PT-109 was a PT boat (patrol torpedo boat) last commanded by Lieutenant, junior grade John F. Kennedy, in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Kennedy's actions to save his surviving crew after the sinking of PT-109 made him a war hero, which proved invaluable in his initial run for the Massachusetts House of Representatives eleventh district seat a year after the war ended, in his run for the Senate in 1951, and later in his run for President in 1959.
