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

    04/14/2006 6:20:45 PM PDT · by SandRat · 21 replies · 793+ views
    Arizona Daily Star ^ | Ernesto Portillo Jr.
    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...