Sunday, September 27, 2015

Edgar Harrell USMC USS Indianapolis Survivor

Via Jeffery "The highlight of the the Linden, TN re-enactment I attended yesterday was a speech/testimonial from a marine who was aboard the USS Indianapolis when it sank and was one of the 317 who survived. He spoke for about twenty-five minutes. Afterwards I approached and spoke with him. I told him my high school principal/football coach had been a radioman on the Indy.  He asked his name and I replied Aubrey Hicks. He said, "he didn't make it". I told him he did and that Hicks and four more had gone into town just before the Indy sailed to deliver the bomb. 

Hicks declined his friends offer three times, but they insisted that he go and they would "pay his way". The four ended up getting hammered and were AWOL when the ship sailed. They spent 35 days in the stockade, but lived.The old gentleman replied, "Oh yeah, those four! I remember the story now, Thank you for sharing that with me"! I found this video of him on YouTube. I videoed some of the highlights of his speech/testimonial (the Capt. Quinn moment from Jaws "1200 men went into the water, 317 came out" basically), but my sound quality was poor. (Link to his book.)
 

No comments:

Post a Comment