Ambassador Caroline Kennedy Presents a Replica

 US new ambassador to Australia Ambassador Caroline Kennedy (The only surviving daughter of the late president of the USA, President John F Kennedy) presented a replica; copy of the coconut husk to John Kolono and Nelma Ane during her visit to Solomon Island.

 

During the presentation, Caroline Kennedy reviewed that She and her late father owed a personal debt of gratitude to two Solomon Islander Scouts — Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana – who saved my father’s life.

 She thanked them, he and his crew survived the sinking of PT-109 and were able to return home and eventually run for President.

 “I’m deeply touched to be here today, knowing that I might not be here if it were not for Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana.

 The meeting between Caroline Kennedy with the children of the two men that saved her father during the war in the Pacific moved everyone.

 She also presented the pair and others with medals, for supporting the Australian World War II coast watcher presence in the Solomon Islands.

 Kumana and Gasa encountered JFK, then a 26-year-old naval officer, and his crew in 1943 when JFK's boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer.

 JFK led his remaining 10 crew members in a week-long fight for survival, swimming to a series of tiny deserted islands.

 Kumana and Gasa took a message from JFK written on a coconut husk to the nearest Allied base 35 miles away, which had them rescued.

 “I’m honored and proud of my dad, and I’m happy to receive on behalf of him. I wish he was here to receive this medal,” Koloni said.