Veterans Memorial Museum To Show USS Indianapolis Documentary and Host One Of Last Survivors

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The sinking of the USS Indianapolis is the worst U.S. naval disaster at sea in history, but on Thursday, one of its last surviving crew members will be in Chehalis.

The Veterans Memorial Museum will show the film “USS Indianapolis: The Legacy,” which features first-person accounts from survivors, this Thursday at the museum. After the film, there will be a question and answer session with the film’s director, Sara Vladic, and survivor John Woolston, 93, one of only 16 survivors still living.

Near the end of World War II, the ship was on its way to the Philippines after delivering parts of the Little Boy atomic bomb, later dropped on Hiroshima, when it sank in shark-infested waters. 

Out of 1,196 crewmen, there were 317 survivors who were stranded in the perilous waters for four days before the U.S. Navy even knew the ship had gone down. 

Chip Duncan, director of the Veterans Memorial Museum, said the sinking of the USS Indianapolis was an utter embarrassment for the U.S. Navy. The ship was returning from delivering parts for the Little Boy atomic bomb, when missiles from a Japanese submarine struck it. 

“The captain was ordered to get there as fast as he could,” Duncan said. “When they left, he zigzagged when he thought it would be prudent, but it was a cloud-covered night, the moon couldn’t be seen. Guys couldn’t see the hand in front of their face it was so dark. So the captain just said ‘get the steam going and get the ship going straight, no need to zigzag.’ They had no destroyer escort, just because there wasn’t one available at the time and had no idea there was a Japanese sub.” 

The events happened toward the end of World War II, when the Japanese Navy presence was minimal, he said. 

“The odds of it happening was like being struck by lightning and winning the lottery twice. He (the Japanese submarine captain) just raised his submarine up to periscope depth, took a look on the horizon and for a few minutes, the moon broke through on some clouds and illuminated the Indianapolis on the horizon,” Duncan said. “He fired three torpedos at it. Two of them hit and he sunk the Indianapolis.”

The ship sank in 12 minutes. The Navy didn’t learn of the sinking until four days later.

“They were in shark-infested waters,” Duncan said. “Of course the sharks got drawn by the smell of blood and they would attack the guys and just eat them. The guys quickly figured out that if they got closer into a pack and there was more of them, the sharks would generally stay away from them. But at times, they would still just kind of look for a straggler and pick them off.”

A submarine-hunting aircraft found the men by accident four days after the ship sunk.



“He (the pilot) radioed it in and said ‘hey, we’ve got something out here in the water,’” Duncan said. “And a local PBY squadron was at a local island. They heard about the news and this one guy took off and was told ‘Do not land. Just find the wreckage, circle around it, drop supplies if you can, do not land.’”

At that point, the survivors were spread out over a 10-mile radius, Duncan said.

“When he got there, there was a shark attack happening at the group that he saw. He landed his airplane. When he landed it, he cracked the hull. Even though it was a seaplane, you have to wait for calm waters. He cracked the hull on his seaplane, but managed to turn his airplane into a liferaft and I think he pulled in close to 100 guys.”

Duncan said the pilot tied parachutes to the wings of the plane to help save other men. Ships came in and picked up the rest of the survivors by the fifth day. Duncan said the newspapers published articles celebrating the end of World War II, with only small notices about the USS Indianapolis.

Few people knew the story until a team funded by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, found the sunken ship in August 2017.

Duncan coordinated the event with Kim Roller, an “honorary survivor.” 

Roller earned that title from the veterans. In 2004, she began giving presentations about the USS Indianapolis across the country at high schools, colleges and to various communities. She dresses in 1945 garb and takes survivors to the presentations. She gave one of those presentations at the Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis a few years ago.

“They were very happy that somebody wanted to help them tell their story and get it out there,” Roller said.

This time around, Roller will moderate the question and answer session after the film with Woolston and Vladic.

The event starts at 6:30 p.m. this Thursday. Tickets to the event are on sale at the Veterans Memorial Museum for $5. The museum is located at 100 SW Veterans Way in Chehalis.