In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors
by Doug Stanton
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Book Summary Information
Author: Doug StantonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-05-01
ISBN: 0805073663
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Book Reviews of In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors
Book Review: "A Profile in Courage & Sacrifice"
Summary: 5 Stars
Wow! This book is amazing. I am a T.A. at a community college, and the students I work with read "In Harm's Way" for their English 99 required reading. Doug Stanton lives very close to the college where I work, and he is a frequent visitor and guest lecturer at NMC. Prior to reading this survivor account, my boss warned me of its intense emotional content and the graphic descriptions of the men drifting in the ocean. Even with her caution, I was unprepared for this harrowing tale of forsaken men fighting against unbelievable odds. One of the students I worked with has a brother in the marines, and she gave me additional information about the conviction of Captain Charles McVay. It is standard practice now in the navy not to proceed in a zig-zag fashion during wartime; a straight path is preferable. The navy used Captain McVay's sanctioned deviance from zig-zagging (he was allowed to stop zig-zagging if visiblity was poor---and visibility was very poor on the night the Indy was torpedoed) as an excuse to scapegoat him for what is recognized as the worst disaster in naval history.
Captain McVay, Doctor Lewis Haynes, and Giles McCoy exemplified courage under fire as did so many of the other men of the USS Indianapolis. The survivors formed three groups of drifting men, buoyed on rafts, life preservers, and the floating remains and contents of the Indy; each group was basically unaware of the existence of the other groups. Initially, Captain McVay found himself alone and fretted about the irony of the ship's captain being the sole survivor. He already began to feel guilt and responsibility for the ship's sinking and the welfare of his crew. Eventually, he located other survivors, headed the group, and did his damnest to keep up morale. Doctor Haynes and Giles McCoy led the two other groups. About 600 men were lost to hallucinatory dementia (some of these men turned on each, mistaking one another for their military enemies while others swam off to "oases" and drowned), unrelenting shark attacks, suicide, the poison and allure of salt water when thirst became unbearable, hypothermia, exposure, etc. These were of the 900 men who survived the two torpedoes that killed an estimated 300 men on impact.
Due to a series of miscommunications, no one was aware of the Indy's sinking, despite several clever attempts to signal for help and give info about the ship's coordinates upon the attack. (In the midst of mayhem, McCoy started cleaning his gun to everyone's bewilderment; he then triggered a series of gunshots into the sky in a codified manner.) These signals were misinterpreted as false alarms and traps set by the Japanese to lure the U.S. navy. Or worse, they were simply ignored. When the Indy didn't arrive at her post, her absence was dismissed as a rerouting or delay. The men waited for over four days for rescue. Many of the men had maintained their morale by convincing themselves of an imminent rescue. As the days dragged on, McCoy suddenly felt the fear of complete abandonment: no one's coming for us, he told himself. The belated rescue of the Indy was even more peculiar. No one had put two and two together. Once a team of tugboats was sent to check out the distress messages the Indy had sent upon sinking, but these were recalled after travelling for seven hours due to problems with the protocol of the order. A U.S. pilot by the name of Lieutenant Commander George Atteberry inadvertently began the rescue mission of the men who were cast out into the Pacific Ocean some four days earlier. While flying over the ocean, he noted some suspicious activity and proceeded to check it out. Then he noted that these gruesome-looking men with oil smeared on them were trying to attract his attention.
After figuring out what was going on and who these men were, Atteberry immediately called in for a rescue team. He and other men acted with great courage and braved shark attacks to hoist men into rescue planes and boats.
I can't begin to express my admiration for these men. What unsung heroes these men are! I don't know if I would have acted with the same integrity if put into a similar situation, or if I would have felt consigned to despair and given up. These men can motivate us to likewise become in our own ways, "a profile in courage and sacrifice," as Stanton praised these survivors.
Captain McVay was court-martialed and convicted. Military experts to this day believe this conviction utterly unjust and irrational. McVay took this conviction personally and could not live with the guilt. He was periodically sent hate-mail from misinformed families of men who had died on the Indy. He said to his stepson one day after reading a hate-letter, "I just can't take this any longer."
Did the survivors blame McVay for their ordeal and the sinking of the Indy? McVay feared the worst when he went to a 15-year reunion of the men who had survived the sinking. The reunion was held at Indianapolis in honor of the ship's name. As he left the plane, McVay was greeted with a salute by his men who filled the hallways of the airport. They didn't blame him at all and recognized that he had gotten a raw deal. The Navy didn't take any personal responsibility for its ineffectual handling of the rescue nor of its withholding of vital information to McVay (McVay wasn't privy to the knowledge of possible Japanese sub attacks). Although Congress exonerated McVay in 2000, the Navy has yet to follow suit. McVay committed suicide in 1968, unable to live with the (unmerited) guilt and false account of the events leading up to and including the Indy's sinking and death of 2/3rds of the crew.
Stanton initially wanted to write a long article about the Indy and Captain McVay. He knew from the movie "Jaws" and popular folklore some of the legendary details surrounding the sinking. He soon found himself immersed with the account after attending a survivor's reunion and living with McCoy for a month. This is his testament to the memory of Captain McVay, Private McCoy, Dr. Haynes, and the countless other unsung heroes of the USS Indianapolis. He believes these men are not our past as much as they are our future.
More In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors reviews:
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