Retropod is sponsored by Tito's handmade vodka. Drink responsibly.

Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

In the summer of 2018, under a clear blue sky, former Navy Lieutenant William F. Libanow was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.

He was 97 years old when he passed. A World War II veteran remembered for his heroism in evading the enemy, launching torpedoes, and rescuing more than 60 men from a sinking ship on D-Day.

But it says something about Libano's extraordinary life

that those heroic moments paled in comparison to the time he saved the life of a future president,

John F. Kennedy, with the help of a coconut.

When Libina would tell the story of the coconut in JFK,

he'd often say there wasn't a whole lot to it.

But Libina was being overly modest, just like other members of the greatest generation,

who did their jobs and avoided fame as if it were a landmine.

Libano joined the Navy quickly after Pearl Harbor.

Almost two years later, he was stationed in the Solomon Islands,

an archipelago east of Australia and Papua New Guinea.

One of his tentmates was a 26-year-old skipper from Massachusetts,

a fellow named Jack Kennedy.

Both men were the commanders of patrol torpedo boats, better known as

PT boats. These swift wooden ships held about a dozen men, four deadly torpedoes, and three

powerful engines to send them zooming in between Japanese warships. During one night patrol, a Japanese destroyer got the best of Kennedy, ramming his PT boat and slicing it in two.

The engines exploded. Two men were killed.

Eventually, Kennedy and 10 survivors swam four hours to a small unoccupied island.

For six days, they subsisted on coconuts and hope. Days went by without a rescue. Back at Kennedy

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