Sam Lopez, Sr., father of Linda Lopez Gandy, Monongah High
Alumni Association president, may be part of the most unique Last Man Club in
America.
He’s one of only 27 USS
Indianapolis survivors who still are alive. They are in their 80s and 90s.
Victor Buckett, who attended the
USS Indianapolis reunion to mark the 70th anniversary of the disaster this
summer, passed away this month. Buckett grew up in Mamaroneck, New York.
Sam Lopez, Sr. |
The USS Indianapolis was returning from delivering components for the
atomic bomb that later struck Hiroshima when it was torpedoed by a Japanese
submarine on July 30, 1945. The ship sank in 12 minutes. In America’s worst
naval tragedy of World War II, 880 died.
A month later, Japan surrendered after the U.S. dropped
atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Because no one else knew about it, 900 men floated in the ocean for four
days until they were discovered by accident when a Navy PBY search and rescue plane piloted by Hoosier
Adrian Marks discovered them floating in the ocean. By then, only 317 men still were alive.
Sharks feasted on the dead and attacked and killed some of the living.
Captain Charles Butler McVay, who had led the Indianapolis through the
invasion of Iwo Jima and the bombardment of Okinawa, was court-martialed, the
only one in charge of a ship given that punishment in World War II.
He was returned to duty in 1946 and committed suicide in 1968.
Sam Lopez has a bridge on U.S 19 south of Shinnston at
Gypsy named for him.
Sam
didn't graduate from Monongah High but had the good sense to marry a Monongah
girl, Joanne, in 1946 and has lived in Monongah for 63 years, about the length of a football
field from where I spent my childhood on Thomas and Church streets.
Those still alive may see a movie about their traumatic
experiences if they can hang on a little longer.
Nicolas Cage, last month began filming “USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage.” I’m
guessing that those still alive from the Indianapolis will be invited to the
premiere, probably in Indianapolis and planned, appropriately, for Memorial Day.
Wonder who will play Sam?
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