May 26, 2025 • 47 mins
On the Memorial Day edition of Chris Fabry Live, hear a message from a WWII hero. On July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was sunk in only 12 minutes. There were nearly 1200 men aboard. 900 went into the water. 317 survived those 5 days, and you'll hear the late Edgar Harrell tell that story of courage, resilience, and faith.
Featured resource:
Out of the Depths: An Unforgettable WWII Story of Survival, Courage, and the Sinking of the USS Indianapolis
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Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:07):
Today on Chris Fabry Live. On this Memorial Day, we
celebrate the heroism, the sacrifice, the service of those who
gave the last full measure of devotion. We're going to
transport you in time to 1945. July 30th the USS
Indianapolis and its crew of 1196 men is making its
(00:31):
way toward a small island in the South Pacific. It
is midnight, and Marine Edgar Harrell and several others are
sleeping on the deck rather than down below. They are
returning from a top secret mission to deliver uranium for
the atomic bombs that would ultimately end World War Two,
(00:51):
but they're being watched. Shortly after midnight, six torpedoes are
sent toward the Indianapolis. You'll hear the rest of the
story today from Edgar Harrell, author of out of the depths.
I'm Chris Fabry. Welcome. I hope you'll stay with us.
In 2014, 89 year old Edgar Harrell spoke to the
(01:13):
students of Moody Bible Institute. And then he joined me
afterward on this program. And we're going to let you
hear what he had to say to the students. And
then you'll hear his response to a few of my questions.
Edgar was the last surviving marine of the USS Indianapolis.
He died in May of 2021 at the Tennessee State
(01:35):
Veterans Home in Clarksville. And his story is certainly appropriate
for us today. Our thanks to Ryan McConaughey doing all
things technical. Tricia McMillan is our producer. Don't call us today.
Our program is recorded. For those of you who have
contributed to this program to keep us going through the
last 17 years, thank you. This is the last week
(01:57):
we're offering a copy of a gorgeous hardcover book written
and illustrated by Ruth Jo Simons. Home is right where
you are. This looks like a children's book, and it is,
but it's really one of those stories. Do you remember
Love You Forever, a book you read to your child
that chokes you up when you read it because you
(02:18):
know they're not going to stay little? It's inspired by
Psalm 23 and the water colors are gorgeous. I'd love
to send you a copy. Click through today. June is
only a week away. Go to Chris Fabry Live and
give a gift right there. Chris Fabry. Let's go back
to 2014 and begin by reading from our featured resource today,
(02:42):
the book out of the depths. This is from the
introduction written by Edgar son, David Harrell. It is easy
to grow up in the United States of America and
take for granted the wonderful freedom we enjoy. I confess
that I have been guilty of being unintentionally indifferent about
our nation's liberty, and perhaps even harboring an unwitting apathy
(03:04):
concerning the wars that bought it. All too often, Memorial
Day and Veterans Day come and go with little serious
reflection about the enormous sacrifices that have been made. Maybe
this describes you as well. However, the bubble of peace
and prosperity that once preserved my cavalier attitude was suddenly
(03:24):
popped by the terrorist attacks of nine over 11. Instantly,
all Americans saw with our own eyes what evil looks
like up close and personal. Our false sense of security
exploded along with the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and United
Flight 93, in a Pennsylvania field with shocking abruptness. We
(03:45):
were all reminded that freedom is not free. A simple
yet profound truth our veterans know all too well. Because
of 911, I began to think deeply about our nation's
history like never before, the stark realities of past wars
and the valiant men and women who fought them were
thrust into the forefront of my mind. Almost overnight, I
(04:06):
developed a keen awareness of the evil that plunged us
into World War Two, the same kind of wickedness that
now plagues the world through radical Islam. I also began
thinking about the part my father played in that war,
along with his shipmates aboard the USS Indianapolis. I remember
dad's reaction to nine over 11. It was simply, here
(04:28):
we go again. He was right. The same diabolical evil
that motivated our enemies in World War Two was once
again at work. And once again, men and women of
valor must take up arms to ward off barbaric aggressors.
