USS Indianapolis Reunion, you never know who might need to see this!

[Groesbeck Hurricane]

Survivors of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis during WWII will gather at the Westin Hotel in downtown Indianapolis for their 67th anniversary reunion August 3 - 5. The men will commemorate the anniversary of the sinking of their ship and honor their lost shipmates who perished in 1945 as well as those who have passed away since the disaster.

At 12:14 a.m. on July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in the Philippine Sea and sank in 12 minutes. The Indy had just completed the mission of delivering component parts of the first atomic bomb to the US Air Base at Tinian.

Of 1196 crewmen on board, approximately 300 went down with the ship. The remainder, about 900 men, were left floating in shark infested waters with no lifeboats, food or water. The ship was never missed, and by the time the survivors were spotted by accident nearly five days later, only 317 were still alive. Of those, less than 50 are alive today. The sinking of the ship was the Navy's worst open sea disaster.

Survivors, along with their families and friends, will attend the reunion in Indianapolis. Educational displays and programs are scheduled daily and most are open to the public. Survivors will also be available to meet and greet the general public, and on Saturday, August 4, 2012, children can meet a survivor at the Westin Hotel in the lobby at 1:30 p.m.

The reunion will conclude on Sunday, August 5, with a memorial service at 9 a.m. The public is invited to attend the memorial service that will take place inside the Westin, located at 50 S. Capital Avenue, Indianapolis, IN. Phone 317 262 8100 for more information.

For questions or additional information on the event please contact John W. Duncan at 317 862 6483 or email John at riteguymazerd@msn.com

[KNS]

Fascinating story. It was the movie "Jaws" and Robert Shaw's character that really brought the story to light to an audience that would have otherwise not known about it.

[Baz]

Yes and Peter Benchley wrote the book the movie was based on.

More info:

The Indianapolis sent distress calls before sinking. Three stations received the signals; however, none acted upon the call. One commander was drunk, another had ordered his men not to disturb him and a third thought it was a Japanese prank.[10] For a long time the Navy denied that a distress call had been sent. The receipt of the call came to light only after the release of declassified records.

Immediately prior to the attack, the seas had been moderate, the visibility fluctuating but poor in general, and Indianapolis had been steaming at 17 kn (20 mph; 31 km/h). When the ship did not reach Leyte on the 31st, as scheduled, no report was made that she was overdue. This omission was due to a misunderstanding of the Movement Report System. Captain Charles B. McVay III, who had commanded Indianapolis since November 1944, survived the sinking, and was with those rescued days later. In November 1945, he was court-martialed and convicted of "hazarding his ship by failing to zigzag." Several things about the court-martial were controversial. There was evidence that the Navy itself had placed the ship in harm's way, in that McVay's orders were to "zigzag at his discretion, weather permitting." Further, Mochitsura Hashimoto, commander of I-58, testified that zigzagging would have made no difference.

Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz remitted McVay's sentence and restored him to active duty. McVay retired in 1949. While many of Indianapolis's survivors said McVay was not to blame for the sinking, the families of some of the men who died did ("Merry Christmas! Our family's holiday would be a lot merrier if you hadn't killed my son." - read one piece of hate mail). The guilt that was placed on his shoulders mounted until he committed suicide in 1968, using his Navy-issue revolver. McVay was discovered with a toy sailor in one hand on his front lawn.

In October 2000, the United States Congress passed a resolution that Captain McVay's record should state that "he is exonerated for the loss of Indianapolis." President Bill Clinton signed the resolution. The resolution noted that although several hundred ships of the U.S. Navy were lost in combat in World War II, McVay was the only captain to be court-martialed for the sinking of his ship. In July 2001, the Secretary of the Navy ordered McVay's record cleared of all wrongdoing.

USS Indianapolis (CA-35) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[flatbutt]

I just watched the film version of this story. If that is truly how the Navy treated Captain McVay...well I am left speechless but deeply moved at the injustice.

[Adam]

In Harm's Way is another fascinating account of the tragedy. It's tough to read, but I'm very glad that I did.

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by KNS

Fascinating story. It was the movie "Jaws" and Robert Shaw's character that really brought the story to light to an audience that would have otherwise not known about it.