Met an Indy survivor today

[trax1]

Was at the local grocery store today when I saw an older man wearing a "USS Indianapolis CA-35" hat on with "Survivor" on the back, so of course I went up to him to shake his hand, we talked for a couple min's, I believe he said there were only 69 of them left now.  His name was Michael N. Kuryla, he gave me a card that has his email address on it, I'm gonna write him and see if he'll write me a brief story about his experience and if he does I'll make sure to post it on here.

[Golfer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5ACYu_ZNNA

Use caution.  He might not want to talk about it and use a lot of tact when asking.

[Babalonian]

That's the heavy cruiser that delivered some components of the A-bombs dropped on Japan but got sunk on its return trip home by a Japanesse sub and nobody knew about the sinking for a few days, right?  

Would be awesome to read what he has to say about his experience during that and if he had any other close-calls during that war, what a lucky find.

[trax1]

That's the heavy cruiser that delivered some components of the A-bombs dropped on Japan but got sunk on its return trip home by a Japanesse sub and nobody knew about the sinking for a few days, right?  

Yeah, he said he didn't find out about what they had delivered to Tinian island until he got back to shore, said he was in the water for 5 days, and spent another week on a hospital ship.

[crazyivan]

  to him , floating along in open water "whew" Im scaring myself.

[Dux]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5ACYu_ZNNA

Use caution.  He might not want to talk about it and use a lot of tact when asking.

I was thinking the same thing at first... but then again he probably wouldn't wear it on a cap if he were that sensitive about it.
Still... tact is always good when talking to Vets; "I bet it was really cool..." is probably not how they remember those days of losing friends and countrymen.

[trax1]

Well I found a radio interview he did with a radio station here in Chicago, so if want to hear the story check it out, he talks about after the ship went down.

http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/audio_library/ram/848/848_010831a.ram

Also did a little research and he was one of the people who help to clear Captain McVay record.  Heres what he said at the senate hearing, "The Navy knew that the submarine which sank us was in our path. They did not tell Captain McVay. We were sent into harm's way, then forgotten, by these and many examples of carelessness"

[Simaril]

I was thinking the same thing at first... but then again he probably wouldn't wear it on a cap if he were that sensitive about it.
Still... tact is always good when talking to Vets; "I bet it was really cool..." is probably not how they remember those days of losing friends and countrymen.

Whenever I see an older vet with a combat service cap or jacket I at least try to catch his eye, give him a nod, and say "Thank you, sir." Every time I've done that I can tell that they at least appreciate someone noticing....because so many don't, or don't care.

Unfortunately, our culture worships the "new" and the "now" so much that the huge majority don't have any idea what happened before they got here.

[skullman]

my dad was an army calvary recon sgt.He was at bastogne and all over the ETO.It was a subject he didnt want to talk about.He said he saw to much death.He was a cajun an spoke fluent french and would dress in civilian clothes and reconoiter.After his death I went through his chest and found all kinds of stuff.A walther ppk,a swaztika banner,and lots of captured pictures.I wish he could have told me more but it was a bad subject that gave him alot of nightmares.I can relate to him as I was an air force security police.I was sent to Ton son nhut for extra security while they were closing it down and had a close friend killed in a sapper attack.My experience was short and nowhere close to what many others have experienced.I have a great respect to those have endured combat