"Never Give Up".
Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana: The Harrison Post, 1995-07-27 https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/QVTWBWEZNJCMN8A http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
The libraries provide public access to a wide range of material, including online exhibits, digitized collections, archival finding aids, our catalog, online articles, and a growing range of materials in many media.
When possible, we provide rights information in catalog records, finding aids, and other metadata that accompanies collections or items. However, it is always the user's obligation to evaluate copyright and rights issues in light of their own use.
728 State Street | Madison, Wisconsin 53706 | library.wisc.edu PERSONALITY THE Harrison Post 3 JULY 27, 1995
-. - eee le 4 orem td =n
ln © ssi a he . |. : i a —_ os by
- . ~~ SS ‘ | vo ; ee , ee - a beet bee a : | : fo Sys : ~~. Si ee
7 a ee oO oe eS —— Cl = ft. A a ee a oo ee err a ee e Wh en you're ’ placed 1, d in . h hell for five days, there is . only James O'Donnell 2 is one of (Courtesy only 317. photo) sailors who survived one of the Navy's . ° worst tragedies -- the sinking of the one simple rule to live by. a USS Indianapolis. Nearly 900 i perished in the attack or during the pe eee Gilg Me eee iets See Cita ek eS ee me aS following live daysadmatinishouk: infested waters.
Serer eta ee, ete nae domi below.” mne fantail was the only. from stem-to-stern on most capital ships to | Mexico desert the awesome power of the by Staff Sgt. Chris Calkins place I could get really comfortable. protect them from mines and torpedoes. A-Bomb. PAO NCOIC “J don’t remember that night being any § While possessed with greyhound-like Loaded onto the ship with secrecy and different than any other,” said the 1938 speed (in excess of 32 knots), the India- bolted to the admiral’s cabin, not even the SS. praduate of Arsenal Tech High School: napolis’ comparable lightness and sleeker cruiser’s commanding officer, Capt. It was almost midnight, July 29/30, O’Donnell, of course, was wrong. hull made it vulnerable to an enemy Charles B. McVay, III, who took com- 1945. attack. mand of the ship in November, 1944, was The 610-foot cruiser churned effort- Th hi Fatally vulnerable as it turned out. aware of of his ship’s cargo. lessly through the waters of the Southern e ship “T’ve never talked to anyone, then or Pacific, 600 miles west of Guam, 550 2 s now, who even had a clue as to what we miles east of her ultimate destination, the The Indianapolis’ keel was laid March The mission were carrying. I was just kinda surprised Gulf of Leyte in the Philippines. 31, 1930 by the New York Shipbuilding we were leaving California so soon,” For Watertender Third Class James E. Corp., Camden, N.J. It was launched Nov. Not everyone, least of all O'Donnell O'Donnell remembered. O’Donnell, one of five Indianapolis 7, 1931, sponsored by Lucy Taggart. Lucy —_ and the majority of the crew was aware of Stopping only six hours in Hawaii for natives aboard the Navy’s quickest ship, was the daughter of then-Indiana Senator the ship’s top-secret mission on that last, fuel, the Indianapolis traveled the more that summer evening seemed little differ- Thomas Taggart, who served as Indianapo- fateful journey. than 5,200 nautical miles to Tinian in less ent than the ones he’d served the past 14 lis mayor from 1885 - 1901. The ship was The winner of 10 Battle Stars earned in _ than 10 days and relieved itself of the months on the vessel that proudly bore his | commissioned by the Navy Nov. 15, action off New Guinea, Iwo Jima, Nippon, | bomb’s key elements, Uranium-235 and hometown’s name. 1932 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. and the Gilbert and Marshall Island plutonium. Timing, O’Donnell said recently, is From its very beginning, the ship was campaigns, among others, the Indianapolis It was then given orders to sail south everything. labeled the “Pride of the Navy,” and had been the victim of a kamikaze attack toward the island of Guam, headquarters of “T had about four hours before my shift quickly became President Franklin D. off Okinawa, March 31, 1945. the Pacific Fleet, commanded by Adm. was to