Ernesto Portillo Jr.: Philippine Sea ordeal still vivid for survivor of USS Indianapolis

Arizona Daily Star ^ | Ernesto Portillo Jr.

[wagglebee]

BTTT!

[wagglebee]

IIRC the Indianapolis delivered the atomic bomb that Enola Gay dropped on Hiroshima.

[the invisib1e hand]

how long before this thread deteriorates into an immigration rant?

[Gumlegs]

I met a survivor of the Indy in the mid-late 1990s. He was wearing a "USS INDIANAPOLIS" baseball cap, and I asked him if it meant what I thought it did. He was surprised I picked up on it until I told him I'd been in the Navy, too.

He'd been a helmsman, and he said it was a joy to sail her out of San Francisco -- she handled like a dream.

Junior, ya been pung.

[SandRat]

You recall correctly.

[tet68]

Just finished "Fatal Voyage" the story of the sinking,
their survival and the aftermath.

Awesome.

[Gumlegs]

That's correct ... and also part of the problem in rescue -- or lack of it. The mission was so secret, it wasn't until days after Indianapolis didn't show up in port that anyone figured out something was wrong.

[SandRat]

I would ask you and all others who understand the purpose of this thread is WWII Veterans period; to push the abuse button on those who would attempt to hijack the thread to another issue,

[wagglebee]

I first learned about it when I was eight when Robert Shaw told the story in "Jaws."

[kms61]

Anyone care to speculate how history would have changed if the Indianapolis had been hit on the way out while she was carrying the bomb? IIRC we only had two in stock at the time.

[philo]

it appears it's going to start at post number 4

[SandRat]

I first learned about it watching Victory At Sea in the living room on the Black and White TV. Eisenhower was President then and on his second term of office.

[SandRat]

It would have meant a change of targets and still meant a longer war.

[wagglebee]

I have a feeling that if we had been limited to a single bomb, we would have used it on either Tokyo or Kyoto.

[wagglebee]

LOL! I missed that by about 20 years, I vaguely remember Ike's funeral when I was two.

[Eccl 10:2]

"Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into her side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte. We'd just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half-hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that in the water, Chief? You can tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know, was that our bomb mission was so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin' by, so we formed ourselves into tight groups. It was sorta like you see in the calendars, you know the infantry squares in the old calendars like the Battle of Waterloo and the idea was the shark come to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin' and hollerin' and sometimes that shark he go away... but sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark looks right at ya. Right into your eyes. And the thing about a shark is he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn't even seem to be livin'... 'til he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all your poundin' and your hollerin' those sharks come in and... they rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks there were, maybe a thousand. I do know how many men, they averaged six an hour. Thursday mornin', Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boatswain's mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water, he was like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist. At noon on the fifth day, a Lockheed Ventura swung in low and he spotted us, a young pilot, lot younger than Mr. Hooper here, anyway he spotted us and a few hours later a big ol' fat PBY come down and started 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 into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb. "

[Eccl 10:2]

One of the most captivating, spellbinding scenes in the history of cinematography.

[Praxeus]

Captain McVey was found dead by suicide in his garden.. clutching two little toy soldiers in his hand.

[BlueAngel]

Great post, thanks.