Saving Lieutenant Kennedy: The heroic story of the Australian who helped rescue JFK

Join the Robert Menzies Institute as we host former treasurer of Australia Peter Costello for the launch of Brett Mason’s new book Saving Lieutenant Kennedy: The heroic story of the Australian who helped rescue JFK on Tuesday 31 October 2023 5:30pm – 7:00pm (formalities commence at 6:00pm).

About The Book

On a moonless night in August 1943, a US torpedo boat commanded by Lt John F Kennedy, on patrol in Solomon Islands, was rammed by a Japanese destroyer. Left clinging to wreckage within sight of Japanese encampments, the eleven surviving members of Kennedy’s crew eventually struggled ashore on a small uninhabited island. Missing, presumed dead, behind enemy lines, with no food or water, and with several injured, the future looked bleak for the shipwrecked Americans. Fortunately, Australian ‘coast watcher’ Lt Reg Evans witnessed the immediate aftermath of the collision from his nearby jungle hideaway. Working under the searching eye of the Japanese military, over the next five days Evans and two Solomon Islander scouts — Eroni Kumana and Biuku Gasa — located Kennedy and his crew and ensured their rescue.

This story of wartime bravery and survival helped create JFK’s legend and paved his way to the White House. It also shone a spotlight on Australia and America’s shared wartime experience. In Saving Lieutenant Kennedy, Brett Mason, author of Wizards of Oz, sets the heroic rescue and its colourful aftermath against the background of the Pacific war and the birth of the Australia– US alliance, which remains as vital today as when Kennedy and Evans first shook hands.

About The Author
Brett Mason is Chair of the Council of the National Library of Australia and Adjunct Professor in the School of Justice at the Queensland University of Technology. He was formerly a Senator for Queensland, serving in the Ministry, before being appointed Australia’s Ambassador to The Hague and Permanent Representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. He is the author of Wizards of Oz, Privacy Without Principle and co-editor of Future Proofing Australia.