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

Arizona Daily Star ^ | Ernesto Portillo Jr.

[SandRat]

Nearly 61 years after surviving a living nightmare, it's still not easy for Adolfo Celaya to talk about what he endured that night in 1945.

Celaya, who grew up in Barrio Viejo, was an 18-year-old sailor on the USS Indianapolis. He worked in the ship's belly, where he helped feed oil into the vessel's four giant boilers.

But on the night of July 30, Celaya was on the ship's deck in the Philippine Sea with his Tucson buddy, Santos Peña.

Two Japanese torpedoes struck the cruiser. The Indy split and sank within 12 minutes, taking 300 of the 1,196 men on board with her.

Approximately 900 survivors found themselves in the water. They were adrift for nearly five days, fending off thirst, hunger, heat and, probably worst of all, ravenous sharks.

When they were finally rescued, 316 sailors and Marines remained.

Celaya, Peña and a third Tucsonan, Fernando Sanchez, survived.

On Wednesday,Celaya, 78, who now lives in Santa Clara, Calif., will return to Tucson to attend the U.S. Navy Cruisers' Sailors Association. It's a reunion of sailors from several cruisers, including the ill-fated Indianapolis.

This will be Celaya's first reunion. He's never been interested in swapping horror stories with other sailors.

But with next week's reunion in Tucson, not far from where he grew up on South Meyer Street, it gives him a chance to see old friends, including Peña, who lives with his wife, Erlinda, in Barrio Hollywood.

It's unlikely Peña will attend the reunion, however. His 47-year-old son passed away recently. Peña's son used to accompany his father to the reunions.

But Celaya said he'll make sure he sees his former shipmate.

Celaya almost didn't make it into the Navy. One of his barrio running buddies had to persuade him to sign up. "He kept telling me how nice it was," said Celaya, by phone from Florence, where he was visiting his brother. After training in San Diego, Celaya boarded the Indianapolis in December 1944.

He joined Peña; Sanchez, the father of Sunnyside High School football coach Richard Sanchez; and Mike Quihuis, a 1932 Arizona welterweight boxing champion and former Spanish-language sports broadcaster.

Quihuis, who was reassigned before the ship sank, died in 1988. Sanchez died in 1984.

When the four Tucsonenses weren't on duty, they reminisced about their pueblo.

"We had a ball," Celaya said.

But it wasn't all fun, of course. They were fighting a war against the Japanese — and fending off the racial slurs from their fellow sailors.

"It was a tough time for Mexican-American sailors," Celaya said. "I was always in a fight."

But the fight for their lives came two weeks before the surrender of Japan and the end of World War II.

Celaya said that after he and Peña hit the water, they swam until they found a raft filled with sailors. There was no room on the raft so Celaya hung on its side with others. Peña found a second raft.

When daylight came, so did the sharks.

"You could hear the men hollering," Celaya said. But he doesn't remember thinking of the sharks.

"All I could think of was how thirsty I was," said Celaya.

For 25 years after the sinking, Celaya could not talk about it. He does now to students and community groups. It helps him deal with the awful memories, he said. And it helps us remember his sacrifice, and that of others.

[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.