Heroic soldiers willing to give their lives to preserve our freedom.
But what is sad is how quickly we forget the
(04:50):
noble military contributions of the past. I remember hearing dad
talk about the war from time to time when I
was a little boy. I recall his reluctant stories about
the secret mission of the Indianapolis, the atomic bomb components
they carried, and especially the gripping tales about the sharks
when the crew was lost at sea for five days.
(05:12):
I even remember attending some of the Indianapolis reunions and
meeting captain McVay and being awestruck by his white Navy
uniform and medals. Still, the depth of my father's sacrifice,
and that of all the other World War Two veterans
did not really hit me until nine over 11. I
became a man on a mission, not just to tell
(05:32):
my father's story and honor the crew of the USS Indianapolis,
but to raise the awareness of the cost of freedom
and to rekindle the fires of true God honoring patriotism
and respect for our veterans. Fortunately, dad agreed with my goals,
but with even greater passion due to his personal experience.
(05:52):
My father, like many other World War Two veterans, has
had many opportunities to speak around the country in a
variety of venues, including public schools. In interviewing him to
write this book, I was saddened to hear about the
prevailing ignorance most students have concerning World War Two. He
indicated that even many of the teachers and administrators he
(06:12):
has met admitted they knew little about the war, not
to mention the USS Indianapolis tragedy. This only fueled my
fire to collaborate with my ex-Marine father in educating readers
about the heroism of our veterans, and ultimately glorifying God.
As you listen to this harrowing, true adventure, of course
(06:33):
his son says as you read this, but as you
listen today, you will quickly see the power of faith
and the undeniable hand of divine providence in the affairs
of men and governments. You will see the crippling effects
of sin and the ravages of war, and the transforming
power of the gospel of Christ in the hearts of men.
(06:54):
You will see the corruption of personal revenge and politics,
even in our own military, that stoop to tactics of
questionable integrity and succumbed to the temptations of injustice. You're
going to hear all of that today from a man
who lived it. A man who was on the USS
(07:14):
Indianapolis and who was in the water with many of
his friends who were killed, who died, who drowned, who
were attacked by sharks. This is a story not just
of survival, though. This is a story of God involved
in a soldier's life and the transforming power of Jesus Christ.
(07:38):
Edgar Harrell speaks to the students of Moody Bible Institute,
and you will hear it straight ahead on Moody Radio.
(07:59):
Thank you for joining us for this Memorial Day edition
of Chris Fabry Live. We are going back to 2014
to hear from the late Edgar Harold. He spoke to
students at Moody Bible Institute that year. Edgar has written,
along with his son, David, out of the depths and
unforgettable World War II story of survival, courage, and the
(08:22):
sinking of the USS Indianapolis. Here is Edgar. Harold.
S2 (08:28):
Thank you so very, very much. It's indeed an honor
to be with you people today. And I have some
special honored guests I see here on the front row,
some of my contemporaries. And, uh, good to have you
with us, sir. Thank you. Now, I'm honored that you would, uh,
(08:55):
allow an 89 year old World War Two marine to
be with you today. Now, may I ask this? You
take a good look at this 89 year old marine.
And now you know why the Marine Corps is still
(09:15):
looking for a few good men. All right. Now, I
don't know what you know about the sinking of the
USS Indianapolis, but I have a few minutes to tell
you something about it. As an 18 year old boy
from Kentucky, I joined the Marine Corps after boot camp
(09:38):
and sea school. I found myself in San Francisco, and
there was a big USS Indianapolis, and that was to
be my home for the rest of the war. I
was at Saipan, Tinian, Guam, sea battle, Philippine seas down
in Peleliu. I was at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Three
(09:58):
air strikes on Tokyo. And lastly, I was a marine
guard that guarded fat man and little boy. You know
who fat man and little boy were? I'll tell you
who they were. They were the two atomic bombs that
a few days later, would be dropped at Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
(10:20):
It was after Okinawa where we had received the kamikaze plane.