start. I was sleeping on the top Roosevelt’s personal “Ship of State.” Nine crewmembers were killed almost Chester A. Nimitz. deck; many of us were always trying to In 1934, FDR became the first serving instantly; 26 From there, the ship was find someplace to rack up there. Even at president to make an official visit to South more were ee ordered to sail to Leyte nighttime, the ship was like a furnace America; he did so on the /ndianapolis. injured. Gulf, where it was to join : In the years prior to World War II, the “T was down ‘All I remember is that the battleship USS Idaho for f See ship had such high visibility that many of in the ship’s : ; several days of gunnery A | the world’s leaders and royalty routinely boiler room, on the ship skipped three practice in preparation for toured its decks as VIP guests of the U.S. the bottom floor, sgh a ries the planned attack of the “To be honest about it, I don’t much when the times. Kinda like a Japanese mainland. remember who visited our ship or when kamikaze hitus. bump, bump, bump.’ A single coded message rs ry they did. I only remember the guys and I All I remember -- Waterman 3rd Class was sent from Guam to the © ee joking we were worried the ship might is that the ship James E. O'Donnell USS Idaho, the ship that ’ sink from all the brass we used to cart skipped three had temporarily replaced - q around on it,” O’Donnell said with an times. Kinda CB ease ea en eS ah ae i the Indianapolis as the -. .. Ks ] enlisted man’s smile. like a bump, (2g Se eS Ee flagship of the Sth Fleet. J a ox 14 But the ship, as fast and technologically | bump, bump,” That message was garbled, repeat ‘\” — advanced as it was, possessed an Achilles O’Donnell said as gently tapped the table but the Jdaho never asked for a _ |. : hull. : in front of him. message _ _ The Indianapolis was known as a “treaty,” After limping back to Mare Island, The Idaho didn’t know the Indianapolis _ i / or “heavy cruiser,” meaning it was builtin Vallejo, Calif., for repairs, the Indianapo- was coming. Records clearly show |... strict observance of the guidelines laiddown _/is was chosen, partly because of its speed, however th: Lene a entare Pr _ _ during the 1929 Washington Conference but mostly because of the ship’s availabil- eee re y eee _ Treaty following the end of World War I. ity, to transport the key elements of the Guam received the message, down to the |... | Under that treaty, cruisers, so asnot to world’s first atomic bombs, destined tobe anchorage dock the Indianapolis was to | be categorized warships, were limited to dropped over the Japanese cities of occupy. It would prove to be a disastrous ai _ |] 10,000 tons of displacement. To save Nagasaki and Hiroshima. lack of communication. s\S50—lté‘ displacement weight, the Indianapolis was It set sail for the Western Pacific island \ _ UA designed and built without the normal of Tinian July 16, 1945, the same day a Be Ee pT ee ee = Sa heavy, extra-thick armor plating covering government research job known as the ‘ \ Oe most ships’ sides and bottom. Manhattan Project proved to a handful of Continued nnd neue 3 (courtesy photo) This armor plating was run-of-the-mill scientists and dignitaries on the New O'Donnell in 1944. 4 Tue Harrison Post PERSON ALITY JOLY. 27; 1995 Ce Continued from page 3 The Indianapolis was a magnificent beauty. The final voyage — eo sien But it e was a beauty flawed by a fatal Achilles e hull. almost three months as the Indianapolis —_—_—_—_—_—.:.:.:.?.?.k ee — nn eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee_=S=~eee_eeeee sailed westward. The last great battle of = ‘ ee as ay the Pacific theater, the liberation of ' os _ * "ae Okinawa was almost 90 days old. | ie i S 8 te ae referred to as the “back water” of the a * =_— _- ~~ fe - eine -_ Navy’s war in the Pacific. The Imperial ee Ce ee) gh ae Navy, so McVay and many others thought, | J ~ i ae a a — ON 4 gtd : we, had ceased to be a formidable threat in that 4 —— et a i al = ’ area. } : eS — Me aware of enemy activity, but the ' Pe ee eS ee Inddianapolis was dispatched to Leyte Gulf |* ee eee without benefit of any escort battleship; the oi ie 2 — travel that much open sea alone. oe a throughout the ship, even