[Annotator’s Note: the interview start is preceded by a brief discussion by Donald Herbert Shown of his five years aboard the USS Indianapolis (CA-35).] Donald Herbert Shown was born in eastern Oregon, but moved with his family to Olympia, Washington when he was about ten years of age. The family moved in with Shown’s grandmother until a place for the family could be found. Shown’s father worked in the lumber business until the Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States] shut down the business. Small towns nearby were completely closed as a result. The state capital being in Olympia kept that city going. Otherwise, sawmills and lumber businesses closed. It was rough for Shown’s father to support a wife and five children during the Depression in the later 1920s and early to mid-1930s. Shown graduated from high school in 1939. He and a friend could find no work because Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] had just gotten into office and was trying to get the country back on its feet [Annotator’s Note: Roosevelt initiated government funded programs to put people to work on public works projects. The WPA, the Works Progress Administration, was an example of such a federally funded program.]. The two young graduates decided to join the Navy in September 1939. Shown completed boot camp in San Diego [Annotator’s Note: San Diego, California]. He selected the Navy as he was enamored with that branch as a young man after seeing the USS Constellation at Puget Sound and Olympia. The ship was spotless and very impressive with the sailors in their dress whites. Even though Fort Lewis was nearby, he was not interested in the Army. [Annotator’s Note: Shown chuckles.]

Donald Herbert Shown joined the Navy and completed boot camp in San Diego [Annotator’s Note: San Diego, California] in the fall of 1939. He was assigned to the Indianapolis [Annotator’s Note: USS Indianapolis (CA-35)] after a brief voyage on a destroyer. The cruiser came out of dry dock at Mare Island and sailed to Long Beach [Annotator’s Note: Mare island and Long Beach, California] and then Hawaii in December. Until 1938, Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] had used the Indianapolis as his ship of state. After that, it sailed to the west coast for service in the Pacific until it was sunk after being torpedoed in 1945. It had been in service only 13 years, having been commissioned in 1932. [Annotator’s Note: Shown presents an article written by Steve White to the interviewer that is about Shown and the Indianapolis. Shown points to a picture of the Indianapolis sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California in 1938]. Shown was an employee of the Department of Defense after his separation from the service. He was an electronics technician and retired in 1975 after 30 years. He had six years active duty in the Navy and four years inactive duty in the reserves. The Indianapolis was designed as a flagship with flag quarters. It served as the flagship for the Hawaiian Detachment, or HaDet. No battleships had been stationed in Hawaii at that time. A year later, the whole west coast fleet moved to Hawaii. All the old battleships and a few other ships were sunk at Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. A week before the attack, the Indianapolis had put to sea. Some of her personnel and equipment were left at the beach when the ship departed. They knew something was going to happen, but did not know when or how. The Indianapolis went to Johnston Island with a contingent of Marines to relieve those Marines manning a radio station there. The island was bare. After the attack, the Marines were not deployed and the Indianapolis withdrew to join other warships. She did not return to Pearl Harbor until a week after the attack. The ship’s captain [Annotator’s Note: Captain Edward Hanson commanded the Indianapolis at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack] was a Mustang who had been commissioned after coming up through the ranks. He was a fighting officer and wanted to engage the enemy. The admiral did not allow him to do so. The Indianapolis crew was shocked by the attack on Pearl Harbor and did not know what was going on. They had been there shortly beforehand. If she were berthed at her normally assigned pier, it was adjacent to a mine storage area. If Indianapolis had been torpedoed, the whole island [Annotator’s Note: Ford Island is centered in Pearl Harbor] would have blown up. Boarding its remaining crew, the Indianapolis joined a task force of carriers and other warships. The Lexington [Annotator’s Note: USS Lexington (CV-2)] and Yorktown [Annotator’s Note: USS Yorktown (CV-5)] were not at Pearl Harbor during the attack.

Donald Herbert Shown [Annotator’s Note: Shown had become a crewman aboard the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) in 1939] headed to the South Pacific where his ship would operate [Annotator’s Note: following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in December 1941]. Without the firepower to take on the huge Japanese battleships, the fleet performed hit and run attacks. Attacks on New Guinea’s Japanese bases were mounted by aircraft carrier planes. The enemy sent aircraft to counterattack the Americans. The incoming Japanese aircraft were all destroyed. A pilot named O’Hare [Annotator’s Note: Lieutenant Commander Edward “Butch” O'Hare] shot down eight or nine enemy planes. Americans landed troops on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal, codenamed Operation Watchtower; 7 August 1942 to 9 February 1943; Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands]. The enemy ships attempted to sail through the nearby Slot [Annotator’s Note: seas between adjacent islands leading to Guadalcanal]. Our Navy ships were small vessels such as Kennedy’s PT boat [Annotator’s Note: future President John Kennedy was skipper on the PT-109, a patrol torpedo boat]. Kennedy gained fame by leading the rescue of his crew after his boat was cut in half by an enemy destroyer. The Japanese landed troops on Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands. The Indianapolis fired on and gutted an ammunition ship in the Aleutians. A destroyer had to be called upon to torpedo the derelict vessel when it would not sink. The weather was terrible in the Aleutians and the Bering Sea. Quite a bit of time was spent patrolling the area. Rough seas broke over the bow of Indianapolis. The old destroyers and cruisers in the task force would ride over one wave only to sail down the next. Boilers were difficult to keep lit on smaller ships due to seawater intrusion. The Navy operated old World War One [Annotator's Note: World War 1, global war originating in Europe; 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918] ships because its force was depleted after Pearl Harbor. The rough seas caused some of the ships’ structures to deform. Despite the waves and swells, Shown never got seasick. He did sicken from the stack gas. Fumes from the burning fuel oil made him ill. The clear gas, not the smoke, was the problem. Shown’s condition watch station was inline with the exhaust. He had no protection from the gas. It made him terribly sick. Leaving the Aleutians after the Battle of Midway [Annotator’s Note: the Battle of Midway was a significant American victory following the successful surprise defense of Midway Island by an American aircraft carrier force. The land, air, and sea battle was fought in early June 1942], the ship returned to the central Pacific. Before Midway, Halsey [Annotator's Note: US Navy Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey] was in the hospital in Pearl Harbor [Annotator’s Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii] with a bad case of the shingles. Admiral Nimitz was fleet commander then [Annotator's Note: US Navy Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Sr., Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet]. Nimitz replaced Halsey for the battle with Spruance [Annotator’s Note: Admiral Raymond Spruance] even though he was a cruiser sailor and not an aircraft carrier experienced commander. Spruance was a wonderful tactician. He sent his carrier planes in and knocked out four enemy carriers plus cruisers and destroyers. The Americans lost the carrier Yorktown [Annotator’s Note: USS Yorktown (CV-5)] during the conflict. It was a turning point after that. The Americans went on the attack right through the central Pacific. Progress was made through the Gilbert and Marshall Islands to Guam and the Marianas followed by Iwo Jima and Okinawa in preparation for the invasion of the Japanese home islands.

Donald Herbert Shown and his ship [Annotator’s Note: USS Indianapolis (CA-35)] completed delivery of atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] components to Tinian [Annotator’s Note: Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands] and was making for the Philippines. An LST (Landing Ship, Tank) took the items from the Indianapolis as it offloaded them. High ranking officers were observed during the process. The ship’s Captain [Annotator’s Note: Captain Charles McVay III] said he had no information about what his cargo was. The ship picked up the cargo in San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California]. Larger boxes were carried in one of the onboard hangars used to house lightly armed observation aircraft. A pit and tent was set up at the end of the Tinian B-29 [Annotator’s Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber] runway used for assembly and installation of the bomb on the B-29s. Two bombs were used. One was dropped on Hiroshima and the other on Nagasaki. The Japanese did not surrender after the first bomb drop on Hiroshima, so a second bomb was released over Nagasaki [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. The weather at Hiroshima had been clear. That was not so at Nagasaki. The accuracy of the second drop was uncertain. The bombs exploded well above ground level. They released so much energy that virtually everything was wiped out and nothing was left. Shown’s brother-in-law was in the Army Air Forces on Guam in a reconnaissance squadron. He took pictures of the devastation. The pictures still exist with Shown’s sister. After the ship was sunk [Annotator’s Note: the Indianapolis was sunk 30 July 1945 with its survivors in the ocean for five days], Shown was placed in a hospital in the Philippines and then Guam with his friend Harold [Annotator’s Note: no last name provided]. He spent a month and a half in the big hospital on Guam. He received his Purple Heart [Annotator's Note: the Purple Heart Medal is an award bestowed upon a United States service member who has been wounded as a result of combat actions against an armed enemy] there. Sufficiently recovered, he was sent to an R and R [Annotator's Note: rest and recuperation] area on Guam used mainly by submarine crews. Crews were allowed to drink beer. [Annotator’s Note: Shown laughs.] Afterward, he sailed on a big Kaiser [Annotator’s Note: Kaiser was a large United States west coast shipyard] troop transport that had been converted into a baby aircraft carrier, the USS Hollandia [Annotator’s Note: USS Hollandia (CVE-97)], and returned home. It was well after the war ended.

Given 30 days survivor leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time], Donald Herbert Shown returned home to his parents. He never married during his time overseas. He had little time to get married because he was at sea most of the time during the war. He did date a young lady. Shown reached the United States after his enlistment was up in the fall [Annotator’s Note: of 1945]. His records were lost at sea [Annotator’s Note: his ship, the USS Indianapolis (CA-35), was sunk on 30 July 1945]. He completed his leave and went to Bremerton Naval Base [Annotator’s Note: in Bremerton, Washington] where he awaited his chance to depart Navy service. He did not appreciate the Navy leaving him in “the damn ocean to die” [Annotator’s Note: after the sinking of Indianapolis, survivors were in the ocean for five days suffering periodic shark attacks]. Chuck Guinn [Annotator’s Note: Lieutenant Wilbur "Chuck" Gwinn] accidentally found the survivors. Otherwise, no search parties were deployed seeking the missing ship and its crew. Guinn was flying a twin-engine Ventura [Annotator’s Note: Lockheed PV-1 Ventura patrol bomber] out of Ulithi [Annotator's Note: Ulithi Atoll, Caroline Islands]. While on patrol, Guinn spotted the oil slick in the South Pacific about 60 miles from where the ship was sunk. The survivors were rescued by various ships sent to pick them up. Shown and Harold [Annotator’s Note: no last name provided for Shown’s friend] were picked up by the USS Bassett [Annotator’s Note: USS Bassett (APD-73)]. He was taken to a hospital in the Philippines. At Bremerton, Shown had to rummage through Navy records to initiate and facilitate his discharge. He found his records and was released from the Navy. He went into the inactive reserves. During the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953], he was asked if he wished to reenlist. Shown adamantly refused the opportunity. He had enough of being in the ocean with its salt water. [Annotator’s Note: Shown chuckles.] After three years of unhappily working at Mare Island [Annotator’s Note: Mare Island Navy Yard in Vallejo, California], he left for an Army Ordnance Arsenal. He was quickly hired by a plank owner [Annotator’s Note: an original crewman on a Navy ship] of the Indianapolis. The facility was closed after Shown had worked there for 13 years. Secretary of the Navy McNamara [Annotator’s Note: Secretary Robert McNamara] closed the arsenal without a second thought during the Kennedy administration [Annotator’s Note: John F. Kennedy was President of the United States from 1961 to 1963]. Naval Air Station Alameda hired him to work radar for Navy A-4 jet fighters [Annotator’s Note: Douglas A-4 Skyhawk attack aircraft]. He worked there for 14 years repairing the radar equipment.

Donald Herbert Shown and the Indianapolis [Annotator’s Note: USS Indianapolis (CA-35)] were in the Aleutians at the time of the Battle of Midway [Annotator’s Note: the Battle of Midway was a significant American victory following the successful surprise defense of Midway Island by an American aircraft carrier force. The land, air, and sea battle was fought in early June 1942]. The ship had been upgraded with 20 and 40 mm guns [Annotator's Note: Oerlikon 20mm antiaircraft automatic cannon and Bofors 40mm antiaircraft automatic cannon] and radar at Mare Island Navy Shipyard [Annotator’s Note: in Vallejo, California]. The ship sailed to San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California] where he saw outbound Matson liners loaded with troops. The Indianapolis escorted them to Melbourne, Australia non-stop. The liberty [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] in Melbourne was highlighted by local females who were man hungry and anxious to see the young sailors off the cruiser. Shown had quite a time for one night. Orders came that ended liberty. They took on fuel at American Samoa. Captain Hanson [Annotator’s Note: Captain Edward Hanson commanded USS Indianapolis (CA-35) from October 1941 to July 1942] had come up through the ranks. That defined him as a Mustang. The Samoans put on a show for the sailors on the deck of the ship. Their proficiency with bladed weapons convinced Shown to leave their women alone. The Indianapolis made lengthy voyages without refueling due to having minimal armor. It was constructed during the time of the shipbuilding restrictions [Annotator’s Note: Various naval conferences during the interwar period resulted in negotiated tonnage restrictions for the major sea powers.]. At Pearl Harbor [Annotator’s Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii], supplies were picked up including foul weather gear for the Aleutians [Annotator’s Note: Aleutian Islands, Alaska]. The Americans retook the islands the Japanese had won [Annotator’s Note: Kiska and Attu in the Aleutians had been captured by the enemy in June 1942]. The Indianapolis returned to Pearl Harbor and became the flagship for Admiral Raymond Spruance and the 5th Fleet. Halsey [Annotator's Note: US Navy Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey] had the 3rd Fleet. Spruance used the cruiser Indianapolis as his flagship, but Halsey used a carrier as his flagship. Shown had seen both of them as well as Nimitz [Annotator's Note: US Navy Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Sr., Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet] and King [Annotator’s Note: US Navy Fleet Admiral Ernest King Commander in Chief United States Fleet] on the fo'c's'le [Annotator’s Note: maritime slang for the forecastle or forward-most raised enclosed deck] of the Indianapolis. He stayed in his fire control director position and could observe them on the ship. The Indianapolis was 610 feet long and 66 feet wide at its widest spot. The Indianapolis was present at the initial landings at Okinawa [Annotator’s Note: the Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg; 1 April to 22 June 1945; Okinawa, Japan] where it was hit by a Japanese kamikaze. Other than general quarters or battle stations, crewmen manned their condition watch station. As a fire controlman, he worked with the big turret guns, but under a condition watch, he manned the director position for the forward dual-purpose surface and antiaircraft 5”/25 guns [Annotator's Note: five inch, 25 caliber naval gun]. There were eight of them controlled by forward and aft director positions. There were two types of optical range finders for the directors. One was gyroscopic and the other was coincidence. Shown did an effective job of manning the range finders to determine the range to the target being fired upon. He had good eyesight and had trained on the gyroscopic finders before the war. After Pearl Harbor was attacked [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], the introduction of radar replaced the range finders. Shown operated range finder computers at Okinawa. Headed up to his director position above the bridge, he heard a tremendous explosion. A kamikaze hit aft by the number three turret. A chief from the black gang of engineers [Annotator’s Note: those individuals who worked in the engine or boiler rooms were referred to as black gang members which harkened back to the days of coal fired boilers used for propulsion. The nickname stuck even when fuel oil became the replacement for coal to fire the boilers.] was fleeing the explosion posthaste. The crash damaged the ship, but not fatally. Some sailors were killed by the enemy plane. A bomb from the plane damaged the shaft and put a hole in the side of the ship. The damage prevented one of the four propellers from rotating. The Indianapolis made for an island south of Okinawa to install a soft patch [Annotator’s Note: a temporary means to plug the opening on the side of the ship] over the hull penetration.

Donald Herbert Shown [Annotator’s Note: aboard the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) after damages received from a kamikaze attack off Okinawa in March 1945] returned to Pearl Harbor [Annotator’s Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii] and then sailed to Mare Island Shipyard [Annotator’s Note: Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California] for repairs. Pure water for the use of the boilers had to be taken on before the voyage. Arriving at Mare Island for repairs, Shown was given leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and promoted to chief petty officer. At the time of the sinking of the Indianapolis on 29 July [Annotator’s Note: 29 July 1945], Shown was in the chief petty officer’s quarters. [Annotator’s Note: A ship model of USS Indianapolis (CA-35) is brought into view and used by Shown to point to various critical positions on the ship.] His battle station was forward below the bridge. Two torpedo hits on the forward starboard side of the cruiser did fatal damage to the vessel. The bow was dislodged from the afterbody. Shown’s battle station was near the location of one of the two torpedo strikes. With the chief petty officer’s quarters being aft on the ship, he was away from the two hits. Shown was in his bunk since it was midnight. If he had been manning his battle station, he would not have survived the explosions. The ship carried three or four aircraft and had launchers and retrieval log booms for the pontoon planes. After the explosions, Shown dressed and went forward toward the mess hall location. A Marine named Captain Parks [Annotator’s Note: no given name provided] survived being in officers’ country. Those officers granted permission to sleep in the air-conditioned plotting room areas where Shown was assigned never knew what hit them when the torpedoes exploded nearby. The Marine officer told everyone in the mess hall to get topside. Having been a mess cook, Shown knew exactly how to quickly get to the upper deck. He fed men in his 4th Division on the ship and knew the quick access ways. The ship listed heavily to the starboard side and sank in less than 12 minutes. It went straight down by the bow with the screws [Annotator’s Note: propellers] still turning. Shown had abandoned ship off the port side boat deck just missing the screw shaft. He swung out on a boat davit rigging after grabbing one of the blocks. He hit the water just barely missing the outboard shaft. The ship was just going down by the head with the bow submerged when Shown hit the water about 75 feet from the ship. He swam quickly to put distance between him and the sinking ship. He wore only a kapok life jacket at the time. Shown took quite a bit of time and energy to assemble the ship model of the Indianapolis [Annotator’s Note: he had just used the model to point out locations on the ship during the sinking].

Donald Herbert Shown picked up a lifejacket from the grouping he found in nets on the boat deck [Annotator’s Note: Chief Petty Officer Shown was a survivor of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) on 29 July 1945]. He told those around him to get off the ship. He previously could tell if a ship would right itself in rough seas. He knew the Indianapolis was gone. A few people were in the water near him when he jumped into the ocean. Fuel oil covered the water. It was horrible stuff. It was hard for a human to survive being covered with oil. A bird in a similar state would not have a chance to survive. Oil makes a person sick to their stomach. It gets in the eyes. Along with saltwater, ulcers form on the eyeballs. Shown got sick in the water. He eventually joined a group using a floater net. The net had large cork discs that kept it and the men afloat. Other than the lifejackets, the net was the only life support the men had in the sea. There was no time to retrieve lifeboats from the ship [Annotator’s Note: the ship sank in 12 minutes after being torpedoed]. The Captain [Annotator’s Note: Captain Charles McVay III] managed to get a life ring off the ship. The cargo nets did not keep the men out of the water. Initially, there were over a hundred men with Shown and Harold [Annotator’s Note: no last name provided] in the group floating together. About half the men were burned or injured [Annotator’s Note: Shown reveals his battle wounds to the interviewer]. Saltwater ate at his wounds down to the bone while he was in the ocean. Shown is not sure how he came about his wound. There were four days and five nights in the saltwater. Sleeping would result in drowning. Drinking the saltwater was tempting, but resulted in death. Shown was determined to survive and set his mind to accomplishing that. He saw big, virile young men who gave up and could not take it. Shown knew if anyone would survive, he would be one of them. Until the second or third day, he had hope. Airplanes flew overhead, but they could not see the men in the water. Right after the sinking, there was greater optimism of being rescued. When Chuck Gwinn [Annotator’s Note: Lieutenant Wilbur "Chuck" Gwinn found the Indianapolis survivors afloat in the sea] spotted the survivors, many had gotten to the point of giving up. The last meal in the chief petty officers’ quarters prior to the sinking was a good one. There was a good cook for them, too. It was their last meal and water for five days. When the sharks came around, they would grab a straggler who swam off by himself. Men became delusional and left the group. They would drown or be victims of the sharks. Drinking saltwater made them delirious. After a shark grabbed a sailor, his torso would bob up and down and when he came up his lower body would be gone. [Annotator’s Note: Shown gestures to portray the effects of the attack.] Shown had nightmares from the experience. His wife of 40 years said he would wake up shaking like a bowl of jelly. He calmed down when she touched him. The memories no longer bother him. He did not talk about his shipwreck or survivor experiences for many years. He did not want to. When men died at sea during those days, lifejackets were removed and the corpse shoved away to sink allowing the sharks to get them. There were burials at sea before the ship sank, but there was nothing to sink the bodies while the men were in the water. A burial at sea prior to then involved placing a body in a canvas bag, weighting it down, and sliding it off a flat board into the sea. The men in the ocean did not have the wherewithal to perform that process.

Donald Herbert Shown was with a doctor, chaplain and Marine captain who swam around trying to take care of the wounded [Annotator’s Note: Chief Petty Officer Shown was a survivor of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) on 29 July 1945. He was in the sea surrounded by sharks for four days and five nights.]. The chaplain and captain died in the water. Doctor Haynes [Annotator’s Note: Lieutenant Commander Lewis Haynes was chief medical officer aboard the Indianapolis] lived through it. Shown was one of the older crewmen and a chief petty officer. The men looked up to him. Harold [Annotator’s Note: no surname provided] was new to the ship. Shown was mainly trying to survive while in the sea. He wore dungarees which is what he wore most of the time aboard ship. Sharks never approached Shown, but he could see hundreds of them swimming below him. They were in a feeding frenzy. He knew to stay with the group. Some swam off by themselves and became shark bait. Some grew delusional during those days. The last day, Shown became a bit delirious. He would be lucid and then hallucinate. He was picked up by a Higgins boat [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP; also known as the Higgins boat]. A cargo net over the side of the boat was used for the men to climb into the boat. Shown had no strength do so. He had to be pulled aboard. He remembered little until he was in a bunk aboard the ship that had picked him up [Annotator’s Note: he was rescued by the USS Basset (AD-73)]. When first asked what he wanted, Shown desired most a glass of water. It tasted like wine. It was the best thing he ever tasted. Shown remembered seeing Marks in his PBY [Annotator’s Note: Lieutenant Commander (USN) Robert Marks flew a Consolidated PBY Catalina amphibious patrol plane over the survivors]. Marks landed in the ocean near the men. The plane was damaged so he did not attempt to takeoff but helped keep the survivors afloat. Shown was not in that area but was picked up by a Higgins boat and an attack transport, the Basset. No supplies were dropped in the area where Shown floated. Waves and swells prevented seeing items on the surface. There were a hundred survivors with Shown and Harold where initially there were twice that many with him. There were only 300 survivors off the ship. The officers held on to dog tags of the men who perished in the water. The daytime temperature was tropical and hot. It would cool down and be cold at night. He would be chilled. The fuel oil coating kept him from burning too badly. Shown did not think it helped.