ONLY 316 SURVIVED, including this officer (right) recuperating at the Peleliu Hospital.Lake Michigan each July, I imagine
the men of the Indianapolis visible
on the horizon: dark heads, struggling
arms, a cry and whirl of a world being
remade. I feel an overwhelming sense
of sadness, accompanied by a desire
to yell out that they will be rescued.
At the same time, I know that many
were rescued. But the sadness always
comes.
What I feel I’m watching, in my
mind’s eye, is the work of people
struggling to stay alive and, in the
process, struggling with what it means
to be a moral person, even after they
emerged from the crucible of the sea.
Capt. Charles McVay of the India-
napolis was court-martialed, making
him the only captain in American his-
tory to be court-martialed for losing
his ship in an act of war. Giles McCoy,
a founder of the USS Indianapolis
Survivors Organization, promised his
captain that the Navy would exonerate
him one day. But in 1968, outside hisof them purposefully swam away to
die, feeling all hope was lost. Others
surrendered to the moment but did
not give up, an important distinction.
While still certain that rescue would
never come, they carried on, assist-
ing struggling shipmates even when
it didn’t seem to matter. By becoming
selfless, they apprehended who they
were as individuals.
When they were miraculously
rescued, having been spotted by a
24-year-old pilot named Chuck Gwinn,
whom in later years they affectionately
called their angel, they felt they had
been reborn. The second half of the
20th century was powered by this rest-
less energy, possessed by millions of
other Americans also returning from
war. When I ask the survivors about
this ordeal’s effect on their lives, they
consistently remark that since their
rescue, they’ve “never had a bad day.”
Reflecting on their struggle to sur-
vive feels instructive. When I look atrd.com 73co
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Military Life