NAMES IN THE NEWS : Rep. Kennedy in Hawaii Rescue
Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II (D-Mass.) plunged into the shark-infested Pacific Ocean off Hawaii to help rescue a man and woman whose fishing boat had capsized, a Kennedy aide confirmed today.
Kennedy, son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and his twin 9-year-old sons were on vacation, fishing off the coast of Kona, Hawaii, Sunday afternoon when they heard a distress call over their radio, Kennedy spokesman Jim Mahoney said.
“I don’t know if we got many points for intelligence,” Kennedy, 37, told the Boston Herald. “It was tiger shark city.”
“We grabbed the girl and brought her back to the boat we were on,” the congressman said. The woman’s companion was able to swim to the Kealia on his own.
The two boaters were not injured. The man’s name was not immediately available and Kennedy only learned later the woman he had rescued was Mildred Akaka, the niece of Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii).
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