We lost several boys. We had to come back to
the States for repair soon after repair. We looked out
on the dock and there was a big container being
brought aboard our ship. And my marine captain said, Harold,
(10:42):
I want you to station a guard in the port
hangar deck. What do we have, Captain Parkes? Parks, he said,
we don't know. Don't know what we're transporting. He says no.
We are told that every hour that we delay in
getting it to the forward area would cost lives. So
that tells us that we've got a hot potato. And
then there was a couple of proposed to the Air
(11:02):
Force officers that came aboard. And what they had with
them was a little canister in a metal cage with
a padlock on it. And a couple of sailors took
them up to a stateroom, and they fastened a piece
of scrap metal to the deck over that, and spot
welded it so it couldn't get away. Now, they were
(11:23):
scientists from Los Alamos, New Mexico. And what they had
was half of all the uranium that America owned at
that time. The other half was to be flown to
meet us in Tinian Island. We have that cargo. We
are headed for ten, and it's only 5300 miles. We
(11:44):
made that in ten days, 530 mile a day in
a heavy cruiser, we backed up from 10 a.m. to Guam. Xenpak.
That's the Central Pacific Command. We received our sailing orders,
which was to go to the Philippines to prepare for
the main invasion of Japan. Three days out of Guam unescorted.
(12:09):
We asked for an escort that they refused us an escort, but, uh,
they were not truthful. They could have told us you
need an escort because we've broken the Japanese code. We
know everything that they're doing. We know that the Damen
group of submarines are working in those waters. We even
(12:29):
know that we lost the USS Underhill four days ago.
We lost 129 boys. They don't tell us that they
send us out in harms way, unescorted. Three days out
of Guam, on our way to the Philippines, we encountered
a Commander Hashimoto and a submarine. He was able to
(12:51):
put his little periscope up and pick us up. We
had no underwater sound gear. We didn't know he was
out there. About 14 minutes past midnight, he had target
Red stand by fire, and every two seconds he fired
a torpedo. I had gotten off of watch at 12:00
(13:11):
that night. And mind you, we are in 110 degree
weather and no air conditioning aboard the ship. And a
good captain could say, you're welcome to go topside and
find your make your pallet any place out on the
open deck. So when I got off of watch, I
went below deck and I got my blanket. I didn't
get my kapok jacket. I got my blanket. And I
(13:34):
went all the way forward under the barrels of number
one turret. I used my shoe as my pillow, and
I lay down there and just begun to doze off
to sleep, and all of a sudden a massive explosion.
When I say massive. That first torpedo caught about 40ft
of the bow of the ship off. When I say
cut it off, it wasn't there. Uh, we're about three
(13:58):
about three decks deep at that point. And now we've
become a funnel and we're moving about 17 knots or
by 15 mile an hour. We're pushing. Water is coming in,
breaking the bulkheads down below the second torpedo, back close
to the marine compartment. No one lived to tell about that.
(14:18):
I know that I'm to make my way to my
emergency station back on the quarterdeck. And as I began
to make my trek back there, there were those who
were coming out of the forward area that was mostly
officer's quarters. And as they came from the internal, you
could see that they were just in their night clothing,
maybe just a pair of skivvies, but they were flash burned, Burn, uh, face, arms.
(14:43):
And if they dared to touch the bulkhead, which was
red hot, they left their skin of their head on
the bulkhead. They came out on the open deck pleading
for someone to help them. That's not my responsibility. And really,
nothing that I knew that I could do. I'm making
my way back to my emergency station. I get back
there realizing I don't have a life jacket. Now, the
(15:06):
first hundred yards of the ship is already under. And
as I got on the quarterdeck, my marine lieutenant was there. Uh,
Lieutenant Stauffer. Permission to cut down some of those kapok jackets.
He said not until we get word to abandon ship.
The ship is sinking even by now. If you could imagine,
the quarter deck of the ship normally is about eight
(15:28):
feet above waterline on the starboard side. Now, there was
water on the quarter deck. Wait until we get word.
