Savior for 317
During WWII, the navy was ranked among the most important branches of the military. The service of the brave men and women in the navy was necessary for Allied victory. Living their lives on gigantic war machines called battleships, far from dry land, these sailors feared every second the possibility of a submarine or air attack and the destruction of the great piece of metal that was keeping them afloat. For a plethora of unfortunate sailors, this fear became reality (“Life on a Battleship” 1).
On July 26, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was carrying her most important load ever. The ship carried the first atomic bomb to the island of Tinian. Delivery of the bomb was successful and the battleship moved to the headquarters at Guam for further orders. The USS Indianapolis was ordered to meet the USS Idaho at Leyte Gulf in the Philippines and departed from Guam unescorted, which was an extremely poor decision.
Early on the morning of July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was shaken by a blast from below. Twelve minutes later, the ship itself and about three hundred sailors sunk to the depths of the sea, leaving about nine hundred stranded in the water. The next four days were hell. Many men were picked off by hungry sharks as the men floated in the hot sun with no food or water. When the men were found by accident four days later, only 317 of the one thousand 1,196 crew members were still living. The sinking of the USS Indianapolis by Japanese submarines was the greatest tragedy in the history of the US Navy. Survivors were taken to Guam where they were treated in the naval hospital (Stanton 1).
Survivor Woody James recalled the suffering of the men left in the water in his diary on ussindianapolis.org. On day one, the men figured they would be rescued very soon and had no worries. During the night, it became severely cold, but, in the next afternoon, it was unbearably hot. When asked by his floating partner if it was hotter in hell than it was there in the water, Woody answered, "I don't know, Jim, but if it is, I ain't goin." The second day, the sharks arrived, but everyone just knew they were about to get picked up. On day three, drinking saltwater had caused many of the men to go crazy, and they told stories of the Indianapolis not really being sunk but rather just under the surface. Crazy men would follow their friends underwater to go to the Geedunk of the Indianapolis, where sailors get ice cream, cigarettes, and candy, among other things. Woody recalled that especially in the late afternoon, you would hear screams and know a shark had gotten someone. Huddled with their life jackets tied together, Woody and his friend Jim floated away from the crowd to avoid the craziness and fights.
On the fourth day, a plane flew overhead. The men got its attention with mirrors and the plane, piloted by Wilbur C. Gwinn, flew over and dropped rafts and survival kits. While flying over, he noticed men getting attacked by sharks. Disobeying orders after radioing in for assistance, Gwinn landed in the water and began to pick up stragglers endanger of shark attacks. After filling the fuselage of the plane, Gwinn began tying survivors to the wings of the plane. Fifty- six survivors were picked up by Gwinn’s plane that night. Woody tells of how he owes his life to Jim when Jim got a raft and threatened the other passengers with a paddle in order to pick Woody up first.
Dehydrated, sun burnt, salt- water ulcer covered, and exhausted, the men were picked up by the Cecil Doyle early in the morning of the fifth day in the water. The men were showered and cared for by the passengers of the Cecil Doyle. Woody recalls the generosity of the sailors in giving their beds and other things to the new guests. Exhausted, Woody took a nap on his back, and, when he woke up, the burns on his legs had all mashed together and dried so that he could not straighten his legs. Later, he was put on a stretcher and moved off of the Cecil Doyle to the hospital at Guam. At Guam, legs healed by the doctors, he was left with only a small scar (Stanton).
The United States Navy ran the hospital at Guam. Although Guam is a tropical island full of native inhabitants, the United States established a harbor and a navy hospital. Female nurses ran wards at the hospital and led assistants such as Bill Davidson, a “bed-pan commando.” In a interview Mr. Davidson told about how the hospital worked and cared for young men wounded in the navy (Davidson).
Women nurses were important leaders in keeping the hospital going. The men, called “bed-pan commandos” were ordered around by the women nurses in order to get the job done. The men who worked at the hospital were very well trained and were treated as soldiers. They experienced boot camp and routine examinations and military exercises. If it was not for the hard working men and women at Guam, it is easy to say that most of the few survivors would be lost (Davidson).
Bill Davidson, age ninety seven, who served as a “bed-pan commando” in the hospital at Guam, gave a first person point of view about the situation with the USS Indianapolis. According to Mr. Davidson, the memorial for the USS Indianapolis in downtown Indianapolis shows an inaccurate portrayal of what really went on. Mr. Davidson was upset that the memorial did not mention the importance of the hospital at Guam in saving the few survivors from the USS Indianapolis. If it were not for the hard work at the hospital in Guam, survivors of tragedies such as the sinking of the USS Indianapolis would not be around to tell the story (Davidson).
Tragedy is always a touchy subject for the media and this was no exception. News of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis was not released until August 15, nearly two weeks after the disaster. The government figured that by this time, the announcement of the Japanese surrender would overshadow the tragedy of the USS Indianapolis. The navy, avoiding shame, quickly went and blamed Captain McVay, the captain of the Indianapolis, for failing to zigzag to avoid the enemy fire. For years, survivors of the ship fought to clear their captain’s good name but it was not until the early nineties that facts were released proving McVay’s worthiness. It is known today that the Navy could have prevented the USS Indianapolis tragedy and only bad planning is to blame. The Navy knew that a Japanese sub had sunk a ship in the Indianapolis’ area. McVay was also denied his request for an escort. It is now known that shortly after the ship was destroyed, the Navy decoded a Japanese message saying that they had sunk a ship along the route of the Indianapolis. It is obvious now that the lives lost from this tragedy should be attributed to the failure of naval intelligence.
USS Indianapolis. The name instills sadness in many hearts these days. The Indianapolis is a dark memory of the tragedies of war. Nearly one thousand young men died in the destruction of the Indianapolis and few live to tell its story. The few that survived owe their lives to the bravery of Gwinn, the crew of the Cecil Doyle, and most importantly, the men and women serving in the hospital on the island of Guam. May this tragedy never happen again.
Works Cited
Davidson, Bill. Personal Interview. 22 April 2006.
J.Y. Joyner Library. “USS Indianapolis, view forward.” 12 Sept.2003. North Carolina University. 10 May 2006. http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/special/pearlharbor/ph/NPIN/hNPIN.html
“Life on a Battleship.” 29 June 2000. Iowa Class Preservation Association. 20 April
2006. http://www.battleship.org/html/Articles/History/USSIdaho.htm
Stanton, Doug. "The Worst Naval Disaster in US History." 3 May 1998. USS
Indianapolis. 23 April 2006. http://www.ussindianapolis.org
Wikipedia. “USS Indianapolis.” 4 May 2006. Wikipedia. 10 May 2006.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_(CA-35)
By: Will McDaniel