PT 109 by William Doyle highlights the combat incident that influenced John F. Kennedy for the rest of his life.  This book, written about fifty years after the bestselling book of the same name by Robert Donavan, charted Kennedy's brush with death, his leadership skills, and how the experience shaped Kennedy's attitude.  Remarkably, this incident has parallels to Kennedy's presidency and to today's world. The book recounts how the mission assigned to Kennedy and other PT boat commanders was doomed from the start.  On August 2, 1943, while patrolling the Solomon Islands, the Japanese destroyer Amagiri barreled through thick fog and struck the U.S. Navy's motor torpedo boat PT 109, splitting the craft nearly in half and killing two American sailors instantly.  The other eleven survivors swam through flame and shark-infested waters to reach an island that was surrounded by the Japanese.  Kennedy was set up for failure, because...(Read Full Article)