There's over. P.A. system is out. No electrical power of
any kind. The only lights we had was the inferno
from the explosions below deck. There was a Navy, Navy,
(15:49):
Navy commander that came from below deck. And as he
came through the hatch, I recognized who he was. And
he was nearly flash burned. And someone hollered out, get
the commander a life jacket! So they began to cut
some of those down, and I managed to get me
a kapok jacket, waiting for word to come. And finally,
word trickles down to good. Captain had given word to
(16:10):
abandon ship, and now we're rushing to the high side,
the port side to leave the ship, and I recall
making my way over to that steel cable, looking out
into the blackness of the night and seeing all that
oil on the water and seeing boys jump on each other.
And as I held on to that rail, may I say,
(16:33):
there's times when you pray and there's times when you
pray and I'm praying. I'm pouring my heart out to
the Lord. I don't want to die. I made him
all kinds of promises. I tell him. Uh, mom and
dad back home. Six younger brothers, older sister and a
younger sister and a certain brunette that said that she
(16:53):
would wait for me. May I get ahead of the
story and say she waited? We were married in 19.
We were married in 1947. This past July or 66,
this coming July, our 67th. I talked to her last evening. Now,
(17:19):
I held on to that rail and I stepped over
the rail. I made two big long jumps, and my
K-pop jacket came up over my head, and I began
to swim away from the ship. Looking and seeing the
first hundred yards of the ship is under. By the way,
it's twice the length of a football field. 610ft long.
So the first hundred yards is under. Boys were jumping
(17:42):
off of the fantail, some jumping into those screws that
are still turning. I saw the ship as she completely
turned and went under, and I made my way out
to about 80 boys and I first thing I want
to know, any Marines? Any Marines. There were two more Marines.
One had been blown against a bulkhead and had multiple
(18:02):
breaks in his body. And I actually was with him
for the next hour when he passed on to eternity.
My other buddy had gone in the water head first
with all that oil in his eyes and looking up
at that 100 degree sun, he's going to have just
big sore sockets the next few days. We take inventory
(18:23):
of some that didn't have life jackets. Many were injured
and they're going to need some assistance, and many of
them passed away that night. The next morning, the first day.
Now we had company. When I say we had company,
at any given time, you could see a big fin
cutting through the water, and you can imagine what that
(18:43):
does to you. You think, you know, this is the
end of life. They're going to attack us. And out
of fairness to the sharks, they weren't attacking us. But
it isn't long till some straggler would be out by
himself and. And you'd hear blood curdling scream. You'd look
and you'd see that kapok jacket goes under. And a
(19:05):
few moments later it comes back to the surface. Fins, fins,
fins around the blood. You dare not to go and
check who your buddy might have been some time later.
Maybe you check him and you find out that the
bottom torso is gone, or he's disemboweled and now he's
going to be there in that 100 degree weather for
the next days. Let's go through that first day we
(19:29):
lost several boys. Go to the second day. The second
day you. I'm sure all of you feel that you've
been thirsty, but have you been so thirsty that your
lips are parching open, bleeding? You have all that oil
on you and, um, your tongue now is swelling in
your mouth and you can hardly talk. And you see
(19:50):
boys that maybe have torn off some of their clothing,
and they put some salt water up in there, and
they drink a few swallows of salt water and within
a within the hour. Now they are not coherent at all.
They don't know you. You may have a canteen of
water in your and your kapok jacket, and someone takes
(20:12):
out his sheath knife and he stabs his buddy. And
then all the blood and then all the sharks. Okay,
the third day or the second day, about noon, we
look and we see a little rain cloud coming over.
And as it got closer and closer, you could see
it's raining. Look, it's raining, it's raining, it's raining and
(20:34):
you open your mouth heavenward. And how much water can
you catch in your big mouth? Not much. You take
those greasy hands and you somewhat funnel a little water,
and you get a few tablespoons full of water. Now. Sharks. Sharks. Sharks.
Through the next night into the third day. Now. By
the third day at noon, there are only 17 of
(20:55):
us left. There were about 80. 17. You can use
your own imagination as to what has happened. But we
are desperate. We know that we can't make it much longer.
We see planes flying over 30,000ft, our B-29s bombing Japan.
But no one is looking for us. Our souls have
(21:20):
been ignored. No one's looking for us. We are just
left alone there. And then sometime, then, uh, hear that? Uh, that, uh,
third day that we were so, so desperate. 17 of us.
And may I say again it's time to pray. And
(21:43):
I often say there's no such thing as an atheist
in foxholes. There were no atheists out there. Everyone prayed.
And I say there are time comes in an individual's life.
I don't care who you are. You will pray. You
may not know to whom you're praying and it makes
a difference. And we were praying. And those of us
(22:05):
that would pray audibly. I recall this one sailor praying, God,
if you're out there, I don't want to die. I've
got a son back home I've never seen. And God,
you have to send us help or we can't make it.
And we were pleading with the Lord. After our little
season of prayer. We came upon a swell ten 12
foot swells. We look out a distance and said, look, look, look,
(22:29):
there's a raft. And here, sure enough, was a rag.
We could holler at them. They back at us in English.
It has to be our buddies. It isn't long to.
The little raft comes into our group. Now there was
no one on the raft. A little makeshift of a raft,
but no one was on it. Five sailors were around it.
And even the day before. And the third day. Now
(22:53):
our jackets are gone. What do you do when you
K-pop jacket won't hold your head out of the water?
You take it off and you sit in it, and
now it has enough buoyancy that you have to keep
swimming constantly, or else it'll put your head in the water.
You don't have the strength to get that back under you. Okay,
that little raft, you know what was on it? Kapok
(23:15):
life jackets. Now, do you think that wasn't providentially. Yes.
They had taken kapok jackets off of boys already expired.
And like the old sponge that won't hold any more water.
You squeeze that sponge out and it'll hold more water.
And they had taken those kapok jackets off of boards
that already expired and squeezed them out, put them up
(23:36):
on that little raft, and now they're drying and we
had a change of life jacket. Let's go through a
little further. They say we've got to get close enough
to Philippines that someone will spot us. Well, okay, we
are invited to join them. I say to my marine
buddy Spooner, I'm going to go with him. He said, Harold,
(23:58):
if you're going, I'm going to two Marines join five sailors.
We think that we're going to swim to the Philippines
with that little raft. We don't know. It's another 500 miles,
but we've joined them and we're going to go to
the Philippines sometime. Then later that afternoon, we see that,
you know, it's overcast and and we don't see the sun. Now, tonight,
(24:19):
we won't be able to see the moon and we
won't be able to see the Southern Cross. And how
do we know which way is the Philippines? Well, there
was some time later that afternoon that we came upon
the swell, and I saw some debris out there and
I said, look, look, uh, that looks like just an
old crate. I'm going to swim out and see what
(24:40):
that might be. And they say, yeah, a shark will
get you. Well, there was an influence that go and see.
And I'm dog paddling. And as I got closer and
closer to that little crate out there, and as I
saw those potatoes in that crate, you know, I didn't
pause to thank you, Lord, for what I'm about to
(25:01):
partake of. But in desperation, I got to hold that
first potato, and as I got a hold of it
kind in the agony of defeat, that rot began to
squeeze through my fingers, and I thought, rotten potatoes! And
I took my hands and I squeezed that rot off.
And then I took my mouth and my teeth, and
I peeled that with my teeth. I didn't spit out
(25:22):
all the rod, and I ate a maybe a little
potato or two, to. And I thought, you know, I
may be out here another day. I fill my pockets
full of potatoes, and I began to make my way
back to my buddies, nibbling on a potato. What is it?
Rotten potatoes. But they leave the raft and they came
and joined me.
S1 (25:42):
Edgar Harrell is joining us today. He is the author
of out of the depths. It's our featured resource at
Chris Fabry Lives. We'll pick up the story after we
take a quick break here on Moody Radio. It's an
(26:05):
amazing story of survival, of courage, of faith, of answered prayer.
More from Edgar Harrell in just a moment, I want
to mention on this Memorial Day, the men and women
of Carenet here anguished cries of pregnant women every day.
