Since World War I, military families often displayed service flags featuring a blue star for every immediate family member serving in the Armed Forces.

If a family member was lost in the war, the star.s color would be changed to gold. From a crew of 1,195 aboard the cruiser USS Indianapolis during World War II, 879 blue stars changed to gold.

Many USS Indianapolis families learned their loved ones had been officially presumed dead at the same time their neighbors celebrated the end of the war. USS Indianapolis was torpedoed and sunk on July 30, 1945. Three hundred sixteen sailors and marines survived the sinking and a horrifying ordeal in the water that followed. Those who made it off the ship fought thirst, exposure, sharks, and despair, awaiting nearly five days for a rescue that might never have come.

In 1960, many of the survivors gathered for a reunion in downtown Indianapolis. They decided to meet every five years from then on, later meeting annually. Thirty-five years after that first reunion, Indianapolis survivors successfully lobbied the city of Indianapolis to commission a memorial to their ship and lost shipmates. This memorial was unveiled in 1995. The names of the entire crew are etched on the memorial in alphabetical order. An engraved star appears alongside the name of each survivor. The preponderance of names, however, lack that star.

Three of four crewmen aboard the Indianapolis on July 30, 1945, remain at sea. An estimated one in four went down with the ship. The rest drifted with their buddies for the time they stayed alive. Most lost at sea families know nothing about the final hours of their sailor or marine, though they often asked survivors. The survivors usually did not know; and in many instances when they did know, they thought it better to leave out details. Such omissions are common among veterans returning from a war. In any case, life would be different for all affected by the sinking.

Life was similarly different for many outside the Indianapolis community. The cruiser was only one of many ships from many countries lost during World War II and one of many where a survival ordeal at sea followed. Ships such as the HMS Dunedin, the USS Juneau, the SS Cape San Juan, and the RMS Nova Scotia had crewmen and passengers who survived for days adrift at sea. Most of these stories have been largely forgotten outside of the families of those aboard. The Indianapolis, however, through her appearances in many books and in the popular culture through the movie Jaws, is comparatively better known. Her story may endure.

But most people know about the Indianapolis only from a monologue in Jaws. A few more were fortunate enough to meet a survivor. Practically no one has heard words from the lost at sea or the people they left behind. The following collection of stories and letters seeks to change that. It conveys stories specific to the Indianapolis but universal. A common refrain in the Indianapolis community is that a story about one is a story about many who shared similar experiences before, during, and after they served their nation. The many can extend into other communities as well, and it is our intent for these stories to do so.