Free Republic

Longtime Benician Harold Bray, a humble man, claims he is no hero. Benicians — and well, many Americans — beg to differ. They think he’s as good as gold. Well, maybe closer to bronze. With the passing of Cleatus Lebow in October at the age of 98, Bray is the lone living survivor from the legendary USS Indianapolis. On Friday night in front of the city’s clock tower, Bray was celebrated and honored for his service with the unveiling of a statue made by Matt Glenn. The life-sized bronze statue stands nearly 7 feet tall, affixed to a pedestal. It...

Edgar Harrell, the last surviving Marine of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis during World War II, has died. Harrell died Saturday, according to an organization devoted to preserving the ship's legacy. He was 96. The Facebook group said in a post that it was "shocked and saddened" by the news. "Ed was beloved among the group, and traveled the world sharing the story of his ship and shipmates," the group wrote. "He joined the crew as a sea-going marine in 1944, meaning he was one of the best of the best. During his time aboard ship, he helped guard...

As news spread over the weekend about the discovery of USS Indianapolis (CA-35), the World War II cruiser lost in the war’s waning days, emotions of anyone associated with the ship ranged from joy, to relief, to consternation. Closure was brought to the few remaining survivors, and the families of crew members who survived or perished when the ship was torpedoed after completing its secret mission delivering to the Pacific island of Tinian the components of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Their friends and loved ones wouldn’t be recovered, but at least they had a sense of where their...

"We've located the wreckage of the USS Indianapolis in Philippine Sea at 5500m below the sea." That tweet from entrepreneur and billionaire Paul Allen around 12:20 p.m. Saturday confirmed what many have been searching for since the ship was sunk on July 30, 1945. Allen, who is leading a 13-person team on his 250-foot research ship, the R/V Petrel, said the wreckage was found at a depth of more than 18,000 feet.

Researchers Announce Wreckage from USS Indianapolis Located

Wreckage from the USS Indianapolis, which sank 72 years ago after being torpedoed during World War II, was found in the Philippine Sea by the expedition crew of billionaire Paul Allen. The Indianapolis was hit by the Japanese on July 30, 1945 and sank in only 12 minutes, leading to the greatest single loss of life at sea in the Navy's history. Of 1,196 crew aboard the ship, only 317 survived.

Seventy-two years after two torpedoes fired from a Japanese submarine sunk cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA-35), the ship’s wreckage was found resting on the seafloor on Saturday – more than 18,000 feet below the Pacific Ocean’s surface.

On the morning of Aug. 6, 1945, shortly after 8:00 a.m. local time, a lone American B-29 was conducting what seemed to be a reconnaissance flight at high altitude over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. At about 16 minutes after 8:00, the aircraft released an object over the centre of town. Attached to parachutes, the object floated down slowly enough to give the four-engine Boeing Superfortress time to turn and lumber out of the airspace. The atom bomb exploded at about 1,900 feet above the centre of Hiroshima. The devastation was cataclysmic. Immediate casualties, dead and injured, numbered approximately 115,000....

Another of the remaining survivors of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis has died...

In the closing days of World War II, torpedoes from a Japanese submarine slammed into the side of USS Indianapolis and doomed the heavy cruiser. The sailors who didn’t drown were left adrift on the open ocean for four days during which they battled the elements, starvation and shark attacks. Fewer than 320 from the ship’s original crew of 1,196 survived.

July 30, 1945, two torpedoes struck the USS Indianapolis with almost 1,200 men aboard. The xplosions obliterated the ship’s front, water rushed in. Bulkheads crumpled. It only took 12 minutes for the cruiser to sink.

When USS Indianapolis was hit by Japanese torpedoes in the final weeks of WWII, hundreds of crewmen jumped into the water to escape the burning ship. Surrounded by sharks, they waited for a response to their SOS. But no one had been sent to look for them. In late July 1945, USS Indianapolis had been on a special secret mission, delivering parts of the first atomic bomb to the Pacific Island of Tinian where American B-29 bombers were based. Its job done, the warship, with 1,197 men on board, was sailing west towards Leyte in the Philippines when it was...

