NAVY BLUE
As the presidential campaign draws to a close, I had been reflecting upon the storied Naval careers of the McCain family. Fathers, sons and grandfathers all Naval Officers at one time or another. It is an interesting branch of the military, these men and women who take to the sea in our defense. Coincidentally, another story popped up in the back pages of a local paper and it caught my eye. It explained, in a way, what that camaraderie is all about, or at least a piece of it.
Boatswain Mate 2nd Class Eugene Morgan died this past June of a heart attack at the age of 87. For years, his wife and family never knew much about his time in the service, because he rarely spoke of it. Until his wife died just a few years ago, he would not speak about it at all. But when his grandson, Machinist Mate 1st Class Jason Witty began to ask him about his time in service, Morgan began to spill, finally, some of the horrific details of what he had endured.
In July of 1945 the USS Indianapolis had just completed a secret mission, carrying components to the tiny island of Tinian in the Pacific. These "components" were the parts for the atomic bomb which would soon be dropped on Hiroshima. Due to the gravity of the mission, the high-level of secrecy, the Indianapolis with her crew of 1,196 had made the voyage unescorted. Early in the morning on July 30th, near the Marannas Islands, a Japanese submarine found the Indianapolis and fired six torpedoes, two of which ripped through the starboard side. It took only 12 minutes for the ship to sink in what is still the greatest tragedy in naval history. Morgan would be one of only 317 to survive.
To his grandson, Jason, he recounted how he had been thrown from his bed in the explosion and jumped overboard. He remembered seeing some food floating by, and as he swam towards it, he was attacked by a shark. He had the scars from that attack on his back for the entire four decades that he never spoke of the event. He recalled hearing the screams of his shipmates, as hundreds were killed by sharks. The occasion is mentioned briefly in the famous movie "Jaws", when the gristled old shark-fisherman played by Robert Shaw, talks of his surviving the Indianapolis. One of those truly nightmare-like chapters in history, it has been said by others who survived that the bleeding, wounded, would be pushed away from liferafts full of survivors, so as not to draw sharks. An ocean of body parts, within an ocean, and the entire incident in the absolute middle of nowhere.
As Morgan told his grandson, by the time seaplanes came for the relatively few survivors, most were delirious, hysterical, dehydrated. It was a mere handful that came through with out some kind of permanent damage. All this being said, try to imagine the moment when Eugene Morgan asked his grandson that upon his passing, he would like his ashes returned to the sea, in the same spot where his shipmates were swallowed by fate. The kind of stuff of which movies are made, but this isn't Hollywood, this conversation took place in a living room in Puyallup, Washington, the town from which Jason Witty graduated high school and immediately joined the Navy.
Jason Witty, who serves on the USS Ohio, a submarine, sheepishly brought the request to his commanding officer. The request went up the chain of command to Captain Dennis Carpenter, who quickly approved the request. "I thought it would be an honor", Carpenter said. And so, on October 2nd, in calm seas and under azure skies, the USS Ohio surfaced, having navigated slightly off-course, to find the spot where the USS Indianapolis, still resting somewhere on the floor below, went down some 63 years earlier. Jason Witty and a small contingent of officers came up top, and the rifles fired three shots, and the grandson of Eugene Morgan, returned to the sea and air, the remains of his grandfather. Returned, as requested, to rest with his Brothers-In-Arms.
God Bless America
Karl From New Hampshire