[Daffynition]

My uncle Joe Hartney USN, was the signalman on the Juneau and one of the ten survivors [out of 700] of the tragedy.

Fortunately, his amazing story was recorded for posterity: http://www.ussatlanta.com/stories/Juneasstoryfay.htm

You will weep, witness miracles, share his joy with the help he received from natives and be amazed at the courage and grit of this All-American hero. I think his story is worth the read.

An aside: He makes mention of looking at a photo of his wife in the linked account, before the torpedo hit; as a child, I recall him saying, that for some reason he uncharacteristically put his wallet in his shirt pocket. After the explosion and fire, his pants were blow away, and he would have lost his wallet; but as fate would have it, part of his shirt with his wallet remained.

Lue C. Hartney & Joseph Patrick Francis Hartney Sea2c Nov 1941

God Bless you Uncle Joe. Wherever you are.

[garandgal]

I read your Uncle’s account of his experience. How absolutely amazing that he made it through.

[willk]

Thanks for that link on your uncle’s experience. They could have made an exciting movie just on his story of survival. Unbelievable!

[Jacquerie]

IIRC from Neptune's Inferno, the commodore over the Juneau, another cruiser and a couple destroyers got reamed and officially disciplined for not detaching the destroyers to pick up survivors. There's no telling how many men suffered horrible shipwreck deaths in the sea battles of Guadalcanal.