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'I learned early on that you had to get it out, you had to tell others what happened,' he said. While many survivors kept what they saw and heard to themselves, Harrell said the lingering trauma he'd suffered left him unable to focus on the college courses he enrolled in immediately after the war. In their 80s and 90s, many are now in poor health Reunion: 38 of the Indianapolis' 317 survivors are still alive. It was just somebody screaming, yelling or getting bit,' Cox said.Įdgar Harrell, an 89-year-old from Clarksville, Tenn., who is one of only two ex-Marines among the remaining survivors, said the horrors he witnessed - including sharks devouring men around him - became too much for him to bear after he returned home. One came up and took the sailor next to me. Then every now and then, like lightning, one would come straight up and take a sailor and take him straight down. 'In that clear water you could see the sharks circling. I was bumped a few times - you never know when they are going to attack you.'Īs the sharks continued to attack, clouds of blood in the water grew and attracted more to the area, leading to even more attacks. Every few minutes you'd see their fins - a dozen to two dozen fins in the water. 'You were constantly in fear because you'd see 'em all the time. 'We were losing three or four each night and day,' Cox said. Thank goodness, there were lots of dead people floating in the area. 'They were continually there, mostly feeding off the dead bodies. Justin Wray, left, a Navy recruiter in Indianapolis, speaks to USS Indianapolis survivor Clarence Hershberger Some of them I swear were 15ft long,' Cox said. 'We were sunk at midnight, I saw the first morning after daylight. They then started eating those who had survived the explosions. The sharks came from miles away to feast on the carnage from the wreck.
THE CREW OF THE ENOLA GAY ALL COMMITTED SUICIDE MOVIE
But reports of the tragedy were buried by the news of the Japanese surrender, and interest in the ship's story was not revived until the 1975 movie "Jaws" featured a character who told of the sinking and the survivors' days of agony. The Indianapolis' death toll - 880 members out of a crew of 1,197 died - is the U.S. Nor did Navy officials take much notice when the ship failed to arrive at its destination on time.Īn estimated 900 of the ship's servicemen survived the vessel's nighttime sinking, but before rescuers arrived five days later, drowning, delirium, dehydration and shark attacks had claimed all but 317 of the men. The Indianapolis sent several SOS signals before it became submerged, but the message wasn't taken seriously. 'We figured that if we could just hold out for a couple of days they'd pick us up.' I finally heard some moans and groans and yelling and swam over and got with a group of 30 men and that's where I stayed,' Cox said. Survivors: The crew of USS Ohio salute during a special burial ceremony at sea for Indianapolis survivor Eugene Morgan