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John Domagalski
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Posted on: Jul 23, 2014 - 6:50pm
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I want to drop a note of introduction. I am an author who primarily writes about the Pacific side of World War II. My new book, Into the Dark Water: The Story of Three Officers and PT-109 (Casemate 2014), uses the stories of three young naval officers to tell the World War II saga of the warship made famous by John F. Kennedy. An excerpt is available on my website: http://www.pacificwarauthor.com/ I will be happy to answer questions that anyone has about PT-109.
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Will Day
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Posted on: Jul 23, 2014 - 7:10pm
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I read the book. Good job.
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David Waples
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Posted on: Jul 24, 2014 - 6:52pm
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Welcome to the forum John,
I'm currently reading your book and enjoying it. I'm taking it to lunch and reading a chapter at a time.
Poor Dick and Jerry are just going to cringe when I ask this question. I'm a modeler with an over active passion for detail. I'm curious about when the boat was painted green and if you found some actual documentation that confirmed the boat was changed to green before Kennedy took command. I had a conversation with Dick Keresey shipper of PT-105 and both he and subsequent skipper John Iles both told me that their boat was grey which would have taken it to well past the time when Kennedy took command of the 109. I also appreciate that the 109 and 110 boats arrived in theatre earlier than the 105 and had a different history. We have good evidence that the 109 was in fact painted green from color photographs provided by one of JFK's fellow skipper and friend. It may be impossible to know when but I just have to ask if you happened to come across any official documentation that caused you to believe it was painted earlier.
Thanks for your time and thanks for writing the book. I look forward to reading it every day.
Dave
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John Domagalski
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Posted on: Jul 25, 2014 - 12:59pm
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Hi Dave. Thanks for the good words about my book. I did not find any "official" documentation about the 109 being painted green prior to JFK. Such an issue was most likely more of a routine administrative matter and not be something that would be recorded in the logs and actions reports. The navy person at the National Archives told me that none of the administrative files for the PT boat squadron in the South Pacific exist anymore. He thinks those documents may have been destroyed after the war.
I did, however, find at least one reference to the boats going from grey to green. At the moment, I cannot remember specifically where, it may have been in some of Bryant Larson’s recollections - but nothing official. Like you mentioned, the exact timing may never be known for sure.
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David Waples
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Posted on: Jul 26, 2014 - 7:56am
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Thanks John,
You never know when somebody's going to dig up something new otherwise lost to time. If you're ever in Colorado at a book signing would love to come by for an autograph and to say hi.
Take care
Dave
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John Domagalski
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Posted on: Jul 28, 2014 - 5:10am
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Thanks Dave. Will do.
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TED WALTHER
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 Posted on: Jul 28, 2014 - 4:00pm
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John and Dave;
The problem here is the official documentation stating exactly when PT 109 was painted Navy Green is at the bottom of Blackett Strait. It's in the Log book, every single PT log book I have read, including the Tulagi boats, states when the boat went into drydock for any and all repairs, this includes painting.
Take care,
TED
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