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ussindianapolis.org message board -> General Comments -> Name or ID info for Head Communications Officer?
Post Info TOPIC: Name or ID info for Head Communications Officer?
MomsStory


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Name or ID info for Head Communications Officer?
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My mother was the WAVE lieutenant who decoded the message at Hunters Point in San Francisco about the "crate" arriving and being loaded onto the Indianapolis. After delivering the message to the commandant of the base, she took her dinner hour and met a WAVE friend and their mutual friend from the Indianapolis, the head communications officer. He had apparently decoded the message on the ship, because he was so nervous he couldn't eat and spilled his coffee all over the table. He kept telling Mom and Helen, "I'm not coming back. I know I'm not coming back." And he didn't.

Mom died in 2009 and had Alzheimer's, so I'm trying to do research and find out who her friend was. He had been stationed with Mom and Helen in Charleston SC. I've written a piece called "Mom and the Bomb" that was published in her hometown paper in South Carolina, the Hartsville Messenger, on the 50th anniversary of the end of the war.

When she arrived at her communications room for the 4 pm to midnight shift, she noticed that all the ships had been pulled out of Hunters Point except the Indianapolis. It was beautiful, she said ...

On that evening shift, the "crate" was placed in Mom's building, and she and the Marine guard were the only soldiers working. She walked past the room and the crate was being guarded by men dressed as an Army general and a Navy admiral. They had guns.

She said that the sinking of the Indianapolis really dampened her joy over the end of the war. She was upset that the story was buried. In my research while she was still alive, I went to the National Archives and read Captain McVay's original report on the disaster.

Thanks to anyone who can help me go through the 1000-plus names and try to figure out who among them were communication officers, or if anyone knows how to identify the top communications officer.

I honor all the men of the Indianapolis. One irony is that my uncle, now 93, who married into the family was on one of the planes that rescued survivors. My mother and her non-related brother-in-law didn't realize this connection for many years.

Sincerely,

A WAVE Daughter



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D Livingston


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According to Mr. Stanton's book - In Harm's Way on page 131, Chief Warrant Officer (Radio ) L.T. Woods sent the distress message from Indianapolis after it was torpedoed. However, Mr. Woods was not the communications officer as he was a warrant officer not a commissioned officer. One of them would have been the communications officer. I have not been able to locate a source that gives a list of the officers and their functions.

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