Posted on 07/10/2023 7:56:04 AM PDT by DFG
Longtime Benician Harold Bray, a humble man, claims he is no hero.
Benicians — and well, many Americans — beg to differ.
They think he’s as good as gold. Well, maybe closer to bronze.
With the passing of Cleatus Lebow in October at the age of 98, Bray is the lone living survivor from the legendary USS Indianapolis. On Friday night in front of the city’s clock tower, Bray was celebrated and honored for his service with the unveiling of a statue made by Matt Glenn.
The life-sized bronze statue stands nearly 7 feet tall, affixed to a pedestal. It will eventually be moved to a location on First Street in the city, where it will be surrounded by several bronze sponsorship legacy plaques, personalized engraved bricks, concrete benches, and a storyboard displaying the history of Bray and the USS Indianapolis.
The Benicia Community Foundation, Inc. worked with the City of Benicia, Benicia Veterans Memorial Hall, and Solano County to design the tribute to Bray.
Bray, who just turned 96, chose not to speak at the event — but others were all too eager to serenade him with stories of his kindness and bravery. Bray politely listened, occasionally smiling and nodding while sitting in a huge white chair one might send for royalty.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesheraldonline.com ...
I’m sorry. Radio. It was the 70s. Point was that their boat was known to be far too small, and turned out to be far too small. If that means going back to shore and restarting their mission, so be it. But Quint wanted ALL of the money; he didn’t want to be told his boat was too small.
The ship was carrying the bombs that were used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
It was a secret mission ...
They couldent even break radio silence to say the ship was sinking ...
The facts are a little different. The Indianapolis delivered the bomb components to officials on Tinian and was proceeding to Leyte. No departure message was sent from Guam, so Leyte was not expecting Indy. The ship sank in 12 minutes.. SOS was transmitted but not received. The survivors were spotted by a lone patrol plane after 4 days in the water. Had the pilot not spotted them...there would have been no survivors from the sinking.
That was a horrible tragedy.
I didnt mean they had the bombs at that time. They were already delivered.
They didnt want the Japanese to know they were in the area.
Sorry I wasnt clear in my comments.
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