In researching the story of the USS Indianapolis, my love of warbirds took over when I started looking into the PV-1 Ventura and her crew, who discovered the USS Indianapolis survivors.

During my research I corresponded with two VPB-152 members, Joe Johnson (from Chuck Gwinn's crew), and a friend of Chuck Gwinn's, Jim Wilschke. Jim provided me with copies of the pictures I am posting here. They show a number of things, I will annotate them as best as I can.

Here is the page from Chuck Gwinn's log book from the week of the discovery of the survivors:

Pictures of Chuck Gwinn and his crew, I was told that the color photo was taken after they landed from the patrol flight when the Indianapolis survivors were spotted:

Gwinn is back row, right:

Gwinn is front row left:

Gwinn is in the center:

In a letter, Joe Johnson told me that the plane was named "Miss Deal" - however, another survivor was pretty sure the plane was "Peleliu Sue". No pictures here show "Miss Deal" with the tail number that matches the logbook (49537). But I have included pictures of both planes, and a third (U573) just because it's so beautiful!

Peleliu Sue (U540):

Jim Wilschke (center) and two other Navy men on Peleliu:

"Miss Deal":

And finally, a little stress relief on the island: