{"id":302072,"date":"2010-07-06T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-06T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/%series%\/the-sinking-of-the-uss-indianapolis\/"},"modified":"2010-07-06T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-07-06T15:00:00","slug":"the-sinking-of-the-uss-indianapolis","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/familylife-today\/the-sinking-of-the-uss-indianapolis\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine yourself floating in the ocean, with your friends dying all around you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":294104,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"https:\/\/web.familylifetoday.com\/fl2010-07-06.mp3","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"00:","filesize":"28.23M","filesize_raw":"29597814","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":""},"categories":[2822],"tags":[5155],"podcast_series":[7393],"cwp_profile":[8959],"series":[2101],"class_list":["post-302072","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-growing-in-your-faith","tag-inspiration","podcast_series-out-of-the-depths","cwp_profile-ed-harrell","series-familylife-today"],"acf":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2024\/09\/FLT-Podcast-Cover-2-508x508-3.jpg?w=508","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2023\/02\/image-scaled.jpg","download_link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast-download\/302072\/the-sinking-of-the-uss-indianapolis","player_link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast-player\/302072\/the-sinking-of-the-uss-indianapolis","audio_player":null,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"light","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/familylife-today\/id212174303?mt=2&app=podcast","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/0j5UaKdQOHQCuo1bt0ebEm","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"youtube":{"key":"youtube","url":"","label":"YouTube","class":"youtube","icon":"youtube.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/feed\/podcast\/familylife-today","embedCode":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"cdaNLmYCLv\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/familylife-today\/the-sinking-of-the-uss-indianapolis\/\">The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/familylife-today\/the-sinking-of-the-uss-indianapolis\/embed\/#?secret=cdaNLmYCLv\" width=\"500\" height=\"350\" title=\"&#8220;The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis&#8221; &#8212; FamilyLife\u00ae - A Cru Ministry\" data-secret=\"cdaNLmYCLv\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script>\n\/*! This file is auto-generated *\/\n!function(d,l){\"use strict\";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&\"undefined\"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!\/[^a-zA-Z0-9]\/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),c=new RegExp(\"^https?:$\",\"i\"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display=\"none\";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute(\"style\"),\"height\"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):\"link\"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute(\"src\")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener(\"message\",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\",function(){for(var 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you.","meta_box":{"show_notes":"","transcript_url":"https:\/\/transcript.familylifetoday.com\/fl2010-07-06.pdf","transcript_content":"<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Sixty-five years ago this month on July 30, 1945, a Japanese submarine launched torpedoes that would sink the USS Indianapolis.\u00a0 Marine Ed Harrell was on board the Indianapolis that night.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 When I actually left the ship, and there I prayed that somehow the Lord would see me through what lie ahead, and yet I had the foggiest idea that I'm going to be out there for four-and-a-half days.\u00a0 There's times when you pray and there's times when you pray\u2014and there is a difference.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 This is <em>FamilyLife Today<\/em> for Tuesday, July 6<sup>th<\/sup>.\u00a0 Our host is the President of FamilyLife Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine.\u00a0 Of the nearly 1,200 men who were onboard the Indianapolis on that night only 317 survived the attack.\u00a0 Ed Harrell was one of those survivors.\u00a0 We'll hear his story today.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWelcome to <em>FamilyLife Today;<\/em> thanks for joining us.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Bob, I want you to imagine with me a pretty dramatic scene.\u00a0 Just consider yourself being 20 years old.\u00a0 You are a Marine\u2014you\u2019re tough, you're physically fit, but you're alone\u2014you\u2019re in the ocean\u2014you\u2019ve just lost your ship.\u00a0 You and about 80 others are floating in the middle of the night in the ocean in lifejackets.\u00a0 We're going to hear a story\u2014one of the most compelling stories I think I've ever heard from a gentleman who joins us on <em>FamilyLife Today\u2014<\/em>one of the survivors of the USS Indianapolis.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 A man who doesn't have to imagine what you just described because he lived through it.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 That's exactly right.\u00a0 Ed Harrell joins us on <em>FamilyLife Today<\/em>.\u00a0 Welcome to the broadcast, Ed.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 Thank you so much.\u00a0 It's a delight to be with you.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong><strong>\u00a0 <\/strong>Ed was a businessman for 38 years.\u00a0 He's served as a member of the board of trustees at Moody Bible Institute, a great ministry.\u00a0 He and his wife, Ola, who have been married since 1947 \u2013 that's a lot of years, that's a lot of years, live in Paris, Tennessee.\u00a0 They have two children, eight grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 That's right.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 You've lived quite a life, Ed, but you're one of the few survivors of that tragedy.\u00a0 Take us back, first of all, to when you signed up.\u00a0 Why in the world did you sign up to be a Marine?\u00a0 It was 1943, is that right?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 That's right, 1943.\u00a0 I don't know that I can even know why I really did at the time, but I knew that the war was getting pretty close to home, it sounded to me.\u00a0 In fact, when I heard that the Japanese and the American forces were having quite a battle at Midway, I was thinking that Midway was maybe between San Francisco and Hawaii.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t(laughter)\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI thought, \u201cYou know, they're getting pretty close to America.\u201d\u00a0 I had just finished my junior year in high school, and I volunteered then for the Marine Corps.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 You were 17, 18 years old?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 I was 18.\u00a0 I actually became a Marine when I was 18.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong><strong>\u00a0 <\/strong>You know, Ed, my son is a junior in high school, and the thought of my son saying, \"I'm going to sign up to be a Marine,\u201d in the middle of this kind of conflict\u2014as a parent, I'm not sure I'd endorse that plan.\u00a0 Were your parents behind it?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 Yes, I think they pretty much agreed.\u00a0 Dad pretty much agreed.\u00a0 They didn't necessarily want to see me leave; but they knew, too, the little Silvertone radio that we had was telling us quite a bit what was happening in the Pacific.\u00a0 I didn't have much problem convincing them that I wanted to go.\u00a0 In fact, I have two grandsons in the Marine Corps today.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Do you remember that time when you said, \u201cGoodbye,\u201d to your dad?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong><strong>\u00a0 <\/strong>I do.\u00a0 My dad was 37 or 39 years old, and I thought he was an old man then.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t(laughter)\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI told him, \u201cGoodbye,\u201d at the bus station.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Did you hug?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 Yes, yes, we did.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Were there tears?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 There were some tears; there were some tears.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 What did he say to you?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 I don't know that I can remember what he said, but I'm sure that the advice that he gave me\u2014he was a fine Christian man\u2014and I'm sure it was some good, solid advice that he was giving me.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Why the Marines?\u00a0 Why did you pick them instead of the Army, the Navy, or the Air Force?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 I wondered sometimes, \u201cWhy?\u201d\u2014if I picked the wrong one\u2014but I really don't know.\u00a0 I even considered, after I got in the Marine Corps, that I would be a paratrooper.\u00a0 After I got through boot camp, they said, \u201cYou\u2019re going to sea school.\"\u00a0 I didn't know what that meant either, but I went through sea school.\u00a0 Then they said, \"You're going aboard a large combatant ship,\" and so I waited then until the Indianapolis was in port and caught it at San Francisco.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Before you left to join the Marines, you made another decision that was a life-altering decision.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 Yes, I did.\u00a0 On the 1st of August, 1943, already a Marine and yet hadn't shown up even for my boot camp, I went to church on that Lord's Day morning, and seeming the Lord was saying to me, \"Your last chance, your last chance.\" The preacher preached a message, and he gave an invitation.\u00a0 He pronounced the benediction, and I sat there.\u00a0 I knew that my heart was not right with the Lord\u2014knowing that I was going into combat soon, I had to get things right with the Lord.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI know the pastor came back and sat down by me there.\u00a0 Everyone else had left the building except two people\u2014one was my wife later-to-be, and my mother-in-law later-to-be, and they were back in the back of the building praying.\u00a0 The pastor turned to a Scripture, Acts 16:31, which simply says, \"Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved.\"\u00a0 He said, \"Ed, do you believe that?\"\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWell, I was brought up in a Christian home and Sunday school, church all the time, but really never trusted the Lord as my own personal Savior.\u00a0 So he goes over that a time or two, and he said, \"Ed, God, who cannot lie, is making you a promise.\u00a0 He simply says, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,\u201d\u2014the finished work of Christ on the cross for you; and He promises to save you.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t\u00a0And then he would look at me and said, \"Do you believe that?\"\u00a0 I said, \"Yes, I believe that.\u201d\u00a0 He said, \"But does the Lord save you?\"\u00a0 \"No.\"\u00a0 Well, he went over it a time or two; and there, in the quietness of that little pew there in the church, I trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Savior.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSo later now, when I'm getting into the story of the actual sinking of the ship, I could really look back and rely on the faith and trust that I had in the Lord to care for me, even there in the water those days.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 You did end up joining the Marines then.\u00a0 You boarded the USS Indianapolis in San Francisco.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong><strong>\u00a0 <\/strong>In San Francisco.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong><strong>\u00a0 <\/strong>At that point, you had not been to war\u2014you had not been in any battles.\u00a0 That was soon to change, wasn\u2019t it?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong><strong>\u00a0 <\/strong>That\u2019s right.\u00a0 Of course, to get aboard a large combatant ship like that\u2014that ship was \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t610 feet, 8 3\/4 inches, and four- or five-stories high, and that's going to be my home, you know, for a time.\u00a0 And then after I got aboard, then to see all those big guns that I'm going to have to learn how to fire those things.\u00a0 I think I say in my book the biggest gun that I'd ever fired was a double-barreled shotgun, and yet here I'm going to be firing five-inch guns and 40- millimeter guns\u2014so I'll be trained to do those things.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThen I was at Saipan\u2014actually, I was at Enewetak and Kwajalein Islands there in the Marshalls.\u00a0 Then the first, really, combat was at Saipan, then at Tinian, and at Guam.\u00a0 The sea battle of the Philippine Seas\u2014that was at Palau, at Iwo Jima, at Okinawa, and later three air strikes on Tokyo.\u00a0 Lastly, I was Marine guard that guarded the two atomic bomb\u2014components of the bombs that we took over to our B-29 base on the island of Tinian.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 And you didn't know, when you got on board the Indianapolis in San Francisco Harbor, you didn't know what else was on board with you.\u00a0 You didn't know that you had...\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 We did not know.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 \u2026 the two atomic bombs that were going to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 We knew it was top-secret cargo.\u00a0 We understood, even, that the captain of the ship didn't know what we had.\u00a0 He had been told that what he had\u2014we needed to get it to the forward area\u2014that every hour would save lives.\u00a0 I was a guard that guarded\u2014or, actually, I was a corporal of the guard; and I stationed guards both on the two places that we had the components of the bomb.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 San Francisco to Tinian\u2014how long a trip is that in the water?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 We made a record speed-run.\u00a0 We traveled those 5,400 or so miles in ten days.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Wow.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 So, can you imagine a heavy cruiser traveling, like, 32 miles an hour across the Pacific?\u00a0 So we made a record speed-run to Tinian Island and got rid of our cargo.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 And you got rid of the cargo, made the turn, and you were to participate with another ship.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 We received orders at CENPAC there in Guam, the Central Pacific Command, to proceed to the Philippines, but we were to\u2014yes, we were to join up with the USS Idaho, I think, three days later, to make a gunnery practice as we went into the Philippines because the main invasion of Japan was to take place in November of '45.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 We're not going to go into the detail that surrounds a great controversy about the USS Indianapolis because some information was withheld about the enemy being in the waters\u2014enemy subs\u2014and you guys sailed into harm's way without realizing it.\u00a0 But you were in the process of making your way to join up with the USS Idaho, and it was really an uneventful trip.\u00a0 You weren't even going all that fast at that point, right?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 As I mentioned, we had traveled 32 knots going into Tinian; and then when we received orders then to go on to the Philippines, Captain McVay requested, or they gave him permission to travel only at 17 knots to slow down, because we had nearly burned the motors up, you know, getting the cargo over.\u00a0 So we had slowed back to 17 knots going on to the Philippines.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 You were one day away from connecting with the USS Idaho, and was it the middle of the night?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, we were to have met them the next day in the daytime, but we encountered Commander Hoshimoto at about five minutes after midnight on the night of July 30, 1945.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Now, where were you when that happened?\u00a0 Were you asleep in your bunk?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 No, the Indianapolis was a pretty modern ship, but we did not have air-conditioning.\u00a0 In order to get any sleep at night, you went topside.\u00a0 So I was on watch 'til 12:00.\u00a0 At 12:00 I went to my locker and I got my blanket, and I went topside.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI went up under the barrels of No. 1 turret, and I took off my shoes and used kind of the arch of my shoe as a pillow.\u00a0 I rolled up in my blanket, and I began to try to doze off to sleep there.\u00a0 It was about five minutes or so after midnight that the first explosion\u2014we took the first torpedo.\u00a0 About as long as it would take Commander Hoshimoto to say, \"Fire one, fire two,\" and he fired six, but two of them hit us.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThe first one cut the bow of the ship off.\u00a0 If you could see the picture of the ship, you could see that those barrels on No. 1 turret, forward big 8-inch guns\u2014they are about 18 feet long\u2014and I'm sleeping right down on the deck under the barrels of those guns.\u00a0 Looking forward of me, maybe 25-, 30-feet or so, the bow of the ship is cut off\u2014about 50 feet.\u00a0 Some said 65 feet, but I don't think it was that much.\u00a0 I think it was more of 40 feet or so.\u00a0 The bow of the ship was cut off, so we became a funnel, then, as we were moving through the water.\u00a0 Then the second explosion then was aft of me, nearly mid-ship and close to the marine compartment, and it made a big gaping hole.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tAnd, of course, since we had no air conditioning, we were traveling at a\u2014you might say\u2014at an open-condition in that all of our bulkheads down below were open.\u00a0 They had to be open or else we would suffocate without air conditioning.\u00a0 So that was a death blow, likewise, because as we were moving forward in the water, all of that water\u2026\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 That water just poured in the front.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 It was rushing in.\u00a0 Even before I could get back to my emergency station, which was back at mid-ship, the bow of the ship is already under.\u00a0 I mean, the deck of the bow of the ship, like the first 100 yards or so, is already under.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Was there still light on the ship at this point, or had the torpedoes knocked out the electricity?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 All the electricity was knocked out.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 So, you're in the middle of the night\u2026\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 But we had light in that there was an inferno below decks.\u00a0 They say that No. 2 turret took a hit, and the magazine in No. 2 turret had exploded and came through all the way up so that it was just a big fire\u2014a big blaze\u2014coming up through there.\u00a0 And then most other places below decks, forward of mid-ship, were an inferno.\u00a0 And so you get a certain amount of light, you know, from that.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong>\u00a0 You said when the torpedoes hit and the boat blew up\u2014blew the front end off\u2014that there was a huge amount of water that went up in the air, and it drenched you and ultimately kept you from burning up?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 I think two things.\u00a0 Of course, I believe in the providence of God\u2014No. 1.\u00a0 I had the blanket around me and that protected me\u2014no doubt\u2014maybe from much of the blast of the fire at the first explosion.\u00a0 All of the water, then, from that first explosion that went up in the air\u2014I don't know\u2014I could imagine 50- to 100-feet plus, then all of that coming back down.\u00a0 Well, I was drenched, you know, with all the water as it came back down.\u00a0 That kind of protected me somewhat, I'm sure, from much of the flash-burn that many were getting.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Ed, when something like that happens, it's disorienting at first.\u00a0 You're thinking, \"Did something explode down in the engine room?\"\u00a0 You're kind of trying to get your bearings.\u00a0 How long do you think it was before you realized, \"We're under attack; we've been hit,\" and you caught a sense of what was going on?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 I think immediately when we were hit, I wondered, \"We aren't firing at anyone.\"\u00a0 Then just those three explosions and no one now is firing back at us.\u00a0 So we had to have either hit a mine or we had to have been hit by a torpedo.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThen realizing, nearly immediately, that the forward part of the ship was cut off, and I could hear the bulkheads breaking down below.\u00a0 They, to me, were a death blow.\u00a0 You could imagine, you know, with all that water\u2014with the ship still moving 17 knots or so and the funnel and all of the water coming in, and the bulkheads breaking, you knew that the ship was doomed.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tAs I began to make my way then back to my emergency station, which was back to mid-ship, and there were those that were coming from internally\u2014coming out.\u00a0 That part of the ship, really, was kind of the officers' quarters up there.\u00a0 As they began to come out\u2014many of them as they began to come out\u2014and of course, it is right after midnight and they came out in their night clothing, which nearly was nothing.\u00a0 As they came out, many of those were in the flash burns; and as they came out, literally, flesh was hanging from their face and from their arms.\u00a0 They were in panic and begging for someone to give them some help.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tBut, you know, that's not my responsibility; and I have to make my way to my emergency station, which was on the quarterdeck.\u00a0 And, of course, when I get to the quarterdeck, then, I'm realizing that the ship is already under forward part, and there's no question that it's sinking.\u00a0 The bow is already under and that fantail begins to come high in the air.\u00a0 It stands up on the forward part\u2014and begins to turn to the starboard end and kind of noses down.\u00a0 Those screws are still turning.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong><strong>\u00a0 <\/strong>You still had to hang on because of the listing and the angling.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong><strong>\u00a0 <\/strong>Yes.\u00a0 You couldn\u2019t stand on the deck.\u00a0 You had to hold on to something or lean against the bulkhead.\u00a0 So as word actually came to abandon ship, I had made my way to the port side.\u00a0 There on the quarterdeck, there's a steel cable rail\u2014as we call it.\u00a0 I got hold of the rail, and I hung on there and said my prayer.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSeeming the Lord brought to mind there as I was about to abandon ship.\u00a0 Seeing many of the boys actually jump on each other in a desperate rush to get off the ship, I hung on to that rail for a little while and I prayed.\u00a0 Oftentimes I say when I give talks is, \u201cThere\u2019s times when you pray and there\u2019s times when you pray\u2014and there is a difference.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThere I prayed that somehow the Lord would see me through what lie ahead.\u00a0 Yet, I didn\u2019t have the foggiest idea that I was going to be out there for four-and-a-half days.\u00a0 To hear from the memory of His Word that he brought to mind, \u201cPeace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you.\u00a0 Let not your hearts be troubled.\u00a0 Do not be afraid.\u201d\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tYet, I am scared to death.\u00a0 As I left the ship, I left with the assurance I felt\u2014in other words, God didn\u2019t speak to me in any audible form in any way\u2014but just the assurance I had from repeating His Word back to my heart, I knew that he was going to care for me. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t\u00a0I stepped over the rail and stepped about two big, long steps and jumped into the water feet first.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tMy kapok jacket then came up over my head.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong><strong>\u00a0 <\/strong>How far was the water below where you jumped off?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong><strong>\u00a0 <\/strong>Probably not more than 5 or 6 feet\u2014just a little ways because the ship was already sinking.\u00a0 If you could visualize that the deck of the ship now is listing so that you step over, and you walk down the keel of the ship\u2014walk down the side of ship\u2014and so I could have nearly walked to the water.\u00a0 But I walked down closer to the water, and then jumped in feet first.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThen began to come up and push that oil back that was on the water and then to try to get my head up above that, and then swam away from the ship about maybe 50 yards.\u00a0 Then we began to congregate, you know, in little groups.\u00a0 The ship had still been moving, so boys had been getting off maybe for two or three or four minutes.\u00a0 Some had maybe gotten off even early on.\u00a0 I actually watched the ship as she went under.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong><strong>\u00a0 <\/strong>You mentioned pushing the oil back.\u00a0 How thick was the oil on the surface of the ocean?\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong><strong>\u00a0 <\/strong>I\u2019d have to say I didn\u2019t measure.\u00a0 (laughter)\u00a0 Some said, from different ones I have read, they would say it was \u00bd-inch thick.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if it was that thick; but you could imagine if all that ship had been ruptured and all of that crude oil is leaking out into the water, by now we are nearly stopped and we are standing on the bow and it is thick and covered\u2014it was just a lot of oil\u2014I know that.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 Did you think this was it for you?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Ed:<\/strong>\u00a0 I wondered, and yet I really felt\u2014and I don't say this in any boasting way of any kind, but I really had the assurance that somehow, some way, that I would make it.\u00a0 I felt assurance that, \"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid.\u00a0 I'm with you.\" I think when you hear all of my story, you'll see the various times that He came to my assurance that, \"I'm still with you,\" all the way through\u2014the different things that happened for the next three days.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong>\u00a0 You spell that out so clearly in your book which is called <em>Out of the Depths.<\/em><em>\u00a0 <\/em>I want to let our listeners know\u2014if you would like to get a copy of Ed\u2019s book, we are making it available this month for those of you who can help support the ministry of <em>FamilyLife Today <\/em>with a donation of any amount.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWe are listener supported and your donations are what keep us on the air on this station and on our network of stations all across the country.\u00a0 Summer is one of those times of the year when we see a decline in donation revenue as folks are busy often with other priorities; but if you can help with a donation this month, I want you to feel free to request a copy of Ed Harrell\u2019s book as a thank-you gift for your support of the ministry of <em>FamilyLife Today<\/em>.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tLet me just say here, we don\u2019t want you to do anything in making a donation that would take away from giving to your local church.\u00a0 We believe that support of the local church needs to be your first priority when it comes to giving.\u00a0 As you are able to help support other ministries or other endeavors, if you are able to support us this month, feel free to request a copy of the book <em>Out of the Depths<\/em> that tells Ed Harrell\u2019s story.\u00a0 We are going to hear the story throughout the rest of this week.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tGo on online at FamilyLifeToday.com to make your donation.\u00a0 Again, if you would like your copy of the book, just type the word \u201cDEPTHS\u201d in the key code box on the online donation form or call 1-800-FL-TODAY.\u00a0 Make a donation of any amount and just say, \u201cI\u2019d like a copy of the book <em>Out of the Depths.<\/em><em>\u00a0 <\/em>Again, we will send it out to you.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tLet me just say, \u201cThanks,\u201d in advance for whatever you are able to do in support of the ministry of <em>FamilyLife Today<\/em>.\u00a0 We very much appreciate your partnership with us.\u00a0 We appreciate your prayers for this ministry as well.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tTomorrow we are going to begin to hear some of the dramatic events that took place in the middle of the Pacific following the attack on the Indianapolis.\u00a0 Ed Harrell is going to be back with us.\u00a0 I hope you can be back with us as well. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThanks to our engineer today, Keith Lynch, and our entire broadcast production team.\u00a0 On behalf of our host Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine.\u00a0 We'll see you tomorrow for another edition of <em>FamilyLife Today<\/em>. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<em>FamilyLife Today<\/em> is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tHelp for today.\u00a0 Hope for tomorrow.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWe are so happy to provide these transcripts for you. However, there is a cost to transcribe, create, and produce them for our website. If you've benefited from the broadcast transcripts, would you consider <a href=\"http:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/donate\">donating today<\/a> to help defray the costs?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tCopyright \u00a9 FamilyLife. 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