75 Years After Guadalcanal

 
 
This year, as America celebrates the 100th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s birth, I find myself on an itty-bitty palm-shrouded uninhabited island in the far-far-flung South Pacific, with a huge lump in my throat.
I’ve heard the larger-than-life story so many times: during World War II, after lieutenant Kennedy’s PT-109 boat was infamously sunk by a Japanese destroyer, he swam 3 1/2 miles to safety, a strap clenched in his mouth dragging a badly burned sailor and