Captain McVay & The USS Indianapolis

At age 11, Hunter Scott of Pensacola, FL, catapulted himself into the World War II era by way of a history project. I learned about Hunter Scott from a brief newsclip I heard on 8/1/01. My interest was sparked and fired up this investigative article. Don't ever, ever think you can't make a difference. This young boy, along with the 154 survivors of the USS Indianapolis, worked to reverse Captain McVay's court-martial and sucessfully restored his good name.

On July 30, 1945, less than two weeks before the war ended, the Japanese submarine I-58 fired six torpedoes at the USS Indianapolis. In twelve short minutes the ship was gone. It took five days before the survivors were rescued. When the ship did not arrive at its destination, no one seemed to notice.

The survivors, including Captain McVay, endured that near week of suffering amidst agony, horrific scenes and screams, sharks, fire ... a glimpse of Hell on the water, until they were spotted and finally rescued. Four months later, McVay was tried and convicted for the loss of his ship.

Every year around Christmastime, McVay was flooded with grief-stricken letters. He answered every one of them. Even the most painful. "Merry Christmas," one letter said. "Ours won't be merry because you killed our son." Another accused: "Why did you survive when my husband didn't?"

McVay, a 30-year veteran of the Navy, apparently took his own life in 1968. No suicide note. Nothing. This made his son wonder if somehow it was an accident. "If you are going to kill yourself, you don't normally shoot yourself under your chin," his son Charles commented. This is a harrowing story that hopefully will never be repeated.

McVay was the victim of politics, revenge, scapegoating and a military-in-denial mentality. Read all about it in Fatal Voyage: The Sinking of the Indianapolis.

Charles McVay III is the only captain in the history of the U.S. Navy to be court-martialed for losing his ship. It mattered not to the Navy that he and his men had delivered the key components to the atomic bomb that ended World War II in record time. McVay lost his ship. He failed to zigzag in a combat zone, against Navy regulations.

According to Rear Admiral John Hutson, the judge advocate general of the Navy at the hearings, "McVay made an error in judgement."

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