INDIANAPOLIS — The Director of the Naval History and Heritage Command as well as one of the command’s historians joined the survivors of World War II cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA 35) and their families for a luncheon at the Columbia Club of Indianapolis July 20.
As part of the annual reunion of the USS Indianapolis Survivors Organization, Rear Adm. Sam Cox, U.S. Navy (Retired) and Richard Hulver, Ph.D. participated in a panel discussion about the past year’s many developments in the history of the ship. During the luncheon Cox presented the survivors who were able to attend with certificates of appreciation for their service with color photo copies of their own handwritten statements taken by the board of inquiry in the aftermath of the ship’s loss.
It has been an eventful year in the history of the storied World War II cruiser which, in its final mission before being sunk, delivered to Tinian components of the Hiroshima atomic bomb that would ultimately help end the war in the Pacific.Entrepreneur and philanthropist Paul G. Allen announced Aug. 19, 2017 they had found the ship’s wreck. In the days that followed, Allen’s team shared with the world stunning images of the remarkably well-preserved wreck that solved one of the enduring mysteries of the war — where was the ship’s final resting place.
Then in March, Hulver collaborated with Indianapolis historian and filmmaker Sara Vladic on a paper that settled the number of Sailors and Marines who sailed with the ship when she departed the U.S., the number who lost their lives after she was torpedoed, and the number who survived the ordeal.
A Portland-class heavy cruiser, Indianapolis served President Roosevelt as ship of state, and Admiral Raymond Spruance as the 5th Fleet flagship in WWII. She fought through several campaigns, earning ten battle stars. The ship’s final top secret final mission was to carry parts of the first atomic bomb used in combat to a U.S. air base on Tinian. Just a few nights later, shortly after midnight on July 30, the ship fell prey to a Japanese submarine.
About 330 of the ship’s crew went down with the ship as it quickly sank, while the rest, approximately 880 men, would be left alone in the Pacific in the middle of the night. For the next five days, without food or water, suffering exposure, dehydration, drowning, and shark attacks, the crew battled the elements and clung to life as best they could before they were finally rescued.
As a result of Hulver’s research the final numbers for Indianapolis are that 1195 Sailors and Marines sailed on the ship’s final voyage, 879 were lost when she was sunk, and 316 were eventually rescued. Only 14 survivors are still living.
