A decade before she was born, her father, Wilbur Charles Gwinn, was a Navy pilot in World War II. He didn’t speak much about his service, but in her teens, lead author, Jane Gwinn Goodall discovered something special about him from those war days. 

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She learned that he was responsible for sighting and initiating the rescue of the survivors of USS Indianapolis, the worst naval sea disaster of all time. Growing up, Jane met many of those survivors and their families. Jane’s father was called “Angel” by these men who had all but given up hope as they endured five nights and four days in the perilous open waters of the Philippine Sea before Gwinn’s plane miraculously spotted them. For every man that survived, however, three other men perished in their grueling struggles to stay alive. 

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The rescue story of USS Indianapolis has been a passion for Jane ever since her dad’s passing three decades ago. Jane has been actively involved in projects related to the legacy of USS Indianapolis since 2008.
 
In 2020, she researched and co-authored a commemorative book in honor of the ship’s 75th anniversary. Included was a 60-page yearbook style photo display representing each of the final sailing crew of 1,195 men. It was the first time that anyone had ever put faces to the names of the entire crew. 

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There was something about seeing their young faces that made it personal. Looking at their photographs side by side, with survivors framed in white and those lost at sea framed in black, emphasized the tremendous loss of lives in the tragic sinking. Searching for the photos led to a conversation with the brother of one of the African- American sailors, and helped her realize how little she and others familiar with Indianapolis’s story actually knew of the diversity of the crew. Many books have been written about USS Indianapolis, but not one ever mentioned black sailors by name. There were no African Americans among the survivors, but she was adamant that their names and contributions shouldn’t be lost. She made a commitment to learn and share their stories.

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She organized and led an ad-hoc effort that included three of the Steward's Mates families, including Janice Alston (Lambert), Jacqueline Dugan, Ernestine Peete, Jeanette Pitts, M.D., and Arlene Taylor. The group was spread out across the country, but regularly met each month remotely over a two and one-half-year process to bring these men out of the shadows. It is a realization of a long-awaited dream for the families of the 28 African American sailors and a revelation to USS Indianapolis’s legacy.