Press Release
Navy panel confirms boat wreckage is PT-109 that JFK served on in WWII
BY MICHAEL KILIAN
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Naval experts on Wednesday confirmed wreckage found recently in the South Pacific by noted undersea explorer Robert Ballard must be that of John F. Kennedy's famed World War II torpedo boat PT 109.
Ballard, famous for tracing the ocean liner Titanic's remains as well as other historical shipwrecks, located what he believed was the PT boat in May. The wreckage has not been disturbed, and Ballard withheld official declaration of his findings until videotapes of the vessel and other evidence were examined by authorities at the Navy's Naval Historical Center.
The group of experts, including a Navy historian and an undersea archeologist, determined that the characteristics of the sunken vessel exactly matched those of Kennedy's PT-type and that it could not have been any other torpedo boat.
"A check of Navy records indicates that no other PT-type vessels were lost in this location," the Navy said in an official statement. "This information combined with the physical evidence suggests that this is likely the wreck of the PT 109."
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