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American Morning

Author, Survivor Discuss Sinking of USS Indianapolis in World War II

Aired July 30, 2001 - 10:47   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: On this day in history back in 1945, during World War II, one of the worst sea disasters in U.S. Navy history took place. A Japanese submarine torpedoed the USS Indianapolis in the South Pacific. The attack was deadly; some 300 men were killed, then nearly 900 sailors fought for their lives in the Pacific waters. About five days later, 321 men were rescued, but four of those would later die.

There is a new book, "In Harm's Way." It details the sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the extraordinary story of its survivors.

We are joined by the author, Doug Stanton, who's also a contributing editor at "Men's Journal." Also, Giles McCoy joins us to tell us his story of survival aboard the USS Indianapolis. They are both in New York.

Welcome to both of you.

DOUG STANTON, AUTHOR, "IN HARM'S WAY": Thank you very much.

GILES MCCOY, SURVIVOR, USS INDIANAPOLIS: Thank you very much.

KELLEY: Doug, I'll start with you. How did you get interested in the story. Why this story?

STANTON: I went for "Men's Journal" to write about Gil today, thinking that's what would be my focus, but when I started talking to him and friends of his like Mike Kuryla and Ed Brown, I think the world of Gil, and when you get to know him and go back and figure out what he lived through with his shipmates, it's an extraordinary story, and that's what drew me in.

KELLEY: Giles, when I was reading about you this morning, I could hardly believe it. How old were you at the time this happened?

MCCOY: Nineteen.

KELLEY: Nineteen years old. I have a boy who just turned 20 yesterday. And I thought of him, you, and all these men, and it's absolutely heart breaking. Tell us about your struggle and what you went through those five days to survive?

MCCOY: Of course, the big ordeal was we were forced into it as soon as the submarine sunk us. When we got out of the water, almost of us had to walk down the side of the ship because it laid over on its side and sunk very rapidly. As we got out into the water, we were into oil that was about 2 inches thick. So we got into groups to try to survive and try to support one another.

KELLEY: How do you do that? How did you support one another?

MCCOY: What we tried to do, the first man I came in contact with was a gentleman named Eugene Morgan, and he didn't even have a life jacket on. He was floating with a powder can between his legs. We finally had a dead body come by that had a life jacket on, and we took it off of them and put it on Gene. Then I left his group and joined a group -- I had to swim to a raft that was floating, and that's where I put my five days in.

I had to crawl onto this raft and hold onto it. The way we supported one another was that the men, as the time went on and as thirst got the best of us, the men started hallucinating and going out of their mind, and eventually went into a coma. To keep them from drowning, we tied all our faces together, so they wouldn't drop their head as the life jacket soaked up water and drowned.

KELLEY: One of them I read thought about their girlfriend's hair sparkling in the sunlight. What did you think of, what did you talk about? How was it with each other when you were tied together?

MCCOY: My biggest thing that I talked about was my mother. I had such a wonderful mother, and I had three sisters, and I was the only son she had left, and I didn't want her to lose another son. She lost two early in life; they died of pneumonia. And I wanted to get back to my mother. I didn't want her to be deprived of a son, because we were really close.

KELLEY: That is so touching.

MCCOY: I think that is what drove me on.

KELLEY: Many of them talked about the will to survive. Doug, you can fill us in on some of the other folks that you may have talked to and about how they decided that they were going to live?

STANTON: Sure, this, for me, is the most moving part of this, about the sea dishing out to Gil and his buddies the very worst, and they're rising to this occasion to be their best. It is simple stuff: Gil remembering his mom or Ed remembering what his dad said -- he said, Ed, we're not a family of quitters, and Ed's buddy swims up and says, I don't want to be here anymore; it's easier to die than to live. And this man took off his vest and swam away.

These are 18- and 19-year-old young men. Ed almost follows him, but then he thinks of his dad's own warning and admonition when he was back in the Dakotas, and he hangs on, and that's what kept Ed Brown and lots of these young men back in the world, and that's why we are walking around today talking about that.

KELLEY: Giles, there are a lot of people who said they came back, they didn't talk about it, and they just went on. How did it affect your life, and how did you go on?

MCCOY: I was the one that founded our survivors organization, and we set out and we still are a memorial organization. I wanted all of us to get together to pay a memorial tribute to the men that we left out there in the water. That's what we did from 1960 all the way up until I was chairman, in 1995, when we dedicated our beautiful monument, in Indianapolis, to the men that lost their lives on the Indianapolis.

And I think that's the big thing, that when you have to share a tragedy like we did, you become very close. And our organization is very, very close today. We all love one another, and when we have reunions, we all join up, and we bring our families together.

And today -- I don't know if you know it -- is our 56th anniversary. We were sunk July 30, 1945.

KELLEY: That's right, 1945, July 30.

Giles McCoy, you certainly have our admiration and respect. Thanks, from a lot of folks. We're glad you could join us today and talk to us, along with Doug Stanton, who's the author of "In Harm's Way".

Thank you very much.

MCCOY: You're most welcome.

STANTON: Thank you.

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