Start: November 11, 2025 1:30 p.m.
End: November 11, 2025 3 p.m.
Location: Alumni CenterLearn more about ALL and how to become a member!
Description: USS Indianapolis was the fastest ship in the Navy. She served as the president’s flagship. This story is told by Seaman First Class L.D. Cox, who served aboard her and was on watch on the bridge at the moment she was torpedoed.
You will learn why Indianapolis was not at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and hear about the damage she sustained at Okinawa. You will also hear the story of her delivery of the atomic bomb to Tinian.
This account includes kamikazes, near disasters that could have changed the course of history, two song biscuits, and a box of scented toilet paper for General Douglas MacArthur.
Unfortunately, it also includes grave errors, fire and foundering, unquenchable thirst, lingering death, and sudden, savage screams.
On the inspiring side, this is a story of miracles—of rescue when there was no hope, of a Hoosier airman who risked his life to save as many as he could, and of an eleven-year-old boy who changed the world.
This is the story of the USS Indianapolis.
Presenter: Don McAllister is a lifelong resident of Anderson, Indiana. He is the founder of the National Veterans Historical Archives (NVHA), which is based in Anderson and was founded in 2001 to record, preserve, and share the life stories of our veterans. Don has written five novels and has written a monthly column on their project for the Anderson Herald Bulletin since 2005.