Second World War US navy officer who helped rescue JFK, William Liebenow

A Second World War US navy officer who guided his warship into Japanese territory to rescue future President John F Kennedy and his crew has died aged 97, his daughter said.

William “Bud” Liebenow died from pneumonia complications, said Susan T Liebenow, of Arlington, Virginia.

Mr Liebenow was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and was a new college graduate when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour in 1941.

He joined the navy and volunteered for service on the fast, small and heavily armed attack vessels called PT boats.

Mr Liebenow and Kennedy were each captains of PT boats in the South Pacific in 1943 when Kennedy’s boat was destroyed by a Japanese destroyer.

Kennedy and 10 other surviving crew members swam to a small island, where he scratched a note into a coconut that two Solomon Islands natives carried to an American base.

Mr Liebenow guided his boat behind enemy lines to track down the survivors of PT-109 on the island where they were hiding.

“Pulled right up to the beach,” Mr Liebenow told WRAL-TV in 2015. “Just a part of the job really.” Kennedy invited Mr Liebenow and his family to the president’s inauguration ceremony 18 years later, his daughter said.

But Mr Liebenow’s naval career did not end with that rescue.

The following year, he commanded a PT boat that was part of the D-Day invasion of northern France.

His PT-199 was tasked with zooming around the waters off Normandy and rescuing men whose boats had been blown up by Nazi defenders.

Mr Liebenow’s boat helped rescue about 60 crew members from the destroyer USS Corry, which was sunk during the struggle.

“We spent most of that day picking up guys out of the water,” he said.

In addition to his daughter, he is survived by his wife, Lucy, and a son.

Mr Liebenow was 97.