And Why did no one realize the USS Indianapolis was missing July 30th 1945?

Have you ever been part of a project where everyone did what they were supposed to but the project still failed?

If you have, the problem was probably not with the people involved, but likely due to the system needed to bring the thing to fruition. In July of 1945, the U.S. Navy had a system failure that led to worst naval disaster in U.S. history.

On July 26th 1945, sixty-two years ago this week, the USS Indianapolis dropped off a secret payload nicknamed Little Boy on the island of Tinian near Japan. Since the mission was top secret only a few men out of the 1,196 on the ship knew what Little Boy was. About a month later all the men, at least the ones still alive, would realize that Little Boy was the Atom Bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

After dropping off Little Boy Captain McVay ordered the ship out of Tinian and charted a course to Guam. Once at Guam Captain McVay was given new orders to meet the battleship USS Idaho at Leyte for a training mission to prepare for an invasion of Japan.

Unfortunately, the Idaho was not told McVay would be on his way. Before leaving Guam, Captain McVay was in kind not told that the USS Underhill was sunk by a submarine in the vicinity of which he was about to sail. If he had been told, he probably would have fought harder that his request for an escort be approved. An escort would be able to help fight off enemy ships or help in the event of a rescue situation.

After leaving Guam on July 28th the Surface Operations Officer at Leyte placed the Indianapolis on his board since it was now in transit and set to arrive on July 31st. Unfortunately the USS Indianapolis would not arrive on July 31st or any other day.

Just after midnight on July 30 th the USS Indianapolis was hit by enemy torpedoes fired by the same submarine that sank the Underhill. At the time of the strike most men were awake due to a shift change so about 880 men made it alive into the water within 15 minutes before the Indianapolis broke apart and fell to the bottom of the sea.

At the time, the 880 men felt lucky to be alive and started to gain hope upon hearing word that the ship's radioman got out an S.O.S. before the ship went down, and besides Leyte and the Idaho were expecting the Indianapolis the next day.

Once the Indianapolis did not arrive, surely a rescue mission would begin. Some of the 880 men were in rafts and others would wait it out floating in their life vests. Men would take turns in the rafts and life preservers. The life preservers were made to specifications that had them lasting about 72 hours since that should be long enough to rescue anyone using them. The men huddled together and got ready to make it through the night.

As the sun came up on the men the Surface Operations Officer at Leyte followed protocol and took the Indianapolis off his board without ever confirming it arrived. The Idaho made preparations for training never knowing the Indianapolis was supposed to be with them. No one would ever realize the ship was missing. Hundreds of sharks however would realize the men were in the water.

For about 100 hours the men had to endure lack of food, no fresh water, a relentless sun and no way to defend themselves against the shark attacks. By the end of the ordeal, some 550 more men would be dead.

Around the 100 th hour after the sinking, 24 year old Lieutenant Chuck Gwinn was flying a routine patrol in the area between Guam and Leyte. He was leaning out of the plane fixing an antenna when he noticed a huge oil slick. Thinking this was from an enemy ship he started to dive in and opened his bomb bay doors. As he got closer he and his crew saw men floating in the water and quickly gained altitude and radioed in what he was seeing. Hours were wasted while Gwinn convinced people of what he was seeing; they thought it was a prank.

Finally, after three hours Adrian Marks, a 28 year old Navy pilot arrived and began dropping rafts and other supplies from his plane. He was low enough to actually see men being attacked by sharks.

Not being able to help the men more from the sky, he disobeyed orders and landed his plane, which was not a sea-plane in the dangerous seas between troughs of waves. He took this risk without knowing if the men were friend or foe. Upon seeing the plane men threw off their life preservers to get on top of his plane, out of the water and away from the sharks.

However, some were so tired that once they took off their life preservers they sank to the bottom and drowned. Upon learning who the men were, Marks frantically radioed in for help and finally the Navy became aware of the disaster. Until that time, the Navy still did not know the Indianapolis was missing.

If not for Lieutenant Gwinn and the broken antennae, all the men probably would have died and the fate of the Indianapolis probably would not have been known until Japanese records of the sinking were discovered by the Navy.

The man caused failures leading this to disaster were the Idaho not knowing the Indianapolis was coming and thus not missing it, the Indianapolis not having an escort, Captain McVay not being told of submarines in the area and no one at Leyte realizing the ship was missing.

The unexpected difficulties due to nature were no less deadly; no fresh water, exposure to the relentless sun and hundreds of man eating blood crazed sharks.

It is possible that the sinking of the Indianapolis could not have been prevented even with an escort. The sinking should not be shocking, many ships were lost due to enemy submarines, what is shocking is the failure to consider an enemy attack could happen to the Indianapolis, no method in place to recognize if a disaster did happen and no ability to react to a disaster.

About 300 men lost their lives directly due to the sinking; approximately another 500 lost their lives due primarily to process failures.

The Navy did not choose to announce the sinking until two weeks later on a big news day, the day Japan surrendered. Once the public realized the scope of the tragedy they and many politicians were outraged.

The Navy wanted a person to blame since explaining it as a systemic process failure could bring too many questions and oversight. Besides, the disaster was too horrific, someone must have done something wrong. Well, for the first time in Naval history a Court Marshal was ordered for a Captain of a ship sunk by enemy submarines.

Captain McVay was found guilty of failure to zig zag his ship. No matter that under testimony the Japanese commander said that zig zagging would not have made a difference, he would have sunk the Indianapolis anyway. Captain McVay who had an impeccable decorated career, committed suicide many years later after his wife died and having received many letters blaming him for the disaster.

Failures like the Indianapolis are not due to an individual but are due to the system itself.

Luckily for most of us, our decisions, actions and processes will not be as significant as the ones for men or women at war but none the less, when things do not turn out as expected frustration can certainly be expected.

And if you were to look back at a failed endeavor and see that everyone did as they should have do not jump to the conclusion that someone must be blamed anyway, do not go looking for your personal Captain McVay.

To help avoid huge failures, a process needs to be designed so that a problem can be identified and once identified the problem needs to be addressed to prevent the situation from getting worse.