U.S. recognition for war hero who saved JFK comes after 64 years [View All]

[MaineDem]

Source: Boston Globe

HONIARA, Solomon Islands --Six decades after Aaron Kumana helped rescue young U.S. naval officer John F. Kennedy from Japanese capture in 1943, the U.S. Navy officially recognized its debt to the Solomon Islander, who for years was believed dead.

Kumana, from the western Solomons island of Rannonga, and fellow "scout" Biuku Gasa found the crew of torpedo boat PT-109 -- including its skipper, Lt. Kennedy, the future president -- after their vessel was cut in two by a Japanese destroyer.

Two members of the crew were killed in the collision in the Blackett Strait in August 1943 off Gizo, the main town of western Solomon Islands.

An injured Kennedy and the ship's other survivors clung to the wreckage and swam to a nearby island, where Kumana and Gasa found them.

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/08/30/us_recognition_for_war_hero_who_saved_jfk_comes_after_64_years/