Closure for the USS Indianapolis – IOTW Report

Closure for the USS Indianapolis

Saturday, 19 August 2017, 18:58 BFH Uncategorized 26

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen finds lost WWII ship USS Indianapolis

“We’ve located the wreckage of the USS Indianapolisin Philippine Sea at 5500m below the sea.”

That tweet from entrepreneur and billionaire Paul Allen around 12:20 p.m. Saturday confirmed what many have been searching for since the ship was sunk on July 30, 1945.

Allen, who is leading a 13-person team on his 250-foot research ship, the R/V Petrel, said the wreckage was found at a depth of more than 18,000 feet.

The heavy cruiser, carrying 1,197 sailors and Marines, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine while sailing back to the Philippines after delivering components for “Little Boy,” the atomic bomb that helped end World War II. It took only 12 minutes to sink.

While 900 crewmen made it through the initial sinking, only 316 survived to be rescued when help arrived five days later on Aug. 2. Many had died of exposure or thirst, drowned or were attacked by sharks.

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One of the better scenes in Jaws-

26 Comments on Closure for the USS Indianapolis

  2. I had a close friend that passed away little over a year ago who was a gunners mate in the Indy and got his transfer to flight school just several months before they sank her. He was close to the other survivors and attended their reunions as often as he could. He wrote a book about his time on the Indy titled I Was Not a Hero and he also illustrated it. I’ll see if I can find some of his renderings and send them to BFH.

  3. G_D Bless You, sailors and marines; and please rest in peace without knowing of the Americans who continue to stab you in the back by purchasing and driving Jap cars. Amen.

  11. Love that scene from “Jaws.” It made more people aware of the loss of the Indianapolis than any book about the war in the Pacific. Before this movie, only veterans and people interested in WWII history were familiar with this tragedy. It’s going to be fascinating following this discovery on television.

  12. The really shameful part of the USS Indianapolis story is the unconscionable delay in rescue operations caused by the Navy’s FUBAR communications because of the Indy’s mission delivering atomic bomb components. The ship was not recognized as overdue because nobody was told to expect it.

    RIP Sailors. Good men.

  15. I’m sorry. Maybe I’m a heartless bastard, but this term, “closure” seems an awkward term to me.
    If, after 70 years has elapsed, it is not apparent that many brave men perished at sea that terrible day I don’t understand the term closure.

    Please explain it to me. Mourning has come and gone. I simply don’t understand this phraseology.

  16. ” I’m sorry. Maybe I’m a heartless bastard, but this term, “closure” seems an awkward term to me. ”

    It always sounds like they’re saying, “Oh good, it’s finished and they’re over it now.”
    As if they don’t need to think about it anymore so let’s not bring it up again.

  18. PHenry
    It’s not closure for the departed on the ship. It’s closure for the relatives that know Great Uncle Bob went down on the Indianapolis. You’d be shocked how important that is.

  23. Moe, not only that but he left Microsoft when he did because of health issues, I think non-Hodgkins Lymphoma or something similar. Whatever, he seems like a low-profile good guy. Probably a lib, I don’t know.

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