as thousands of _first slid into it. kapok) life jackets for The attack —___ gallons of sea water poured into her “Lots of guys were very badly burned; pon 2 in the sans ea ae collapsing forward bulkheads. many were blinded or severely injured do anything to pull your legs up.” An 1°58, (one of ine newest yargest and _ Without electricity, no $.0.S. could be —_when the ship exploded, and then all that Still, O’Donnell said he felt optimistic most technologically advanced Japanese at- sent. The ship’s loudspeaker system was _fuel just spilled out into the water. I'd bontch: fe ‘cle tack submarines, under the command of Lt. gijent. never seen any body of water burn like that about chances for a quick rescue. After Mochitasura Hashimoto, es was patrolling the wee “T just felt the whole ship shudder; butI before. It was just an unbelievable sight,” all, he reasoned, his ship was expected to waters east of the Philippines on that fateful titi didn’t know what happened. I > said Late O’Donneli, who suffered only minor Pe rendezvous with the Jdaho that very J same night. — ; remember shipmates telling us to ‘stay burns. day: ‘ Lurking below the water’s surface, the I- With her; she’ll be all right.’ Then I heard But not only was there not enough time Surely, 0 Donnell heard several men 58 was just what the unescorted Indianapo- everyone tell us to ‘abandon ship,” to sound a May-Day signal, the ships’ life SY the ship would be missed and rescue lis didn’t need. They were, as an Arts & Q’Donnell said. missions would be mounted promptly. Entertainment television special noted, “two “There were people running around rafts, specially designed to float free in a What the men didn’t know, of course, ships reaching toward each other; theirhands —_ everywhere...it was just mass confusion. sinking, failed to do so. was that the Idaho never received the first dealt by fate.” I just did what lots of other guys did; I Once in the water, O’Donnell could do message, and that no S.O.S. ever made it Hashimoto’s long-range periscope, as- walked down the side of the ship, slid little more than listen to the sounds of off the ship. sisted by a here-again, gone-again rising down between the shaft and the ship’s shipmates dying, and watch in disbelief as The day passed with no help in sight. moon, picked up a backlit Indianapolis about bottom and found myself in the water,” he _ pieces of the once great ship floated by, Only the sharks came calling. 11:30 p.m., approximately 10,000 meters _ said. covered with oil. With no food, no water, and the taste of from his position. It took only 12 minutes for the India- O'Donnell, like many of the men inthe __ fuel oil in his mouth, O'Donnell waited The Japanese commander deftly napolis to give one last shudder, roll water, survived only because he’d grabbed anxiously for the help he believed was on maneuvered his ship into firing position. completely over to port side and disappear _a kapok life jacket before sliding into the his way. It would be a long wait. “I waited until I got close enough to see _ rapidly, bow first: gone forever to a watery _ water. O'Donnell survived more than four days what it was. When I saw what a big ship it grave in the 10,000-foot waters of the For five hours, O’Donnell and his — 108 hours by his count — before help was, I aimed my torpedoes and fired. It shark-infested, and suddenly oil-slicked crewmembers did nothing more than float _ finally came. But this was only Monday was an easy target; I had no doubts about waters of the Pacific. among the debris, but at day’s first light, morning. The worst was yet to come. the success of my mission,” he wrote in his Survivors estimate almost 900 of the the men quickly discovered they weren’t ship’s log. nearly 1,200 men aboard made it into the —_ alone. The Waite ee Only two torpedoes were fired: one water. “T never even thought about sharks until slammed into and ripped off the ship’s Only 316 would come out. I felt the first one bump against my feet as > bow, the second one hitting seconds later they dangled in the water. We had enough mer oar Hos lone — ae magazine and fuel oil The sharks . Spt about before that,” O’Donnell can I hang on? Will I ever see Mary Alice : a again? And that’s when all hell broke loose. There sure wasn’t much I could do « The explosions knocked out the ship’s It seemed, O’Donnell said, that parts of —_ about the sharks; wasn’t much any of us hae Prd stapes electrical systems and set off several fires the Pacific Ocean were on fire when he could do about it,” he added. “Those mind as he floated helplessly in the warm waters of the Pacific. 