On the moonless night of 2 August 1943, a Japanese destroyer sliced Lieutenant John F. Kennedy's patrol torpedo boat, PT-109, clean in half in the Solomon Islands. Two of the crew were killed; the rest were thrown into burning water. Kennedy, his chronic back injury made worse by the collision, gathered the survivors and led them on a swim of several miles to a small island, towing a badly burned crewman by clenching the man's life-jacket strap in his teeth. Marooned for days, he scratched a message on a coconut husk and gave it to two islanders, who carried word to Allied coastwatchers. The rescue made him famous — and the coconut later sat on his Oval Office desk.

The figure presents Kennedy in Navy officer service dress, cap in hand, in the easy bearing of a young lieutenant. He completes a "future presidents in uniform" display alongside fellow naval officers George H.W. Bush and Richard Nixon, all part of the Pacific fleet under Admiral Nimitz.

W. Britain model 10068. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted base. Boxed.