Very much agree but there is a very dark echo to this story and that is the MIStreatment of the Captain of the USS Indianapolis, Charles Butler McVay III, by the Navy Department in making him the only ship captain courtmartialed for the actions leading to the loss of his ship out of 380 total! Although a USN destroyer had been sunk by the same Japanese submarine a few days earlier, the USS Indianapolis had not been informed. His conviction for failing to use evasion (Zip-Zag) techniques was also explainable by orders to make haste and steam direct to Leyte. Many still believe that he was made the fall-guy for a series of USN failures ranging from unreported SOS signals to failure to check for late arrival at Leyte.
While he committed suicide in 1968, his family and cremates (USS Indianapolis Survivors Organization) continued to agitate for reconsideration of his court-martial conviction. Yet in what appears to be the turning-point, it was a 12 year old school boy, Hunter Scott, who was in spired by the JAWS vignette and undertook a year-long research project that resulted in him testifying about the injustice before a US Congress Committee. In the year 2000, the US Congress passed a bill that was signed by President Clinton and in July 2001, the Secretary of the Navy ordered McVay's court-martial conviction expunged!
Thank you for the information. I appreciate it.
I also seem to recall that the Court Martial brought the Japanese submarine commander in to testify against him, but he said words to the effect of “no matter what evasive moves the commander would have done, I would have sunk the ship anyway.” Something to that effect, I recall.
Terrible thing that McVay killed himself over it. Tragedy all around. The men in the water for days, the sharks, the miscommunication, all of it.