Reader's Digest - USA (2019-07)

THE 1945 INDIANAPOLIS crew greets sailors on the ship’s new version, launched in 2018.

He Said, She Said

The only person who listens to both sides of a husband-and-wife

argument is the woman in the next apartment.

sam levenson, comedian

stately home in Litchfield, Connecti-

cut, Captain McVay took his own life.

The survivors and other advocates

struggled for years to clear McVay’s

name. When I asked McCoy why his

shipmates stood behind the captain,

he said, “The skipper never blamed

anyone but himself.” This is despite

the fact that the Japanese submarine

commander who had sunk the ship,

Mochitsura Hashimoto, testified dur-

ing the court-martial that there was

nothing McVay could have done to

stop it.

McVay, steadfast in his own moral

universe, believed otherwise. For-

give yourself, we want to say, but we

know he won’t. His sense of duty

was profound, and the survivors’

efforts to clear his name can be heard

as an elegiac counterpoint to his

suffering. Finally, on July 13, 2001,

56  years after the ship’s sinking, the

Navy announced that McVay was not

culpable for the disaster.

Last night I swam out beyond the

buoys, looked up at the sky, and felt

the dark, pliable hand of the night

water take hold. I do this every year:

Five minutes floating alone in the

dark, unable to touch bottom, is the

barest glimpse of the ordeal that those

316 men of the Indianapolis survived.

But I recommend it.

Swim out where the bottom

swoops to the deep and dog-paddle.

Even though you’re certain you’re

safe, the mind skips a beat. I promise,

you’ll tell yourself: Tomorrow will be

a good day.

new york times (july 27, 2018), copyright © 2018 by

the new york times, nytimes.com.

Reader’s Digest Military Life

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74 july/august 2019