PT 109: An American Epic of War, Survival, and the Destiny of John F. Kennedy

by William Doyle

At Tulagi, Kennedy continued his habit of organizing discussions on politics, history, and current events. One sailor remembered seeing Kennedy wading through back issues of the New York Times piled up in his bunk. Using copies of popular magazines like the Saturday Evening Post, Life, and Collier’s as discussion guides, Kennedy and his friends debated world affairs in his tent, as Kennedy exhorted his colleagues to read, to form opinions, and to understand, in the words of Red Fay, “why the hell we’re out here.” Fay added, “He made us all very aware of our obligation as citizens of the United States to do something, to be involved in the process. Yet side by side with this seriousness he had a great sense of humor—that laugh of his: the laugh was so contagious that it made everybody laugh. You’d tell a story or a joke and then that laugh would come out, he just had everybody laughing.”