Eroni Kumana

Biuku Gasa (27 July 1923 – 23 November 2005) and Eroni Kumana (? – 2 August 2014) were Solomon Islanders of Melanesian descent, who found John F. Kennedy and his surviving PT-109 crew following the boat's collision with the Japanese destroyer Amagiri near Plum Pudding Island on 1 August 1943. They were from the Western Province of the Solomon Islands.

During World War II, Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana were tasked with patrolling the waters of the Solomon Sea near Gizo with Australian coastwatcher Sub-Lieutenant Arthur Reginald Evans, who manned a secret observation post at the top of Kolombangara island's Mount Veve volcano. Evans had spotted an explosion on 1 August, and later decoded news that the explosion he had witnessed was probably from the lost PT-109. On 2 August Gasa and Kumana were dispatched by Evans to search in their dugout canoe for possible PT-109 survivors. Abandoning their sinking ship, Kennedy and his men swam first to the very tiny Plum Pudding island.

They later abandoned Plum Pudding Island and swam to tiny Olasana Island in search of food and water. On Olsana, Kennedy found coconuts and fresh water which were of some small help to his men. On Olsana Island, Kennedy was discovered by the two islander men. The canoe couldn't accommodate all of the PT-109 crewmen safely, and the islanders and English-speaking crew had difficulty communicating with each other. In absence of writing utensils, Biuku Gasa suggested that Kennedy should inscribe a message on the husk of a coconut he had plucked from a nearby palm tree. This carved message, after rowing their dugout canoe at great risk through 35 nmi (65 km) of hostile waters patrolled by the Japanese, was then delivered to the nearest Allied base at Rendova. They enabled the ensuing return to Olasana and the successful American rescue operation.

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