A survivor and a rescuer in one of the deadliest episodes in U.S. Navy history — the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in World War II — will be reunited Thursday at Lakeland Regional High School. The cruiser, which carried parts for the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, was sunk by a Japanese submarine on July 30, 1945, four days after it delivered the parts to Tinian Island. After it was sunk, 900 crew members spent days in shark-infested waters; only 316 survived. One of the survivors, Don Blum of Scarsdale, N.Y., will attend the program Thursday, called...

YOKOSUKA, Japan - When the submarine USS Ohio surfaced at sea and Machinist Mate 1st Class Jason Witty emerged from the hatch to look around, he saw calm, blue water under a peaceful sky — perfect for the solemn task he was about to perform. On the map, the Ohio was afloat in just another indistinguishable expanse of the Pacific Ocean. As Witty stood on deck holding a silver pitcher, the vessel was alone. Just like the ill-fated USS Indianapolis, 63 years earlier.

There were fins all around, the killer sharks just circling, waiting, assessing their prey in their usual silent, sinister way. For the men strung out in the oil-streaked water, clinging to the sides of flimsy rafts or floating in sodden life-jackets, the sight was terrifying and the underwater brush of leathery skin against a submerged leg, or the nudge of a snout, was gut-wrenching. These men were already survivors, the remaining 900 sailors of the U.S.S. Indianapolis. Just three-quarters of the crew had managed to get off the heavy cruiser when she was blown apart by torpedoes from a Japanese...

Documentary on the USS Indianapolis, its sinking, and the worst shark attacks in history, on Discovery Channel right now.

1945 : Japanese sink the USS Indianapolis On this day in 1945, Japanese warships sink the American cruiser Indianapolis, killing 883 seamen in the worst loss in the history of the U.S. navy. As a prelude to a proposed invasion of the Japanese mainland, scheduled for November 1, U.S. forces bombed the Japanese home islands from sea and air, as well as blowing Japanese warships out of the water. The end was near for Imperial Japan, but it was determined to go down fighting. Just before midnight of the 29th, the Indianapolis, an American cruiser that was the flagship of...

INDIANAPOLIS - Sixty-two years after Japanese torpedoes sank the USS Indianapolis in shark-infested waters, an exhibit in the vessel's namesake city documents its tragic end in the final weeks of World War II. The exhibit at the Indiana War Memorial, opening Saturday, includes letters and telegrams about the cruiser's July 30, 1945, sinking, the ship's bell and even the type of life jacket that kept the oil-drenched servicemen who survived afloat in the ocean for more than four harrowing days. "We're trying to keep the story alive and the museum would make it permanent. It will make the story live...

Nearly 61 years after surviving a living nightmare, it's still not easy for Adolfo Celaya to talk about what he endured that night in 1945. Celaya, who grew up in Barrio Viejo, was an 18-year-old sailor on the USS Indianapolis. He worked in the ship's belly, where he helped feed oil into the vessel's four giant boilers. But on the night of July 30, Celaya was on the ship's deck in the Philippine Sea with his Tucson buddy, Santos Peña. Two Japanese torpedoes struck the cruiser. The Indy split and sank within 12 minutes, taking 300 of the 1,196 men...

PRAHA - Two survivors from the ship that transported components for the first atomic bomb to the Pacific and was the last U.S. ship to be sunk during World War II will be the guest speakers at Sunday's 43rd annual All Veterans Day Memorial Service at the St. Mary's Catholic Church cemetery. The two survivors are Buck Gibson of Waco and Loel Dene Cox of Comanche. Ernest Chaloupka, a Praha resident and one of the organizers of the service, recalls having met some of the survivors from the ship after they were transported to the fleet hospital on Samar Island...