A project in Indianapolis had me traveling to the Circle City on Friday. When I searched the address, I saw that it was a mere stone's throw from the U.S.S. Indianapolis Memorial on Indy's cultural trail. I arrived with my helper a little early and we documented the outside of the building. While waiting for the owner to unlock the doors, we walked the half-block to the memorial. I had heard about the monument while researching for a project in Jasper County. The architect for whom I was researching had worked with his son on the design of the monument, which features a granite ship-shaped slab surrounded by a plaza on the canal. Frank Fischer, the father, was a master at modern architecture and had served in WWII. I assume this is the reason his son, Joseph, included input from his father on the monument. The monument was dedicated in 1995. Frank Fischer died in 2008.
The U.S.S. Indianapolis was built between 1929 and 1931 when it was launched. It was commissioned in 1932. The contract price was nearly $11 million. In July 1945, the ship made a secret delivery of parts to build the first nuclear weapon used in combat. After the delivery, it headed to the Philippines and on July 30 was hit by Japanese torpedoes. There were 1,195 souls on board. Approximately 300 went down with the ship. Of the remaining 890, only about a third of those, or 316 sailors survived. The wartime disaster was the largest single loss of life in the sinking of a ship.
Many of those 900 were victims of exposure, dehydration, starvation, saltwater poisoning, and shark attacks as those sailors in the water were there for five days waiting for rescue. Imagine watching your comrades being picked off one by one by sharks, or finally succumbing to the conditions. And some people want to cry about sitting on their couch and not being able to go out to eat for a 45 days.
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