Alex Last BBC World Service US Navy placed responsibility for the disaster on Captain McVay, who was among the few who managed to survive. For years he received hate mail, and in 1968 he took his own life. The surviving crew, including Cox, campaigned for decades to have their captain exonerated - which he was, more than 50 years after the sinking.
Rab
I finally realize that I have heard this story before, wasn’t this the ship where the crew had to pass the notice that the ship was sinking by word of mouth? Very sad indeed.
Obligatory photo of “Quint” in 5,4,3,2...
“Farewell and adieu, you fair spanish ladies; farewell and adieu to you ladies of spaiin...”
Couple years ago I was in a supermarket in Stuart Florida.
Came upon a rather dignified gent with his wife.
He had on his head a cap with “USS Indianapolis “ on it.
as per usual I walked up and thanked the Vet for his service.
He looked at me, teared up , shook his head and walked away.
The biggest shame of that horrific tragedy is that three navy radio stations heard the Indianapolis' distress call; one's commander was drunk, one refused to wake the duty officer, and one thought it was a "Jap trick" and didn't report it.
Discipline saves battles, lives.
The Indy crossed paths with the Japanese submarine I-58, LCDR Hashimoto commanding, on 29 July 1945. Three torpedoes hit the ship and it went down in under an hour. Of 1,196 men aboard, about 900 abandoned ship; 321 survivors were rescued beginning 2 August 1945. Sharks got the rest.
Indianapolis was a victim of the Navy's ship's movement reporting system at the time. Indy's position was plotted and noted when the ship transitioned from the Headquarters of Commander Marianas on Guam to the Commander Philippine Sea Frontier on Leyte. For capital ships like Indianapolis, it was ASSUMED that they reached their destinations on time, unless reported otherwise. Actual ship positions were based on predictions, and not reports. There was no feedback loop where Commander Philippine Sea Frontier, Leyte, notified Commander Marianas on Guam that Indy had actually arrived.
The Indianapolis sent distress calls before sinking. Three stations received the signals; however, none acted upon the calls. One commander was drunk, another had ordered his men not to disturb him and a third thought it was a Japanese trap. For a long time the Navy denied that a distress call had been sent. The receipt of the call came to light only after the release of declassified records.
When the ship did not reach Leyte on the 31 july 1845 as scheduled, no report was sent that she was overdue. This omission was due to a fault in the Movement Report System.
The Navy never addressed why a large capital ship, such as the Indianapolis, was steaming from Guam to the Philippines without an escort.
In November 1945, CAPT Charles McVay III was court martialed and convicted of “hazarding his ship by failing to zigzag.”
Several things about the court martial were controversial. There was evidence that the Navy itself had placed the ship in harm's way, in that McVay’s orders were to “zigzag at his discretion, weather permitting.” Further, LCDR Hashimoto, commander of I-58, testified that zigzagging would have made no difference.
Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz remitted McVay’s sentence and restored him to active duty. McVay retired in 1949.[18] While many of Indianapolis's survivors said McVay was not to blame for the sinking, the families of some of the men who died thought otherwise. The guilt placed on McVay’s shoulders mounted until he committed suicide in 1968.
In October 2000, the United States Congress passed a resolution that Captain McVay’s official record should state that “he is exonerated for the loss of Indianapolis.” President Bill Clinton signed the resolution. The resolution noted that although several hundred ships of the U.S. Navy were lost in combat in World War II, McVay was the only captain to be court-martialed for the sinking of his ship. In July 2001, the Secretary of the Navy ordered McVay’s record cleared of all wrongdoing.
The reason why the Navy went after McVay and convicted him even after the Japanese sub commander testified that McVay had in fact zig zagged as regulations called for, was the Admiral Earnest King a piece of crap if there ever was one pushed the issue.
Why would he do such a low and underhanded thing? Because in 1905 in China he and another young Naval Officer got in trouble and got chewed out by their C.O. who was McVay’s father.
King being the scumbag he was carried that grudge for 40 years and wouldn’t let a chance to get even go by. Look up some quotes about King and you’ll see
http://navycaptain-therealnavy.blogspot.com/2010/11/renaissance-naval-officer.html
Captain McVay had two grown sons (Charles IV and Kimo) who recall their grandfather, Admiral McVay (Captain McVay’s father) say that Admiral King, the person who had ordered their father’s court-martial, “never forgot a grudge.” King had been a junior officer under Admiral McVay’s command when he and other officers sneaked some women aboard a ship.
Admiral McVay had a letter of reprimand placed in King’s record. King used the court-martialing of Captain McVay to get back at Admiral McVay, or so the story goes
November 24, 2010 at 2:08 PM