February 2018 Vol 51/No 2
We didn't like to be called a "crash boat." True enough, our official Navy designation was Patrol Aircraft Rescue Boat, but from the first, before we ever left the States for the invasion of North Africa, we were checked out by high-level gold-braid and classified "for special purposes." At first, vague references were made to commando raids, but as the war developed, so did our role. Sixty-three-feet of streamlined plywood boat, we were a smaller edition of the PTs. Where the bigger craft had three banks of 12-cylinder, 1200-horsepower Packard engines, we had two. Like the PTs, we carried twin-mount .50-cal machine guns; unlike them, we carried no torpedos. But fast! We were the fastest surface raft in the Navy, planing along at 54-kts even when fully loaded...
