USS Indianapolis Ceremony Brings History to Downtown Indianapolis – Indianapolis News | Indiana Weather

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — This week, Indianapolis will once again host a solemn annual ceremony as the city remembers the sinking of a ship that bears the same name.

The USS Indianapolis CA 35 was a Portland-class heavy cruiser of the United States Navy that was hit by Japanese torpedoes in July 1945 while en route from Guam to Leyte Gulf in the Philippines.

The ship, nicknamed “Indy,” sank in about 12 minutes. Of the 1,195 people on board, only 316 survived.

The ceremony on Tuesday will commemorate the victims of the 1945 disaster as well as the survivors, the sinking and the subsequent brutal days at sea.

Brigadier General Stewart Goodwin (Ret.) said in a Daybreak interview on WISH-TV that these survivors were “cut from the same cloth.”

“They’re just a piece of a certain cloth that they were able to survive in shark-infested waters, without anything to eat or drink for four or five days,” Goodwin said. “The story is so special, and it’s something that tells us something about our country. It tells us about the people of our country, and in today’s world I think we’ve lost some of that.”

Guests of honor at the July 30 event will include family and friends, but organizers encourage everyone to attend.

The ceremony begins at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the USS Indianapolis CA 35 Memorial, on the east bank of the canal in downtown, just south of the St. Clair Street Bridge.

The monument was unveiled in 1995, to commemorate 50 years since the ship sank after the Japanese attack. At the time of the unveiling, more than 100 survivors of the disaster were present.

Now there is only one left.

“Harold Bray!” Goodwin smiled as he said the name, while also acknowledging the inevitability of the time. “I’m not sure if it’s been officially announced yet, but the decision has been made that when the last survivor passes away, they’re going to continue having the reunions.”

Four ships of the United States Navy fleet have been named USS Indianapolis.

ID-3865 – a cargo ship that saw brief (1918-1919) service with the Navy at the end of World War I
CA-35 – the cruiser that first sailed in 1932 and sank after a Japanese attack in 1945.
SSN-697 – an attack submarine that served from 1980 to 1998.
LCS-17 – the current USS Indianapolis is a small combat ship that was commissioned in 2019.