Remember The Indianapolis

This week marks the 63rd anniversary of one of the more unfortunate events in the history of the United States Navy. In July of 1945 the USS Indianapolis, a Navy Cruiser set sail from San Francisco to Tinian Island where it dropped off the components for the atomic bomb that would end the war.

The ship then stopped in Guam to drop off some crew members and then headed for home. On July 30, 1945 she was torpedoed and sank in a matter of minutes.

Because of a combination of secrecy and outright incompetence on the part of the Navy, nobody realized the ship was missing until several days later. This was despite the fact that no less that three SOS messages were received by headquarters.

About 300 of the 1200 sailors on board died in the attack but nearly 900 made it into the water, mostly without lifeboats. Over the next four days, at least 600 of the survivors died of exposure, thirst and in some cases shark attack.

As the details of the attack came out the Navy quickly needed a scapegoat and they chose the captain of the ship, Captain Charles Butler McVay III. He became the ONLY ship’s captain to be court-martialed for losing a ship in World War 2 out of 700 ships sunk.

This occurred even though the evidence clearly showed that he was in no way to blame (in fact, the commander of the sub that sank the ship even said so). McVay lived with the undeserved guilt for 20 years before committing suicide in 1968.

In 2000, thanks to the efforts of many of the survivors a resolution was passed by Congress finally exonerating the late Captain.

It is well worth all of us taking a little time to remember this sacrifice, for those who died in battle and those who lived with the horror of the event for years afterward.

You can read more at the official site of the USS Indianapolis Museum