Plot:
Had it not been for the tragic sinking and tremendous loss of lives, the men profiled in this book may never have been called out individually for recognition. These men, like their shipmates, would have returned home after the war to their families and built their futures. Certainly, it would have been a different story told. But that was not to be. They all served on USS Indianapolis – one of the most significant ships in WWII history (Ship of State of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Flagship of the Fifth Fleet under Admiral Raymond Spruance, recipient of 10 Battle Stars, and the successful completion of her final mission of transporting the component parts of the atomic bomb to Tinian Island). Ironically, just a few days after Indy delivered their top-secret cargo, they were sunk. The date was July 30, 1945, shortly after midnight. Without sonar, unescorted, and in the deepest part of the Philippine Sea, this huge ship with 1,195 men on board had been hit by torpedoes fired from an enemy submarine. The ship went down in less than 15 minutes – taking nearly 200 men with her to the bottom of the ocean. The rest made it into the water with only life vests, floating nets and a few lifeboats. There they gathered in groups, assessed their injuries, fought off sharks in extreme conditions, and floated ration less for the next 4 days before they were rescued.
Unknown to them, the war’s end had now been set in motion because of the successful completion of their final mission. When Indianapolis didn’t report to her next assignment, it basically went unnoticed because of the policies in place at the time which inferred that a ship like Indianapolis could easily have been called into action elsewhere. Thus, no alarm bells were raised.
While out on routine patrol, it was my dad who miraculously spotted the men in the water – actually what he spotted was an oil slick – a very large oil slick. Thinking it was an enemy sub, he and his crew opened the Bombay doors of his plane and went in for a closer look. It was then than he saw “little black balls on the water”. Those black balls were human heads. The men had by then been in the water for 84 hours. The calls for rescue planes and ships were sent out and 4-5 hours later men began to be lifted from the water. In the end, only 316 survived. 879 perished. Indianapolis's sinking is recorded in history as the worst naval sea disaster in U.S. naval history.
Theme:
The story is compelling. I’ve long been involved with USS Indianapolis survivors and their families. They adored my father, called him their “Angel”, and extended much grace and friendship to our family. So, it was a natural progression for me that I would help carry the torch of remembering the ship’s history, her crew, and the legacy. The number of Survivors has dwindled over the years, and as that happened, I stepped up to do my part in preserving their legacy. Today, there is only ONE living Survivor – 97-year-old Harold Bray from Benicia, CA.
We know a lot about USS Indianapolis from its Survivors. I had often thought about the geographical diversity of the crew as they were quite spread out across the country. But I never really thought about the racial mix. I knew several Hispanic survivors, but everyone else I had known or read about was white. My curiosity ended there. Until 2020. That was the year I started hunting for photos of the entire crew. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. And those pictures opened my eyes to the fact that no mention has ever been given to African Americans being part of the crew. Not only that, but further investigation also revealed that theirs was a uniquely different experience. And it needed to be lifted from the shadows.
Genre:
This is a true story – historical non-fiction – which has been meticulously researched and documented.
Characterization:
We started with basic information – name, rank, hometown, birthdate and date they boarded the ship. Racial information, family members, prior occupation, military accomplishments, and migration patterns were validated by draft cards, census information, family records, and other sources.
Setting:
The principal focus of the book is on the final sailing crew who served in the United States Navy on USS Indianapolis CA-35 from 1941 – 1945. More than 2/3 of them were from homes in the Southeast region of the country. The others hailed from the Southwest, Northeast and Midwest. They served during the Jim Crow years of our nation’s history; a time when blacks were separated from whites in their recruitment, training, job duties, housing, and support services because of prevailing assumptions made towards race. Since its sinking, two other Navy vessels have been honored with the name USS Indianapolis – one, a nuclear submarine (SSN-697) in the Cold War Years, and a currently deployed Littoral Ship (LCS-17) – the book also explores changes in the Navy since the end of WWII.
Point of View:
The story came together from a collective effort of Indy family members who had no familiarity with each other prior to 2020, the 75th anniversary of the ship’s sinking. Like my father who saw the oil slick and thought he knew what he was seeing only to have it turn out to reveal something greater than his original expectation, we proudly share this important part of USS Indianapolis’s history.
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