character - and conscience - Dick Keresey tells might paraphrase, and even subtly amplify, Hemingway's thoughts on the human experience of war; 'Today is but one day of all the days that will ever be, but what you do today - why you do it and how you do it - will make the difference in all of your days yet to come.' PT-105 is a must read for anyone interested in leadership and the human experience in war, or in World War II in the Pacific in general. It should be required reading for all Naval Academy and Naval ROTC Midshipmen, and Naval Officer Candidates.
April 25, 2017
This book covers what is was really like to be a P.T. Boat Captain in the South Pacific during WWII.
April 25, 2021
A great book, providing an intriguing memoir by a PT Boat skipper in the late stages of the Solomon Islands campaign. The author, Dick Keresey, states his goal is to provide a realistic and non-mythological telling of the PT boats in WWII. The result is one of the best WWII memoirs I’ve ever read. The story follows the author from his joining the Navy just before Pearl Harbor through to his departure from the Solomons at the end of 1943. The book is full of the “little details” which give a memoir relatability and truthfulness, but which are too often glossed over. Keresey’s actual emotions are always present, to include his deep attachment to his boat, his not always positive relation with his crew, and his anger at peers & superiors who don’t share his fortitude. He readily admits to the lack of training received and the blunderings of leadership which degraded the performance of the PT Boats. But Keresey also can’t hide his wonderment at the ability of many Sailors, himself included, to overcome these challenges and their own personal fear so that the boats could make it out night after night in what was, at best, an even fight against the Japanese. The book has a bumpy but healthy flow, with many side stories and foretelling breaking up the chronological narrative. But it is written well enough that it keeps your interest, being more akin to Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific than other contemporary memoirs. One is left with a much better appreciation of how the men of the Torpedo Boat Squadrons fought their way up the Solomons when the US Navy still hadn’t reached the material superiority which would mark the second half of the Pacific War. A great book for anyone wanting to understand the tribulations of small boat operations in a big campaign. Highly recommended for naval officers looking to understand the relationship between emotion and leadership.
August 9, 2022
This was a quick listen (Audible) and a good narrative. Enjoyed the history of these boats and the history of this author in the Pacific theatre of WWII. Great stories of how they operated, what their strong points were, their weaknesses, their successes and failures. It was also fun to hear about Jack Kennedy, PT 109, as these two knew each other and had many interactions during their time in theatre. Thank God for men like these, what a jacked up job in even worse places and yet they did their work and endured, often for years at a time.
June 23, 2021
Just a very good book
I’ve been reading a lot of books on the WWII naval battles in the southwest Pacific.
PT 105 is as good as any.
Gives a real glimpse into the life of a PT boat officer during the Second World War. The author describes both the mundane and the terrifying combat aboard a PT boat. He also paints an excellent picture of life on a PT boat and at their primitive bases
I am glad I read it.
I’ve been reading a lot of books on the WWII naval battles in the southwest Pacific.
PT 105 is as good as any.
Gives a real glimpse into the life of a PT boat officer during the Second World War. The author describes both the mundane and the terrifying combat aboard a PT boat. He also paints an excellent picture of life on a PT boat and at their primitive bases
I am glad I read it.
July 12, 2021
Talks about his interactions with JFK including when JFK was hit by the destroyer.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 24, 2025
Despite having read/listened to over 100 wwii books, this was an almost new topic for me. Was looking for descriptions of warfare, but instead got a rather leisurely paced autobiography. For wwii affocionados and relatives of boatmen.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews