USS Indianapolis survivors
recall WWII ship's sinking

Survivors guests
at COA Veterans Day event

Sixty-three years later, Paul McGinnis still has nightmares about it.

McGinnis was a young crewman aboard the USS Indianapolis, a Navy cruiser, when it was attacked by a Japanese submarine just after midnight on June 30, 1945, in the waning days of World War II.

I was on the signal bridge and heard the most horrible screaming Ive ever heard in my life, McGinnis says, recalling the horror in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Those men were being cremated alive.

Of the 1,196 men aboard the Indianapolis, about 300 would die in the torpedo attack. But it was what came afterward that prevents McGinnis and his fellow survivors of the attack from sleeping some nights.

For four and a half days, McGinnis and some 900 survivors struggled to stay alive in the waters of the South Pacific, battling their wounds from the attack, sunstroke and finally and most notoriously, a band of hungry sharks.

When they were finally rescued, only 317 men were pulled out of the water, making the Indianapolis sinking the worst single loss of life at sea in U.S. Navy history.

McGinnis was one of three Indianapolis survivors on hand at College of The Albemarles Community Auditorium Tuesday evening for a Veterans Day presentation, USS Indianapolis: Still at Sea. About 700 people turned out for the event to hear the presentation and ask survivors questions afterward.

Also in attendance was Bob Welsh, an author and inspirational speaker, who recited a poem commemorating the sinking of the Indianapolis, and Brooke Outland Siemmering, who read a personal essay she wrote about her grandfather, Indianapolis survivor Felton J. Outland.

Kim Nielsen, a USS Indianapolis historian from Seattle, Wash., also attended, as did two of the survivors rescuers. Nielsen gave a multi-media presentation that began with a scene from the movie Jaws, that made the horror of the ships sinking come alive for the audience.

According to Nielsen, the Indianapolis had helped deliver critical parts for the first atomic bomb that was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. That bomb, known as Little Boy, was a key factor in ending World War II.

Mochitsura Hashimoto, the captain of the Japanese submarine that sank the Indianapolis, was hungry for a U.S. ship to sink, Nielsen said.

Hashimoto had never made a kill, so when he saw the (Indianapolis) in the periscope, he got really excited, she said.

Nielsen said that because of the heat in the South Pacific, all the doors on the ship were open when the submarines torpedoes hit the Indianapolis.

Water started going through the ship like a tube, she said.

Within 12 minutes, the Indianapolis was swallowed up by the sea.

Some (sailors) grabbed life jackets, others jumped in as is, she said. Survivors found each other and formed up into groups.

The ships sinking left behind an oil slick at least an inch thick, Nielsen said. Many of the crewmen were in fact covered with the oil.

That, and exposure to the sun and the elements eventually killed many of the surviving crewmen, she said.

And then there were the sharks.

At first, they only attacked sailors who were already dead, Nielsen said. Then, attracted by the sound of the sinking vessel and the blood in the water, the feeding frenzy began.

On Tuesday, the sharks began attacking the living, mainly those who were alone, she said. On Wednesday, things started going horribly wrong.

The situation soon began to take its toll on the minds of the crew, Nielsen said, causing them to hallucinate and become unstable.

Sailors started to attack each other, thinking they were the enemy, Nielsen said. Many would see islands in the distance and begin swimming off. Most drowned or were never seen again.

On the fourth day, just as the sailors kapok life vests were beginning to sink, the oil slick was spotted from the air by a passing surveillance plane. The aircrafts captain radioed that he had spotted survivors from a shipwreck floating in the water.

A PBY plane, which could land on water, was ordered to the site only to observe and assess the situation, Nielsen said. However, the captain of the plane, Adrian Marks, decided to ignore his orders. Marks rescued more than 50 men, some of whom, including McGinnis, had to be strapped to the wings of his plane.

Soon, ships began to arrive and pulled the remaining crewmen out of the water, Nielsen said.

Peter Wren, one of the rescuers, recounted the rescue.

They were all covered in black oil, he said of the Indianapolis sailors. We had to use diesel fuel to wash it off. It was a real horrendous night.

For various reasons, the three SOS messages sent by the ship after the attack were never acted upon, and the Navy denied for years that the messages had been received, Nielsen said.

Charles Butler McVay III, the captain of the Indianapolis, was later charged with failure to zig-zag, a maneuver often used by Navy warships, even though it was known to be ineffective against most attacks.

Though McVay was court-martialed, he was restored to active duty, and served until 1949.

Years of accusatory cards and letters from family members of deceased crewmen eventually took their toll, and McVay committed suicide in 1969. In 2000, McVay was finally exonerated by then President Clinton.