Paul J. Murphy was born in Chillicothe, Missouri. He graduated from high school in 1943 and was immediately drafted into the Navy. The Army was full so he was not designated to be a soldier. Boot camp was in Farragut, Idaho [Annotator's Note: Farragut Naval Training Station in Bayview, Idaho]. The facility has subsequently been closed. When he left home, he was concerned that he would miss all his high school buddies but found he made new friends. He discovered that anything others could do, he could manage to do as well. He was frightened in boot camp by the idea of having to jump from heights. He learned to do so despite his anxiousness. He was able to graduate as a result of that confidence. He attended fire control school at Treasure Island [Annotator’s Note: Naval Station Treasure Island in San Francisco bay in California] for four months. That was followed by three more months of advanced fire control training in San Diego [Annotator’s Note: San Diego, California]. Fire control does not fight fires but, rather, is involved in directing the naval gunnery fire on a ship. After graduation, he saw the most beautiful ship in the world, the USS Indianapolis [Annotator’s Note: USS Indianapolis (CA-35)], in the harbor. It had been christened in 1932 and was 610 feet long. It was the first time he saw the Pacific Ocean. Murphy considered the Indianapolis to be the most beautiful ship in the world. In peacetime, it had been used as President Roosevelt’s [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] ship of state. He had his staff on the ship many times voyaging to South America, New York [Annotator’s Note: New York City, New York], and the Aleutian Islands. Admiral Spruance [Annotator’s Note: Admiral Raymond Spruance] designated Indianapolis as his 5th Fleet flagship. The Admiral was aboard Indianapolis on many of the campaigns in the Pacific. The ship earned ten combat missions in World War Two. Murphy was aboard the ship for five of those campaigns. Spruance boarded the ship at approximately the same time that Murphy did.

Paul J. Murphy had his first campaign [Annotator’s Note: as a fire controlman aboard the USS Indianapolis (CA-35)] in the Marianas Islands, which included the islands of Saipan, Tinian, and Guam. It was the summer of 1944. The Indianapolis bombarded the islands in preparation for the landings of Marine and Army troops. Admiral Spruance [Annotator’s Note: Admiral Raymond Spruance, commander of the 5th Fleet] withdrew the Indianapolis from the islands prior to them being secured. The cruiser participated with the carrier group in the first Battle of the Philippine Sea [Annotator’s Note: the Battle of the Philippines Sea, 19 to 20 June 1944] and the Philippine Turkey Shoot [Annotator’s Note: the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, the nickname given to the aerial warfare portion of the Battle of the Philippine Sea]. During one day of that battle, carrier planes shot down 412 Japanese planes. Enemy surface ships, including one aircraft carrier and a few other smaller ships, were also sunk. The Japanese withdrew to the Philippines afterwards. The Indianapolis returned to complete the securing of the three islands it had previously bombarded prior to diversion to the Philippine Sea. Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima; 19 February to 26 March 1945; Iwo Jima, Japan] was the next operation. Murphy was assigned as pointer on the 8-inch guns. It was the first time all nine 8-inch guns fired a broadside salvo simultaneously. Murphy put the crosshairs on the designated target and pulled the trigger, thus electronically transmitting the information to CIC [Annotator’s Note: Command Information Control onboard a ship] firing the guns. The force rocked the ship, but that was corrected by the electronics on the cruiser. In February 1945 during the bombing of Iwo Jima, Admiral Spruance sortied around the east side of the island with the carrier group and made the first carrier raid on Japan. The ship was within 30 miles of Tokyo [Annotator’s Note: Tokyo, Japan] and was almost undetected when the carrier planes were launched. Another 400 enemy aircraft were destroyed in the air and on the ground during that raid. It was a morale booster. Admiral Spruance returned 5th Fleet to Iwo Jima and in doing so, passed the carrier USS Franklin [Annotator’s Note: USS Franklin (CV-13)]. It had been hit by two Japanese kamikazes and was afire and heavily damaged. The captain decided to save the ship, which he accomplished. Franklin was eventually repaired and returned to service. The island of Iwo Jima was only seven and half miles long with extensive tunnels and caves. The naval bombardment hit above ground and did not drive the Japanese out. The Marines had to draw up close to cave entrances and use flamethrowers [Annotator's Note: ranged incendiary device that projects a controllable jet of fire] to drive the Japanese out of their embedded positions. The raising of the flag on Mount Suribachi was an important morale builder [Annotator’s Note: an iconic photograph was taken of the flag raising by six Marines]. The Japanese lost 22,000 men and the American forces lost nearly 6,000 personnel. The island was needed for its good airfield that could be used as a gasoline stop for bombers returning from missions over Japan headed back to airfields on Saipan. When Iwo Jima was secured in February 1945, the next amphibious assault was to be Okinawa [Annotator’s Note: the Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg; 1 April to 22 June 1945; Okinawa, Japan]. By that time, the Japanese population had been convinced that they were going to die to the last man. They would give their lives up for their emperor [Annotator’s Note: Emperor Hirohito]. Kamikaze pilots were guaranteed a life hereafter. Thousands of them were trained. Admiral Spruance was still in charge of the 5th Fleet when the bombardment of Okinawa commenced in the latter part of March. D-Day [Annotator's Note: the day on which an operation or invasion takes effect] was designated to be 1 April 1945. It was Easter Sunday and the island had been bombarded for a week or more. The day before the scheduled assault, a flight of kamikazes vectored in on the Indianapolis. All of them were downed except one. The dead pilot succeeded in having his 500-pound bomb and plane engine penetrate multiple decks. A hole was blown in the side of the ship and one shaft was badly distorted. The ship was dead in the water. Nine men were killed and 27 were injured. The ship had to be towed to an island east of Okinawa called Kerama. The seven men were buried on the island and the 27 injured were transported for hospitalization. A concrete bottom was installed in the bottom of the ship so that the Indianapolis could limp back to San Diego [Annotator’s Note: San Diego, California] for priority drydocking for eight weeks. The full crew had a 20-day leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. Upon return, the crew found 250 of the veterans had been transferred from the ship with new replacements coming aboard. After repair and modernization was completed on the Indianapolis, a short cruise for shakedown was performed. The decision had been made that the cruiser would make a speed run to Tinian with a secret weapon. The men did not know what the secret weapon was.

Paul J. Murphy [Annotator’s Note: a fire controlman aboard the USS Indianapolis (CA-35)] sailed to San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California] where a crate was taken aboard. Many of the ship’s crew were new [Annotator’s Note: after being repaired at San Diego, California following a kamikaze attack off Okinawa, the ship had 250 veterans transferred off and took on that number of new replacements]. The crate was secured and guarded by Marines. The Captain [Annotator’s Note: Captain Charles McVay III], did not even know what his cargo was. He knew that he was ordered to make a speed run to Tinian [Annotator’s Note: Tinian, Northern Marianas Islands] to deliver the cargo. The crew knew that everyday they could shorten the voyage to Tinian might shorten the war by that much. Scuttlebutt [Annotator's Note: a period slang term for a rumor] was rampant. Sailors made up stories about the cargo. Murphy particularly liked the rumor about the cargo being scented toilet paper for General MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area]. Leaving on 16 July, the ship arrived on 26 July [Annotator’s Note: 16 to 26 July 1945]. That was even after a refueling and supply stop at Pearl Harbor [Annotator’s Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii]. Upon arrival at Tinian, ships and tugs came alongside the Indianapolis and soon the crate was brought to the airfield. Murphy found later that the crate contained atomic bomb components for the first bomb that would be dropped on Hiroshima [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. Paul Tibbets had converted a B-29 [Annotator’s Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber] to haul the large atomic bomb, and dropped the bomb on Hiroshima [Annotator’s Note: Colonel Paul Tibbets commanded the 509th Composite Group and flew the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima]. Departing Tinian, the Indianapolis arrived at Guam. The captain received his orders from Spruance [Annotator’s Note: Admiral Raymond Spruance, commander of the 5th Fleet] to depart immediately for Leyte [Annotator’s Note: Leyte, the Philippines] and prepare for the invasion of Japan the following November [Annotator’s Note: Operation Downfall, an amphibious landing on Kyushu Island in Japan was to commence in November 1945]. McVay was told to zig-zag [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver] at his own discretion. The Captain requested an escort, but was told the Philippine Sea was safe for the cruiser to sail unescorted. Normally, a large ship sailing across enemy waters was escorted by smaller ships with sonar to find any submarines in proximity. McVay was not told that four days earlier the USS Underhill [Annotator’s Note: USS Underhill (DE-682)] was sunk. The Navy knew it and the captain was cleared to have that information, but was not apprised. On 28 July, the Indianapolis left Guam. It was halfway across the Philippine Sea on 29 July. Murphy completed his watch near midnight and retired to his quarters. Captain McVay had visited the quarterdeck of the ship a couple of hours earlier, and because of much reduced visibility due to heavy clouds, he told the officer of the deck that he could cease zig-zagging. Murphy was in his quarters one deck below the aft deck, and was asleep when a surfaced Japanese submarine about 15,000 yards ahead of the Indianapolis observed the large ship on the horizon. The submarine skipper saw the ship approaching them through his binoculars. He thought it to be an unescorted battleship and submerged. He fired a pattern of six torpedoes at the perfect target. The first blew off about 40 feet of the Indianapolis’ bow. The second hit was under the forward 8-inch gun turret. The powder room and aviation gasoline detonation created a huge explosion with fires. The officer of the deck lost all communication when power was knocked out. The ship continued at 15 knots and took on water rapidly. There was a lot of confusion. Murphy was knocked out of his bunk and quickly dressed. He grabbed a life jacket and then a second one in route to his general quarters station which was the after-control tower immediately behind the smokestack and the forward superstructure. Chaos prevailed as the ship convulsed. It would sink in 12 minutes. Murphy could not see the forward part of the ship with its damages and explosions. Entering his station, Murphy observed his good friend, Paul Mitchell, sound asleep on the deck. He had slept through the havoc created by the torpedoes. Giving Mitchell a lifejacket, Murphy told him to go to his general quarters station. That was the last time he saw Mitchell, though someone had seen him in the water two days after the sinking. As the ship was sinking, hundreds of sailors were lining up on the port side. Murphy first thought the weight might right the ship. That was not the case as the list to starboard continued. With a 30-degree list, Murphy walked to the starboard side, but when it reached a 45-degree list, he simply walked off the deck of the ship into the ocean.

Paul J. Murphy got into the water which was covered with oil and black tar [Annotator’s Note: he had just abandoned the sinking USS Indianapolis (CA-35) which had been fatally struck by two Japanese submarine torpedoes on 30 July 1945]. He swam quickly away from the ship so as not to be sucked under by it [Annotator’s Note: a sinking ship creates a vortex which pulls anything nearby under with it]. At 200 to 250 feet away from the ship, Murphy found a group of men who waited until the sun came up the next morning. With the sunlight, the survivors found they had two life rafts and three floater nets. The rolled-up nets were unrolled. They were like cargo nets with floater corks along the sides to keep them afloat. The nets and rafts were secured together. The group had 250 or so men with many of them from the destroyed forward end of the ship. Those most seriously injured were placed in the life rafts with about 12 to 15 men in each one. It helped them be a bit more comfortable and able to be attended to. As the first day went on, many of them died. A doctor in the group took the dog tags from the dead. The bodies were allowed to fall to the deep. Those bodies were the first to be attacked by the sharks. The Indianapolis was due to be in Leyte [Annotator’s Note: Leyte, the Philippines], and so the men were confident that they were going to be rescued. Planes flew over at high altitude but could not see the individuals far below in the ocean. After the first day and second night, rescue was anticipated. There was no food or water. The sun was blistering hot, so men tore their shirttails to cover their heads. Sharks began to look over the survivors, but no rescue came. When the Indianapolis was reported as being late by the port director, the commandant of the base said to advise him of any further news. He later told the people that if a major warship did not show up, he assumed the orders for the ship had changed. Thank God the survivors did not know that. Another day passed and patience was being lost. Prayers were said numerous times every day. There were no atheists among the thirsty and hungry men. Many of the men began to hallucinate about getting water below the surface. After drinking saltwater, they would become extremely belligerent. Murphy stayed away from the saltwater drinkers. After two hours, the person would suffocate and drown. The doctor put his finger in the dead man’s eyeball and determine that they were gone and then removed their dog tags. They would be let go for the deep and become shark bait. A group of physically robust sailors thought they saw an island in the distance and began to swim to it. They were going to get some food, a bath and a room. Those men who swam off were never seen again.

By the night of 5 August [Annotator’s Note: 1945], Paul J. Murphy had been in the sea for five nights and four days [Annotator’s Note: Murphy was a crewman on the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) when it was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine on the night of 30 July 1945.]. A PV-1 flown by Chuck Gwinn initially spotted the survivors [Annotator’s Note: a Lockheed PV-1 Ventura flown by Lieutenant Wilbur "Chuck" Gwinn found the survivors in the Philippine Sea on 2 August 1945 and reported his sighting to his commander]. Gwinn initially thought it was a Japanese submarine when he saw the oil in the water. He was preparing to bomb the enemy target, but saw heads floating in the water as he neared the objective. With the information wired back to base, a PBY seaplane [Annotator’s Note: Consolidated PBY Catalina amphibious aircraft] piloted by Adrian Marks [Annotator’s Note: Lieutenant Commander Robert Adrian Marks] was dispatched to the location with supplies and a lifeboat. The kegs of water dropped for the men in the sea broke apart as they impacted the ocean. There was no water available for the survivors. Marks wired back information to the base and a second PBY was sent to the site. The two amphibious planes communicated with each other as Marks observed several small groups of survivors. He elected to make a landing despite regulations requiring him not to do so. Small groups were most susceptible to shark attacks. Marks performed an open sea landing in eight to 12-foot swells. His landing was perfect, but popped many of the rivets in his plane thus preventing a takeoff. Marks taxied into a large group of men and stacked them into his plane and tied them to the wings with parachute shrouds. Discovering that the survivors were crewmen from the Indianapolis, Marks knew there were potentially large numbers of men in the water. Of the 1,197 crewmen on the ship, 300 were killed as the ship was hit and sank. The remainder reached the water. Marks broke another regulation when he radioed all nearby ships in the approximate location to expedite transit to the area for rescue operations. The first ship into the area was the USS Doyle commanded by Graham Claytor [Annotator’s Note: Captain Graham Claytor Jr. was the commander of the USS Cecil J. Doyle (DE-368)]. Graham Claytor was Secretary of Navy under Jimmy Carter [Annotator’s Note: Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States]. When Claytor came in close to the survivors, he shined his searchlights against the bottom of the clouds such that illumination was provided for the nighttime rescue of the men in the sea. The lights provided a beacon for other ships to muster where the survivors were and was also a morale boost for the men in the sea to assure them that help was on the way. The second ship to arrive was the USS Bassett [Annotator’s Note: USS Bassett (APD73)]. The Doyle picked up the men and the plane’s crew off the PBY. The PBY was then sunk to prevent it from falling into enemy hands. Doyle departed thereafter, but found 37 more survivors while taking the men back for medical attention. Doyle returned to the site of the Indianapolis sinking afterward. The duty for the ship then was relegated largely to recovery of the dead from the ocean. That was horrible. Bassett was the second ship to arrive at the rescue area. It was Murphy’s favorite ship because he was saved by her crew. Basset picked up 152 men, almost half of the survivors, by deploying two of its landing craft to retrieve the men afloat. It was a fast attack transport with multiple landing craft stowed aboard. At later reunions, the survivors found out just how bad their conditions were. Most could not remember much of anything. When Bassett crewmen attempted to pull survivors over the side of the landing craft, the skin peeled off their arms. The saltwater exposure had weakened their bodies that much. As a consequence, the Bassett crewmen jumped into the water and got behind survivors to push them onboard the rescue boat. All the while, a Bassett crewman stood at the ready with a rifle to fire on any encroaching sharks [Annotator’s Note: sharks had been a serious threat to the lives of the men in the sea for the entire period they were afloat]. Murphy did not remember any of those circumstances. After the landing crafts were loaded with Indianapolis crewmen, they proceeded to the Bassett. The survivors attempted to climb cargo nets to the deck but had insufficient strength. As a result, the men had to be hoisted aboard the mothership. Stripped of their oil-covered clothing, the men were bathed in diesel oil and kerosene to remove the oil and then fresh water afterward. The Bassett crewmen shared their clothing and bunks with the men just pulled from the ocean. They then stood beside the survivors and nursed them on the way back to Samar [Annotator’s Note: Samar Island in the Philippines] Murphy was offered anything he wanted, but only wished to have orange slices and water. In route to Samar, two of those withdrawn from the sea died before reaching medical attention. Murphy considered the two as survivors even though they perished onboard the ship on the way to the hospital.

Paul J. Murphy reached Samar [Annotator’s Note: Samar Island in the Philippines] and a hospital that was newly built in preparation for casualties anticipated from the invasion of Japan planned for the following November [Annotator’s Note: Murphy was a rescued crewman from the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) sunk on 30 July 1945. Operation Downfall, the invasion of the home islands of Japan, was scheduled to begin in November 1945. The dropping of the atomic bombs in August 1945 and subsequent Japanese surrender negated the need for amphibious landings on Japan’s home islands.]. His recovery was behind locked gates. Murphy was probably at Samar for five to six weeks before being flown to Guam and Hospital 118. Those needing further recovery stayed in the hospital, but those able to walk were sent to a submarine rest camp. Life, food and existence at the rest camp were great. Murphy could see why some sailors liked submarine service. After 60 to 90 days underwater, the rest camp was very good with steaks, ice cream and beer available. Murphy was fattened up during that time. After six to eight weeks, Murphy and over 300 more men were sent back to the United States on the USS Hollandia, a small aircraft carrier [Annotator’s Note: USS Hollandia (CVE-97)]. Arriving in San Diego [Annotator’s Note: San Diego, California] after the war had ended, there was a local band meeting them at the dock even though most of the celebrations had ended. Life magazine in 1945 had a large picture of a sailor kissing a nurse in New York [Annotator’s Note: New York City, New York] on V-J Day, 15 August 1945]. That was not Murphy [Annotator’s Note: he laughs]. A large statue of that incident is in San Diego. The Indianapolis was sunk on 30 July and the crewmen were rescued on 3 August. The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August, and the second was dropped on 9 August on Nagasaki [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. Truman, who had become President [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States], insisted on a second bomb drop because Japan did not unconditionally surrender. On 30 July, they did surrender and newspaper headlines reflected that in the United States. In smaller print on the same page was news of the USS Indianapolis sinking with 100 percent casualties, 880 dead and 317 missing. All the crewmen were given Purple Hearts [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] whether alive or posthumously. Murphy had to wait until he had enough points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] before his separation from the Navy in March 1946 at Great Lakes [Annotator's Note: Naval Station Great Lakes in Lake County, Illinois]. The rest of the year was spent with his surviving high school buddies learning to drink. He soon tired of that and stopped drinking completely. He never has smoked. Murphy took advantage of the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] and went to school in Raleigh, Missouri. He graduated as a mechanical engineer in 1950. He was a fire controlman third class at separation.