They should have seen to it that we were looked for as soon as we were hit.” “It was one hell of a sacrifice for the men on board,” he said. Today he is one of only 19 of those servicemen still alive. Woolston, who has lived in Honolulu for 28 years, was one of only 317 sailors and Marines aboard the Indianapolis to survive both the initial sinking and the four harrowing days in the open ocean that followed before help arrived. “You feel a little impatient because we’ve been waiting so very long.” “This is something we expected to happen at any minute, but when it actually happens you still get a little spurt,” said Woolston, 93. John Woolston, a survivor of the USS Indianapolis who lives in Makiki, welcomed the news with emotion. There are also lessons learned and, in the case of the Indianapolis, lessons relearned, that need to be preserved and passed on, so the same mistakes can be prevented and lives saved.”
“They can serve as inspiration to current and future sailors enduring situations of mortal peril. “Even in the worst defeats and disasters there is valor and sacrifice that deserves to never be forgotten,” said Sam Cox, director of the command, based at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., in a statement joining Allen’s. The discovery was hailed by the Navy History and Heritage Command. While our search for the rest of the wreckage will continue, I hope everyone connected to this historic ship will feel some measure of closure at this discovery so long in coming.” “As Americans, we all owe a debt of gratitude to the crew for their courage, persistence and sacrifice in the face of horrendous circumstances. “To be able to honor the brave men of the USS Indianapolis and their families through the discovery of a ship that played such a significant role in ending World War II is truly humbling,” Allen said in a statement. The team used high-tech underwater equipment during its search, mounted aboard Allen’s 250-foot research vessel R/V Petrel.
So horrific was the predation that the sinking and its aftermath were recounted in a scene in the 1975 movie “Jaws.” Of the 1,196 sailors and Marines embarked, about 800 made it into the water.īut the Navy never realized the ship was missing and days passed before the survivors were spotted by routine air patrol.ĭuring that time another 500 died from exposure, dehydration and - infamously - sharks. McVay III, was torpedoed on July 30, 1945, only weeks before the end of the war, and sank within minutes.
The Indianapolis, skippered by Honolulu resident Capt. The wreck lies in 18,000 feet of water and is in pieces, but with its anchor still in place and an identifying spare parts container lying on the seabed. The discovery was made Friday and announced Saturday by a research team led by Microsoft Corp.
Wreckage of the USS Indianapolis, a renowned Pacific Fleet cruiser that delivered the first atomic bomb to an airfield in the Northern Marianas during World War II and then was sunk by a Japanese submarine in shark-infested waters, has been found on the floor of the Philippine Sea.