2 — : : : Until the sharks came calling again. ss... — Surface currents had begun to scatter cl _ _ | the men over thousands of yards of open a re — sea. O’Donnell said he was in a small _ _ = — group of maybe two dozen men. Some he i. i. — knew; most he didn’t. It didn’t matter. ow —- h—UlUmlmrm..”.”.rC~C~—C—C—C—C—C—C— : There was strength in numbers. _. a ..rt—i—i‘“_OS <.ltw~”~”~—C~C~w@W@™OC~=‘ . =. —O—rsti—<‘i—Os ea « ‘You didn’t «a care who you found , \ ss , eo ltCiwerC—~—r~—~”—C : yourself next to. We hung on to each , _ F _,. + - _ .. . . other for physical A and emotional : help. | «< f . ee Maybe I could get a few minutes sleep e 7 li while my buddy watched me, and then I'd & le Fett do the same thing for him.” : \F j@Fmw — | _ Seemed more likely to go after the men - — Le oe tt . a worth. There mets es - r_—CS—sti‘“CSsS<—sSS:C~C..) Ohh of them, always swimming an in| The O'Donnell . ne — . -— . Vi i gn Wee scared to death you might be the next one AMES Altea. Wace b ee : oe eo a ee they'd decide to go after,” he said. and Mary Alice, have been = J We yp O'Donnell said he thinks Wednesday married 52 years. But in ny : ff de Lo was the breaking point for many of his 1945, Mary wondered ifit = |} fy. = 4 > | comrades. Exhausted, consumed with was over after only two. pos So be 2 hunger and thirst, hands and legs covered PERSONALITY Tut Harrison Post 5) JULY 27, 1995 nn UEEEnI EIEEE SESS ee - |e 7\ gaia | ; At about 11 a.m. Thursday morning, a | ee te ae ee 24-year-old California native had taken —_— tt AY PPT CS | de @Q off from the island of Palau, located about a = Se Oe CU 300 miles south of where the Indianapolis ho | [HE INDIANAPOLIS STAR rvtna had sunk. —_ ——r—“—O_ (Courtesy photo) Lt. j.g. Wilbur C. Gwinn and his crew re“ vy SPI Symp quae of four were on a routine anti-submarine iV Tu ag . , patrol in their PV-1 Ventura bomber. igh) ] Sail As Gwinn went to the plane’s rear to i ie o a ' check a radio antenna’s condition, he | = = ——rt—“‘“‘—s—— ae | %] glanced down and saw a huge oil slick Nip Sub Sinks Cruiser Indianapolis ae old. tae re lL | pas spreading across miles of the ocean Carrying lL Atom Bomb : Load: 883 Ski hillec | S| Thinking he’d spotted a Japanese sub bis sinh Boe: 2 ce be” ‘ (Calkins) _i- . / purging itself of wasted fuel, Gwinn Ith Fleet Flapshipy es we See. A headline on The =... Indianapolis Star’s _ . | immediately took control from his co-pilot ee Co — +“ and swooped down low, opening his == #&$3}§F e -_.. C—™O™*t~=“#YSCQZ‘ Aug. 15, 1945 front | bomber’s bombay doors in preparation for y ) eee told Mary —r—S—eS a) a surprise attack. ae a Alice--and the rest of —— _ L But 50-feet off the water’s surface, the pee. OS. ee sage a en toe the country--and r) the el Californian spotted hundreds of delerious ee 3s ; tees of the country of ee er men waving frantically from below. ee : : the ship's sinking. a. dtc see tll so | ty Gwinn was couhised: a = But it wasn’t until two on 2 He had no intelligence reports of any oe Ee : weeks later that she ce allied ships lost in this water. In order to ek te ES es tain Peo = - learned James was om i obtain radio contact, Gwinn regained Bn ee Miba V ity (ollie one of the survivors. pretty damn happy when the USS Bassett demise when she opened her Wednesday : : a / ginkae at Palau. oid Precious cals ae minutes turned hes into Boned hoaeene ane adit f The Indi lis S i 4 hours as incredulous Navy authorities tried showed up on our oriZon. i morning edition 0: le Indianapolis tar, oe | to figure out what to do. The Bassett, (APD-73), another ship dated Aug. 15, 1945, one day after Gi yg eee 5 . acting in response to the Indiana-born receiving the telegram telling her her ee | Surely they couldn’t be American eee aan | ll lc er —r— CL —‘ : A 9 pilot’s efforts, would eventually pluck husband had