213573 Jack Gardo United States Navy from:Greenville, South Carolina. Jack Gardo joined the Navy at the age of 16 after he forged his father's signature. He was the last surviving member of the crew that rescued John F. Kennedy from an island in the Pacific Ocean during World War II.
Jack Gardo's PT-157 was sent to rescue the survivors of PT-109 after the patrol torpedo boat was rammed in the middle of the night by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri off the Solomon Islands on the 2nd August 1943. Two crew members were killed; Kennedy, who had assumed command of the boat in April of that year, led the survivors to nearby islands until they could be rescued. Jack had said that he and his crew learned where the survivors were after a native islander arrived with a coconut on which Kennedy had scrawled their location.
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