Greetings, and welcome to the World Affairs Board!
The World Affairs Board is the premier forum for the discussion of the pressing geopolitical issues of our time. Topics include military and defense developments, international terrorism, insurgency & COIN doctrine, international security and policing, weapons proliferation, and military technological development.
Our membership includes many from military, defense, academic, and government backgrounds with expert knowledge on a wide range of topics. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so why not register a World Affairs Board account and join our community today?
the McVay court-martial was the last act of the tragedy.
Love the last part were it is said the failure to order a timely abandon ship order was not proved. Going down in 12 minutes would seem to say no time to do much of anything except jump. The massive loss of life occurred after the sinking due to Navy incompetence to start a search when a junior officer noted an empty berth in Tacloban.
A few years ago a elderly gentleman walked into my practice for an exam. Luckily he came at 5 pm since we didn't finish till close to 8 pm. Early in the conversation I extracted the information that he was in the Navy during WWII as a meteorologist. Later in the war he was sitting up in the pool at Mare Island waiting to be assigned to a ship. A ship was just finishing up work and the Chief came by and suggested he take this ship as part of the Admiral's Staff because it is a nice ship. So he takes the recommendation and boards for the short cruise down to Hunter's Point. While there he notices a big box loaded onto the deck and it is guarded by Army Captains and Majors. Naturally he thought that strange and the scuttlebutt started. After a stop at Pearl the ship arrived at Tinian where he got off with the rest of the Admiral's Staff. Some days later he read of the Indianapolis going down while on Tinian.
He was 87 years old at the time and would now be 95 so I have no idea if he is still alive. He did later come back and give me a book on US Navy intelligence during WWII. He had followed things closely over the years. The book was dry to say the least and took time to get through. In that book it was noted that a US destroyer was sunk by a Japanese sub in the area the Indy would transit. It was also noted the Indy would get no escorts and she had no sonar. Capt. McVay was not told of the sinking prior to leaving. The implication in the book is that the Navy withheld that information so as not to tip off the Japanese that we had their codes. No matter how one may see it Capt. McVay was set up for failure and became the easy scapegoat.
BTW, if you like to listen to podcasts, there is one called War Stories....they are excellent. They just did a very good one on the Indy.
It's not the dreck that Oliver North spews on Fox.
Its by two young men who are excellent students of history. One is a civilian defense analyst and the other is a young National Guard officer who is a full time historian for on the of the state Guards. He goes by Angry Staff officer.
BTW, if you like to listen to podcasts, there is one called War Stories....they are excellent. They just did a very good one on the Indy.
It's not the dreck that Oliver North spews on Fox.
Its by two young men who are excellent students of history. One is a civilian defense analyst and the other is a young National Guard officer who is a full time historian for on the of the state Guards. He goes by Angry Staff officer.
Comment