Carl Joseph Santoro, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Becky B. Lloyd, June 28, 2004: Saving the Legacy tape no. 670

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RL JO EPH A TORO 2 ,2004 that could have saved my life too because when I got down th r I aw th crui r lndianapoli . [Editor 's note: The heavy cruiser USS lndianapoli , 'A-35, wa at Mare Island to repair battle damage sustained March 31, 1945 from a kamikaze hit. When repaired, it was detailed to a top secret mission to carry and deliver the major components of the "Tall Man" atomic bomb to Tinian. This was the bomb dropped by the "Enola Gay" a week or two later on Hiroshima. Having delivered the bomb, Indianapolis sailed to rejoin the fleet. At 12:14 a.m. on July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in the Philippine Sea and sank in 12 minutes. Of 1,196 men on board, approximately 300 went down with the ship. The remainder, about 900 men, were left floating in shark-infested waters with no lifeboats and most with no food or water. The ship was never missed, and by the time the survivors were spotted by accident and rescued four days later only 316 men were still alive.] I was with a buddy of mine from Cleveland. He was down there with me. Our records were in Clearfield. I can't remember the logistics now, but we had talked to our company commander about transferring to sea duty. He said yes, we could transfer if we could get our papers. We wanted to get onto that Indianapolis and go to sea, but our papers didn't get there on time. So she left without us. Of course, if we'd have been on it, we wouldn't have had a chance, because we'd have been below decks, either asleep or in the boiler room. BEC: That's an interesting twist of fate, isn't it? SAN: Yes. But it was such a beautiful ship, newly painted and it looked great. I was wondering at the time when we saw her at the docks there, because there were shore 12