USS Indianapolis: The Legacy

Gr 8 Up—This often emotional presentation covers the horrific sinking of the USS Indianapolis as told in interviews with 104 survivors and their extended families. After delivering atomic bombs to the island of Tinian, the Indianapolis was dispatched to Leyte Gulf in the Philippine Sea without escort or instructions, and no one was informed of its pending arrival. On the early morning of July 30, 1945, the ship was sunk by six torpedoes from a Japanese submarine. As a result of the dereliction of duty by several high-ranking naval officers, the ship's SOS signal was ignored and the nearly 1,200 men on board were doomed to face death from the initial impact, from sharks in the sea, or by drowning while waiting five days for the U.S. Army airplane that accidentally found them. Some visual dramatizations and actual movie footage of the rescue are included. Many of the men disclose the emotional impact the experience has had on their lives, and the final portion focuses on the efforts of the crew and a contemporary teenager, Hunter Scott, to have the conviction removed from Capt. Charles B. McVay's record; he was the only U.S. Navy captain in all of World War II to be court-martialed for losing his ship in battle. The survivors tell their story clearly, though it is often difficult for them to do so.