{"id":57888,"date":"2020-08-07T13:30:26","date_gmt":"2020-08-07T18:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=57888"},"modified":"2020-08-07T15:25:14","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T20:25:14","slug":"57888","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=57888","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Congress awards its highest honor to WWII crew of USS Indianapolis<\/a><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Congress has awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, its highest honor, to surviving crew members of the USS Indianapolis, the ship that delivered key components of the first nuclear bomb and was later sunk by Japan during World War II.<\/p>\n

The ship, with 1,195 personnel aboard, delivered enriched uranium and other parts of the atomic bomb \u2018\u2018Little Boy\u201d that was later dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945.<\/p>\n

Four days after delivering its top secret cargo, the ship was sunk by Japanese torpedoes on July 30, 1945. Of nearly 900 men who went into the Philippine Sea, just 316 survived before being rescued nearly five days later. The death toll of 879 was the largest single disaster at sea in U.S. Navy history.<\/p>\n

Survivors were stranded in the open ocean with few lifeboats and almost no food or water, enduring severe burns, dehydration and shark attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn an instant, her crew went from fighting the battles without to fighting the battles within,\u2019’ said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, one of a host of congressional and Navy leaders who spoke at Thursday\u2019s virtual ceremony honoring the eight surviving crew members on the 75th anniversary of the sinking.<\/p>\n

The Gold Medal was awarded to the ship\u2019s entire crew, living and dead, and will be displayed at the Indiana War Memorial Museum in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n

After the sinking, the crew \u201cfought to stay alert, to look after each other \u2014 literally to hold on for dear life,\u2019’ said McConnell, R-Ky. He and other speakers were shown on video because of the global coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who perished in the water gave our nation the ultimate sacrifice … but the true legacy of the Indianapolis was secured before those torpedoes struck,\u2019’ McConnell said. \u201cHer crew turned the tide of the war. So to her crew members who are still standing watch: Your Congress and your nation say thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The medal \u201crecognizes a fighting ship\u2019s crew, one that helped end the most terrible war this world has ever known,\u2019’ Toti said. He called the crew members \u201camong the best the United States Navy has to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

None of the crew members would call himself a hero, Toti added, \u201cbut they would all say they served in a crew of heroes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite addressed the surviving crew members directly, saying: \u201cAll Americans owe you a forever debt of gratitude.\u201d Braithwaite called the sinking \u201cone of the darkest chapters in our naval history\u201d and said, \u201cWe can never forget the astounding grit and bravery shown by those who lived to tell the tale\u201d or \u201cthe important lessons our Navy learned from that tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congress awards its highest honor to WWII crew of USS Indianapolis WASHINGTON \u2014 Congress has awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, its highest honor, to surviving crew members of the USS Indianapolis, the ship that delivered key components of the first nuclear bomb and was later sunk by Japan during World War II. The ship, with … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57888"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57903,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57888\/revisions\/57903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}