The Search for Kennedy's PT 109

The Search for Kennedy's PT 109 is a National Geographic television special and video on DVD. It documents the original story of John F. Kennedy's PT 109 from World War II, and the project of Dr. Robert Ballard's successful search for the wreck of the boat.

The wreckage of PT-109 was located in May 2002 when a National Geographic Society expedition headed by Dr. Ballard found a torpedo tube from wreckage matching the description and location of Kennedy's vessel in the Solomon Islands. The boat was identified by Dale Ridder, a weapons and explosives expert on the U.S. Marine Forensics Panel. The stern section was not found, but a search using remote vehicles found the forward section, which had drifted south of the collision site. Much of the half-buried wreckage and grave site was left undisturbed in accordance with Navy policy. During the expedition, they meet and interview Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, the original two natives who found Kennedy's shipwrecked crew when the US Navy had given them up for dead. Max Kennedy, who joined Ballard on the expedition, presented a bust of JFK to the two men.

A DVD of the National Geographic television special and book of the expedition were released.