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Eighty years ago, then-US Navy lieutenant and future US President John F. Kennedy heroically swam between Pacific islands to help save the crew of his torpedo boat that had been destroyed by a Japanese warship during World War II.

Kennedy’s heroism as the commander of PT-109 helped set the foundation for a military and leadership record that would help get him elected the United States’ 35th president in 1960.

On Wednesday, his daughter Caroline Kennedy, now US ambassador to Australia, recreated a portion her father’s feat, swimming about three quarters of a mile (1.2 kilometers) in some 30 minutes between two tiny palm-fringed islets in the Solomon Islands.