19. Kennedy’s health was permanently damaged during his war service
Kennedy’s weight dropped from 165 pounds to 140 during the last three months of his combat service. His back was injured during the collision with the Japanese destroyer, and aggravated further during his exertions while attempting to find aid. The Navy physicians at Lambu Lambu sent him to Tulagi for further evaluation. Lt. Alvin Cluster, his last commanding officer in combat, learned of Kennedy’s condition. He had Kennedy transferred to the United States. Kennedy arrived in San Francisco in the first week of January, 1944. After hospitalization, he was transferred to the Submarine Chaser Training Center in Miami.
He remained in the Navy, despite several more bouts of illness and hospitalization In May, until December, 1944. His last command, PT 59, remained in the Solomons until August, 1944, when it was shipped to Rhode Island via the Panama Canal for use as a training vessel. It was later sold, used as a fishing boat for many years, and eventually sank at its moorings after a fire. Nearly all of the wooden-hulled PT boats built for service during World War II were destroyed by the Navy after the war, after their equipment was removed for salvage. The hulls were then burned. By the time a movie was made to tell PT 109’s story in the early 1960s, service boats owned by the Air Force had to be modified to portray the Navy’s PTs.
