Posted on 05/14/2015 9:03:13 PM PDT by DemforBush
Another of the remaining survivors of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis has died...
(Excerpt) Read more at wibc.com ...
RIP.
My uncle, who died about 8 years ago, was on that ship.
RIP, Sir.
What a terrible, sad event.
Brave heroes all.
Brave heroes all.
Yes.
My Dad served in the China Burma India (CBI) Theater of War.
Best movie soliloquy about the sinking of the Indianapolis was Quint’s in “Jaws”...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9S41Kplsbs
RIP.
I was just going to look for that...
Hooper: You were on the Indianapolis?
Brody: What happened?
Quint:
Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, chief. It was comin’ back, from the island of Tinian to Laytee, just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes. Didn’t see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. Thirteen footer. You know how you know that when you’re in the water, chief? You tell by lookin’ from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn’t know... was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. Huh huh. They didn’t even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, chief. The sharks come cruisin’. So we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know it’s... kinda like ol’ squares in battle like a, you see on a calendar, like the battle of Waterloo. And the idea was, the shark comes to the nearest man and that man, he’d start poundin’ and hollerin’ and screamin’ and sometimes the shark would go away. Sometimes he wouldn’t go away. Sometimes that shark, he looks right into you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about a shark, he’s got...lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll’s eye. When he comes at ya, doesn’t seem to be livin’. Until he bites ya and those black eyes roll over white. And then, ah then you hear that terrible high pitch screamin’ and the ocean turns red and spite of all the poundin’ and the hollerin’ they all come in and rip you to pieces. Y’know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men! I don’t know how many sharks, maybe a thousand! I don’t know how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday mornin’ chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player, boson’s mate. I thought he was asleep, reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up and down in the water, just like a kinda top. Up ended. Well... he’d been bitten in half below the waist. Noon the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us, he swung in low and he saw us. He’s a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper, anyway he saw us and come in low. And three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and start to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened? Waitin’ for my turn. I’ll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water, three hundred and sixteen men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.
Wow, horrible!
My father had them decades after Okinawa.
Lore says he did the scene drunk as well, which just makes it that much richer........
Rest in Peace
Takes your breath away. Thanks so very much, DemforBush, Flick Lives, Pelham.
Rab
Joined the Navy the next year - what was I thinking :)
Harold Bray, one of the survivors of that tragedy lives in the town I lived in from 1992 until 2013.
Had the pleasure of meeting him one day (I followed his truck home so as to thank him). He was one of the youngest at 18.
All of that dialogue was written by John Milius while on the phone with Spielberg. The man is a GENIUS.
Lore says he did the scene drunk as well, which just makes it that much richer........
As a youngster, I knew some Navy retirees who worked as commercial fishermen and charter captains on the Mississippi coast. Shaw's portrayal of Quint reminded me so strongly of those guys, I could almost smell the whiskey.
I recommend viewing the 1991 TV movie, IMDB - Mission of the Shark. A very sad film all the way around. Godspeed to the memory of that fine ship and crew.
They just don't make it anymore.
GOD bless your dad, and thank him for his service to our country. Old Vinegar Joe was imho one of the greatest heroes of the war. What was accomplished in the CBI was amazing.
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