been injured. FT -— |; sailors in that water? Could they? He : Seas from the ocean 153 men, many dehy- And there it was. Beneath two huge se would have known. Wouldn’t he? . é Fi : ; — Se ee pl = drated, most delerious. Two died on the headlines, one reading only “PEACE!” and Bet, se |g Running dangerously low on fuel, a ms Gaimanaliv en th he had 18-hour voyage to the island of Somora. the other “WAR IS ENDED — fa C—O Oe winn finally left the area once he ha “| ‘ll it like i day: TRUMAN.” h llecheaals _— ee been informed a rescue effort was under pet Cale SUL SCeUE ICG IE Was VeSteLe ay, DN ye Was BUOMIen Sia Gr none Hue Oe | . eee : sailors from the Bassett jumped into the : Mary Zs Alice had : trouble ( believing. ; : et ee : i way. He still had : no idea if the men in the water to save us. They lowered a Jacob’s Nip Sub Sinks Cruiser Indianapolis water were American or Japanese. : : G . . : Ladder, (a free-hanging rope ladder) off Carrying Atom Bomb Load; 883 killed : Neither did Frankfort, Ind. native, Navy e % : A fs S with sea-water ulcers, some men chose the + Adrian Marks the side of the ship. The guys in the water The headline hit her like a closed fist. their shoulder and “I was floored, devastated. I wasn’t third day 5 to swim Sere off on a their own; some i After receiving reece Gwinn’s Re radio : message, would just put you on to the “paradise island” only a few the 28-year-old pilot was dispatched by his shove you up. : sure exactly how many men were on hundred yards away. higher heasquarters to fly his PB-Y flying I can’t even begin to find the words to Jimmy’s ship, but I knew 883 was a pretty An island seen only by them. boat to investigate, lend assistance and describe how it finally felt to be out of that good percentage of them,” she said. “I saw guys just slip off their kapok’s report what he es living hell,” said the man who admits to A couple weeks later she received a and tell us they were going to the hotel What Marks saw below him was men swimming only one time in the past 50 letter from the Navy; this one saying her over there,” O’Donnell said shaking his being attacked and eaten alive by sharks. years. } ; husband was alive and had been taken to head and pointing to nowhere in particular. je didn’t hesitate. Rafts and supplies “T remember glancing at my skin and the island of Somora, from where he would “Some of them just took off their life began dropping from Marks’ plane well thinking it was going to peel right off. We eventually be transported to the island of jackets and sank. It just got too tough. I before he or his crew knew the survivor’s all had the most god-awful looking ulcers Guam. guess they just gave up.” nationality. you could imagine,” he said. “And I just The letter said he was expected to make Not only were hallucinations becoming With seas running high and his fuel level _felt so weak.” a full recovery. Mary Alice has the more commonplace, O’Donnell remembers — running dangerously low, Marks decided to It was that fatigue that made telegram, and the ensuing message under the unit comraderie was slowly deteriorat- disobey standing orders and set his aircraft O’Donnell’s first step on the Bassett one glass in her eastside Indianapolis home. ing g among among some of his shipmates. P The down in the ocean, knowing nen full well thata he'd just as soon forget. “They help P you remember how yw things thing elements had worn-away their discipline sea landing meant his aircraft would never “Two sailors were holding me up with were,” she said without explanation. and faith in one another. be airborn again. their hands under my armpits. I told them “T didn’t see a lot of it, but there were After learning from the survivors he had _ I was OK; they let me go and I passed on guys who started accusing others of happened upon the /ndianapolis, Marks right out and hit the deck face-first.” The why ..