I was at another conference in the Marriott hotel in Indianapolis at the time of the 2008 reunion. I saw the escorted buses leaving the hotel on the Sunday morning and followed them to the Memorial.
My passion is photography [my daughter is the only New Zealander to have won a Pulitzer Prize for photography while she was on the staff of the Dallas Morning News] and I took a lot of photos during the Service and later made a DVD 5 minute audio-visual show. I tried to contact the survivors organisation to offer copies of this programme - some of you would have been at this reunion and I could have your photos in my show. However I received no response.
So I am making another effort now.
If any of you were at this reunion and would like a DVD of my show, please contact me at john.burford@clear.net.nz giving me your address and I will post you a disc. There will be no charge to you. Be aware that the programme will show fully in a computer, but there may be a bit of cut off on the lateral edges when shown on a DVD player/tv set.
In spite of my spending many years in the NZ Military, I was unaware of the sinking of the Indianapolis until finding this reunion and talking with a survivor named Arthur in the hotel following the Service. If any of you know who Arthur is, please say Hi and thanks to him from me.
And will someone please confirm the number of survivors at that reunion. I think there were twenty but that's a guess
Thank you
JOHN