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.
The pitcher contained the ashes of Witty’s grandfather, Boatswain Mate 2nd Class Eugene Morgan, who had survived the sinking of the Indianapolis — one of the worst tragedies for the U.S. Navy in World War II.
Morgan had died of a heart attack in June at age 87, just before Witty went to sea, and among his last wishes was the desire to be rejoined with his shipmates at roughly the same spot in the Pacific where the Indianapolis went down.
Indianapolis was a Portland-class cruiser returning from delivering critical components of the first atomic bomb to Tinian. While making a return passage through the Philippine Sea, she was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine just after midnight on 30 July 1945.
Out of 1196 crewmen on board, about 300 are believe to have died in the initial attack, while nearly nine hundred went over the side. Through a grotesque combination of incompetence, ineptitude and mischance, her sinking went unreported, and the survivors waited waited four days before a patrol plane stumbled over their position.
Nearly 600 of those that had survived the initial attack succumbed to dehydration, exposure or – most horribly – shark attacks. The first PBY to arrive at the scene saw men being eaten alive by the sharks, and – defying standing orders – landed in the sea to rescue those they could. Four destroyers and two auxiliaries raced to the scene to recover the rest.
Three hundred and twenty-one were recovered alive from the sea, but four died shortly thereafter. It was the single greatest loss of life at sea in the history of the US Navy. Japan surrendered two weeks later.
But the Indianapolis was not yet done: Her captain, convicted by court martial of hazarding his ship by failing to zig-zag, had that conviction set aside by Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz. Nevertheless consumed by guilt, and constantly aware of his status as the only Navy captain to be court martialed in World War II, Captain Charles Butler McVay III committed suicide in 1968.
And now Indianapolis has claimed another sailor.
Rest in peace, BM2.
I remember the movie “Jaws,” where Robert Shaw tells the story behind his tattoo. To this day, that’s my favorite scene in the film, and I still watch the film just to see that scene.
At any rate, we delivered the bomb.
Salute.
Fair Winds, Shipmate. (To the clinking of glasses)
Hearts of oak, indeed.
Fair winds and following seas, Petty Officer Morgan.
An Army toast; To Absent Companions.
My fil served on the USS Chase, a DE that was nearly struck by a Kamikaze, doing severe damage to the ship as the plane exploded off the bow, ripping open the hull.
He talks of waiting to be rescued in the Pacific, floating in the waters, knowing stories of seamen that had met a most awful fate with sharks in the same situation.
I cannot fathom the terror, even as I hear it from his own voice, and he relives it, in its entirety with us… as if he were still there.
What a wonderful tribute that grandson did for his grandfather, painful and touching. May his family have peace…
Another matelot over the bar, rest in peace. Shipmates forever.
“They shall grow not old, as we who are left grow old.
Age shall not weary, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the Morning,
We will remember them.”
[...] Neptunus Lex has a burial at sea for a survivor of the USS INDIANAPOLIS in “Home is the Sailor“. [...]
And so the question arises… where might the SSGN 726 be bound that would include the Phillipine Sea as a transit point?
Or was this simply a most appropriate side-trip?
The Commanding Officer is always the Man in Charge and there is no mistaking CAPT Butler’s Court Martial for what it was. However, I believe there are others who deserved the same fate. Where were the COMMO officers that dropped the ball? What about the rest of Fleet Operations?
600 sailors, chiefs and officers died due to someone’s mistakes. CAPT. Butler aside, someone got off scot-free at the Captain’s expense.
The Indianapolis claimed another life, but like all fish stories, bigger ones got away.
[...] 317 supervivientes, hasta que el pasado junio su corazón falló cuando tenía 87 años de edad. Su nieto, el marinero Jason Witty, destinado a bordo del submarino USS Ohio, esparció desde su torr…. Eugene Morgan se reunió así con sus [...]
Eugene Morgan was one of many USS Indianapolis Survivors I have come to know well since 1977. We talked of his experiences on the Indy and his rescue, his life afterwards, and his love of his friends and shipmates. I commend the captain & crew of the USS Ohio, and in particular, Gene’s grandson Jason Witty, for carrying out Gene’s last wish. I’ll miss the talks over a beer or two, that sly smile and quick wit…but God has another sailor to stand watch over Heaven, and Gene is where he wanted to be…with his shipmates, the real heroes of the USS Indianapolis.