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PT Boats of WWII
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PT Boats - General
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[StartQuote] Hey Mike, Sorry if I came across as dismissive or snarky. Not my Intent. I wish you every bit of luck and well wishes. If you go back far enough and read the Forum you will see that the whole mystique of JFK is really blown far out of proportion compared to his involvement with PT Boats. However, when a completely uninformed neophyte off the street is asked about PT Boats, the only thing they may even know is that "That was the boat JFK was on, right?" and that is so maddening to all those OTHER PT Boat vets who also served proudly on PT Boats, that they are all conveniently forgotten and all the things they accomplished don't seem to matter very much to any of the JFK fanboys around. It seems to me that we have already recovered several existing accessible PT Boat Hulls, and we should spend our limited resources on restoring them, before we attempt a new recovery on a boat that may not even exist. I am speaking of PT48, PT305, PT309, PT459, PT617, PT619,PT486, PT657 and a few others I cant recall right now. I personally have devoted over 20 years of my life towards restoring an actual operating WW2 PT Boat, out here in Portland OR, called PT658. So I know a thing or two about the actual work that is involved in restoring these wooden boats to museum quality condition. On our boat, that had never permanently sunk, we had to replace a lot of rotten wood and virtually every fastener that had simply turned into POWDER, all throughout the boat. I cant even imagine how much worse it would be on a boat that has been under brackish water and mud for 50 years from the PT59. When you say that some of us will "allow this boat to rot" I wanted to let you know that the PT59 ALREADY HAS ROTTED far past any recognizable condition, based on my experience with restoring a much younger vessel than PT59. As for the legacy of PT Boats being passed down to future generations, we have given tours to busloads of the general public and to numerous school children, Boy Scouts and Sea Scouts, as well as numerous veterans groups to visit a real PT Boat where they can see and touch, and then hear the growl of those massive Packard engines as they are all started up. I have personally witnessed a PT Boat veteran touch the engines inside the engine room and then start crying, because they were what got him out of danger and back home after a hard battle. Along with the PT Museum in Fall River and the Nimitz Museum in Texas and soon the WW2 Museum in New Orleans, our groups have exposed literally thousands of people over the last 15 years to PT Boats and their story. To be sure, JFK is a big part of that story. In fact we are putting a section dedicated to him inside our museum that we are completing soon here in Portland. I think the best way to continue that PT Boat legacy is to work with the boat hulls that we already have which are also in great need of repair and restoration. As for the task of raising and repairing PT59, there remain great obstacles to overcome in the physical process of recovering and then restoring that boat. This doesn't even address trying to raise any kind of funding to pay for all of this work. Then try getting enough volunteers to help you and that is a whole different problem. Another difficulty arises when the mud is disturbed as the remains are dug up that may release toxic waste into the cove. I imagine there are also regulations that must be met as well as fees and Environmental Impact studies that must be done as required by the EPA or the NY State Dept of Ecology. So that is why I am a tad bit incredulous! Because to me it sounds a little too "pie in the sky" to be feasible. I suggest that you may want to approach the US Navy Museum or the Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington DC to see if they could help out like they are helping with the recovery of the USS Monitor civil war wreck off the coast of North Carolina, or the USS Constitution in Boston. Maybe they could recommend some resources that you could use. But all in all, I am not against you or your efforts. Again I apologize for the snark. Good luck in your momentous endeavor! Jerry Jerry Gilmartin PT658 Crewman Portland OR[EndQuote]
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