-The how hoarding food and supplies. Some thought frantically began sending radio messages And so, 108 hours after he first slid into Asking O’ Donnell why or how he was others were Jap spies. It started looking asking for help. Over and over again, the the burning, oil-slicked Pacific, the end of able to survive more than 100 hours in pretty bleak. I had a few doubts myself,” call went out. the Navy’s worst-ever sea disaster was in conditions so harsh and demanding that he said. Many men, so weakened from four and _ sight for O’ Donnell. even the strongest men would eventually Nearly as bad as the hallucinations were _ one-half days in the water, drowned after But not for his wife. fold their hands, is akin to asking if all the very real American planes flying slipping off their life jackets attempting to humanity is irrevvocably ruled by fate or 10,000 feet above O’Donnell and the make the relatively short swim to Marks’ doomed forever to deal with life’s some- others, oblivious to the terror below. plane. Still, 56 men owed their lives to The homefront times nasty shuffle. “Those planes almost drove us nuts. Marks’ heroic efforts. O’Donnell, you see, is a common man; Everytime someone would hear one, we'd O’Donnell wasn’t one of them. While O'Donnell was still trying to find ne with simple tastes and easy-to-under- all start splashing and waving our hands The destroyers Cecil Doyle, Talbot and _his sea legs, Mary Alice was trying to find _ stand common values. He considers like crazy. But the damn things never Dulfiha were the first rescue ships to arrive the courage to tell friends and family himself unusually blessed. dropped down to give us a look.” at the scene. Having drifted miles away members about the telegram she’d re- His children, James M., 46: Thomas At the end of Wednesday, best esti- from the survivors Gwinn rescued, ceived Aug. 14, — more than two weeks 44; Timothy ‘AO. and Mary (Hofmeister) Pht aa mates : are that only 400 or so reamined : O’Donnell never saw : any plane or rescue after her husband’s ship was sunk, fe and 32, are healthy tine and near; his wife of 52 alive. Dead and half-eaten corpses littered ship. Not for awhile, anyway. — only days removed from the devasating years still by his side the ocean’s surface. “It would have been something to see, atomic attacks that completely destroyed et icant ce ‘ait adinwin hiebekne that’s for sure. But I remember we were the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and ane is e _ that the surest way to eventual success is cen achieved more often than not through “The telegram said Jimmy was a victim ti d dara of ‘immersion.’ I didn’t know what that Vee ae gs baadtees a Es meant. Was he a victim of a boiler room iim Re tenner a a oo a | SCS; accident? P: I had no idea. I remember a ee idn’t,” be O’ toes i ae = Wweercn. OU wondering if I was a widow only two years os : : : it iF ==) W ‘UNION 2 | after we were married,” she said. ‘There s nothing special about me, ef a are today. Today we know everything that 0 serve his community with the Indianapo- | = ———.—UC@ ! '.0 happens in a war. Think about what we lis Fire Department for 35 years. I knew Pee watched during Desert Storm. We enough to do what I had to do to survive, i | probably knew more than the troops who that’s it. : A But that wasn’t the case five decades knew enough to never quit even when ic - rr— Knowing nothing about where her “Because I learned back then, learned (Collins) oo —rrrr—“—COC—C—O_OO husband was or what he was doing, Mary the hard way, that if you ever give up, It took two weeks for Mary Alice ---rr——ses=“‘ RU Alice Frat leached of ile naan ols you’re gone for good.” to receive the telegram informing _ oe Ea i her that her husband had | = =——m—ees—“i—‘<—i—‘i—‘—séSsSststsétésm™ Editor’s Note: This story would not have been possible without the assistance of suffered immersion. “I didn’t — &#&5:&”2OCCCC Patrick J. Finneran, executive director, USS Indianapolis Memorial committee. A know what that meant,” she says. — =———r—“——seSs—Ss—O_ national memorial dedicated to the more than 880 sailors and Marines who lost their “Things then weren't like the way — @2= = —Sheree—es—“‘COCS lives aboard the Indianapolis, and all who died at sea during World War IL, will be they are today. Today we know #327=73|&Csti(aisésSO held Wednesday at 9 a.m. downtown. For more information, or to make a tax deduct- - everything that happens in a . —_— ible contribution to the memorial, contact Finneran at (317) 924-1484, or toll free, war.” (800) 482-5242.