Blue_Tires
Blue_Tires's JournalFinal Member Of Kennedy PT-109 Rescue Team Dies At 87
The last surviving member of the crew that rescued John F. Kennedy from an island in the Pacific Ocean during World War II has died.
Guy Gardo said Jack Gardo died in his sleep at his Greenville, S.C., home Wednesday. He was 87. The younger Gardo said his father had suffered from dementia for the past six years.
Jack Gardo's PT-157 was sent to rescue the survivors of PT-109 after the patrol torpedo boat was rammed in the middle of the night by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri off the Solomon Islands on Aug. 2, 1943.
Two crew members were killed; Kennedy, who assumed command of the boat in April of that year, led the survivors to nearby islands until they could be rescued.
Gardo had said he and his crew learned where the survivors were after a native islander arrived with a coconut on which Kennedy had scrawled their location.
Guy Gardo said his father joined the U.S. Navy at age 16 after he forged his father's signature.
"You couldn't ask for a better father than him," Guy Gardo said. "He treated us like gold. I'm going to miss him."
http://www.npr.org/2013/11/29/247750465/final-member-of-kennedy-pt-109-rescue-team-dies-at-87
Lawmakers, activists seek reduced sentence for teen (6 LIFE sentences)
Calling the punishment excessive and unconscionable, state lawmakers and civil rights activists are demanding a new, reduced sentence for a Norfolk teen who was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to more than six life terms.
State Sen. David Marsden, a Northern Virginia Democrat who has worked in juvenile justice since 1970, described Travion Blount's punishment as one of the most egregious he's seen. Marsden said he plans to craft a bill that would allow judges to amend sentences for certain juvenile offenders after they have served at least 20 years in prison. State lawmakers would debate the bill early next year.
State Sen. Kenneth Alexander, a Norfolk Democrat, said lawmakers in the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus also will consider drafting changes to the state's juvenile justice guidelines this month. "It's a flawed public policy," he said.
Blount's case was profiled in The Virginian-Pilot last month. Blount was 15 on Sept. 23, 2006, when he joined two gang members, both 18, in an armed robbery of a house party where there were 12 victims. No shots were fired, and he injured no one. Two co-defendants pleaded guilty and received 10- and 13-year punishments. Blount was convicted at trial of 49 felonies and sentenced to six life terms plus 118 years.
http://hamptonroads.com/2013/12/lawmakers-activists-seek-reduced-sentence-teen
Original Series: http://hamptonroads.com/blount
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