The USS Indianapolis was commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 15 November, 1932. The ship and its men served with honor from Pearl Harbor through the last campaign of World War II. On 30 July, 1945, while sailing a classified mission from Guam to Leyte, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. The ship capsized and sank in 12 minutes. Out of a crew of 1,199 men, 900 made it into the water. The sharks arrived the following morning. While waiting for help, more than 600 men and boys perished to shark attacks.
On 2 August, 1945, more than two days after the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, military reconnassaince pilot Lt. Chuck Gwinn spotted an oil slick running across his patrol route. Speaking to his co-pilot, Gwinn delivered the news that would bring an end to what would be considered the worst naval disaster in U.S. history, “Look down and you will see.”
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