Nov. 27, 2019

"This is Dad's letter!"

Photo of Y3c Richard Calvin McVay submitted by his family to the United States Navy Memorial Log. McVay served from February 1944-April 1946....

Nov. 6, 2017

The Burden of Command: The Experience of Captain Charles Butler McVay, III

The heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA 35) was struck by two Japanese torpedoes in the first minutes of July 30, 1945. She sank in less than fifteen minutes. Several hundred Sailors and Marines went down with their ship; the rest drifted at sea for four days with few or no supplies until a patrol plane found them by chance and the Navy organized a

Sept. 13, 2017

Finding USS Indianapolis - After 70 Years, What Changed?

For Memorial Day 2015, Mackinaw City businessman John Murdick decided to honor the World War II service of his father Francis Murdick on the website of his family business by sharing a story his dad told about his tank landing ship being passed by USS Indianapolis (CA 35) on the cruiser's final day.What the younger Murdick couldn't have known was

Aug. 24, 2017

Lest We Forget: USS Indianapolis and Her Sailors

Why should the U.S. Navy and the American people remember the Indianapolis (CA 35); a ship that sank in the last days of World War II? Why remember one of the worst defeats and a tragic moment in U.S. Navy's history? Beyond the defeat of the sinking itself, USS Indianapolis' story is compounded by grave errors in U.S. Navy command, control, and

Aug. 19, 2017

Navy's Role in Finding USS Indianapolis

Editor's Note: It was announced today that the wreckage of the World War II cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA 35) was located by a team of civilian researchers led by entrepreneur and philanthropist Paul G. Allen. The search was aided by historical and archaeological support from the Naval History and Heritage Command. Just last year, NHHC uncovered

Aug. 1, 2016

Gaining New Appreciation for the Crew of USS Indianapolis

A torpedo ripping into the guts of a ship. Sailors scrambling, boilers exploding. The once-proud cruiser slipping beneath an uncaring ocean. And then an agonizing four day drift across the Pacific, with only a merciless sun, dehydration and sharks for company . . . These were the horrors that the surviving Sailors and Marines of USS Indianapolis

Aug. 1, 2016

Navy Lessons Learned from Sinking of Indianapolis

The sinking of USS Indianapolis (CA-35) provides many lessons to the contemporary United States Navy, officers and enlisted alike. It shows, perhaps above all else, that the worst can happen at any moment, even under sound and responsible leadership. The bravery showed by the Sailors and Marines through their ordeal stands as an example to their

July 29, 2016

Looking Beyond the Sharks: The Legacy of USS Indianapolis

With President Franklin D. Roosevelt on board, USS Indianapolis acts as the reviewing platform as a formation of eighteen TG-1/2 (or T4M-1) torpedo planes pass overhead, during the fleet review off New York City, 31 May 1934. The President is standing immediately in front of Indianapolis' second eight-inch gun turret. The ship at right, in the

July 29, 2016

Where was the USS Indianapolis When Sunk? Deck Logs of Tank Landing Ship Provide Key Details

Thomas Helm, a scholar and onetime crewman of USS Indianapolis (CA-35), described the loss of the ship in his 1963 Ordeal by Sea as follows: "Midnight [on 30 July 1945] a moderately heaving sea and clouds covering a half moon now nearly three hours old. The Indianapolis, with her 9,950 ton displacement spread over 610 feet, sliced her way westward