About 380 US Navy ships were lost in combat in World War II, but Captain McVay was the only one to be court-martialed for the loss of his ship
His conviction ended his career , for the rest of his life , he received hate mail and phone call from relatives of dead crewmen .
McVay committed suicide in 1968 .It was a sad story .
Following years of efforts by some survivors and others to clear his name, McVay was posthumously exonerated by the 106th United States Congress and President Bill Clinton on October 30, 2000.
shareMcVay was truly the final victim of the tragedy.
shareYes he was. Even the Japanese sub commander (Hashimoto IIRC) tried to convince the board at the Courts Martial that it would have made no difference even if McVey had zigzagged. It was a clear night and he had the ship dead to rights. That went unheeded.
The Navy was sadly was more interested in a scape goat to provide a smoke screen and cover for the numerous ways they had failed the Indianapolis survivors.
While no organization is perfect and in general the US Navy had done a great job winning the war in the Pacific. They had many honorable events to be proud of. This was a very dark stain on that honor.
The real tragedy is seeing his part played by Nicholas Cage.
shareWhy did the U.S. Navy even need this trial in the first place? I thought that the reasoning of no escort and no rescue because of "this mission doesn't exist due to the cargo" was perfectly logical. Why not just say that the ship and men were sacrificed for the good of the mission.
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If I've never seen it before, it's a new release to me!
http://www.ussindianapolis.org/hashimoto.htm
More information on the subject , especially when you read the comments from the sub captain, how they used him as a scapegoat.