From the Commander:
Dear Members,
The 30th of July doesn’t just mean another month gone by, it also means another year since the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. 72 years ago the ship went down after taking two torpedo hits from the Japanese sub I-58 captained by Mochitsura Hashimoto. Of the 1196 men on board 300 went down with the ship and almost 900 hit the Pacific waters covered in fuel oil with little to no provisions. Exposure, dehydration, salt water poisoning and shark attacks over the next four and a half days took that number down to 317 survivors. Today, only 20 are still with us, nineteen sailors and one marine. Post 79 was represented well at the reunion, with Marine Corporal Andrew Mehringer presenting the wreath and escorting Marine Survivor Edgar Harrell. It was a wonderful weekend with family and friends all paying tribute and honor to our WWII hero’s. May they all rest in peace.