08/07/2017
I'm in New Orleans this weekend touring the vault and archives of The National WWII Museum. Before sharing photos of the vault, I wanted to share a bucket list item I crossed off today:
This morning I took a ride on the only operating combat-tested PT boat left in the world. It's called PT-305, and a large team of volunteers spent over 10 years and 100,000 hours restoring it back to the way it looked in 1944.
On the boat with me is a 94-year-old veteran of WWII who served on a PT boat in the Solomon Islands and Philippines. This is his first ride on a PT boat in over 70 years! PT boats operated within close range to the enemy ships they were attacking and the courage it took to serve on one of these boats is immeasurable. He is a true living hero!