And they come alongside them and they help them see
the The ramifications of the choice that many in society
(26:28):
say is just so easy to make. Make a choice.
Move on with your life. If you go to the website. Chris. Org,
we have a green link to connect. Click that somebody
you know is going to need the Ministry of Care net.
Find out more. Maybe volunteer in a resource center near you.
Support them. Pray for them. Click the green net link
(26:49):
at Chris Fabry live. Edgar Harrell was the last surviving
marine from the USS Indianapolis. Our featured resource chronicles his experience.
It's titled out of the depths. We have it linked
at archive.org. Let's hear more now from Edgar Harrell.
S2 (27:08):
The next day, the fourth day. The fourth day. Where
is the raft? Where is my buddy Spooner? I don't
know what happened. I'm losing it then. And I don't
know what has happened. The fourth day. Well, I've got
to go back and and pick up one thing that
happened that night. That is at the end of that
(27:32):
third day. Sometime later that night, we heard voices again. Now,
we were nearly at the point that you could imagine
that you could hear things. You could even see things
that weren't there. So that's where we are. But we
heard voices, and it isn't long till a Navy lieutenant,
Charles McKissick from Texas, was leading, I don't know, 5
(27:54):
or 6 boys. It's dark. And they came in by voice.
And as they came into our group, uh, we tell
them that we're trying to make our way to the Philippines.
You're not going to push that raft to the Philippines?
Yes we are. We've got spare tires. We showed them
how they could take off their jackets and put one
at least to hold more water than what they have.
(28:17):
And now we're struggling through the night. Now, I'll bring
you to the fourth day. The fourth day. I'm not
with the raft. I'm not with my buddy Spooner. Where's
the raft? I don't know, I'm with McKissick on one sailor.
I look at this sailor and I see his head
has already dropped in the water. I go over and
I shake him and he's alive, but he could care less.
(28:39):
And may I say, may I say this? Honestly? It's
much easier to die than it is to live. Believe me.
The second time he was still alive, the third time
he's gone. So it's just McKissick and myself and we
are struggling now. We are still having to sit in
our kapok life jacket, and thus we're having to swim.
(29:02):
And then all of a sudden, not that 30,000 foot plane,
but one down, maybe 3 or 4000ft. Look, look, there's
a plane, there's a plane. So what would you do?
You splash water, you wave, you even yell at him.
And if he knew you were down there, impossible for
him to see you. But in the providence of God.
(29:24):
You know what? He saw us. Let me tell you
the factual story, Lieutenant. Gwen. Flying a Ventura. I call
it a I call it a B-25 out on a
search and destroy with wheels on it. Here he is
up there, and he's going to fly directly over us.
But what is happening up there? We think he sees us.
(29:46):
He's coming in fourth. No, he hasn't seen us. Let
me take you up there, Lieutenant. Gwen. Then flying at
about three 4000ft. He's having trouble with his radio antenna.
That antenna, the trailer on that little antenna behind the aircraft,
the stabilizer had come off, and that was just flipping
(30:07):
back and forth, and he couldn't reach back at his base.
And he says to the co-pilot, take over. I'm going
to go aft and put something on that radio antenna,
and he goes aft and he opened the bomb bay door.
He glances down at a split second, like the Boy
Scouts mirror. He sees the sun hitting the oil off
(30:29):
of our clothing and the debris and the water, and
he rushes back to take over control of the plane,
and the crew says, what is it? They knew he
saw something. He says, look down there. And then he
reaches over and he gets a speaker phone. He says,
load the bombs, load the bombs. They loaded the bomb.
(30:49):
We see him coming in. Thank you, thank you. He
sees us. He had not seen us. He had not
seen us. But the bombs are loaded. When he saw
that oil slick on the water, a sub is there.
He's coming down. Bombs loaded. And then as he gets
down in under the thousand foot or so, he sees
(31:12):
15 foot sharks. He sees sharks attacking boys and he
comes down. He can't land those wheels on the water.
So he comes down and he circles those. I can
see him today as he circles us, and he goes
back up 4 or 5000ft, where he reached back and
pulled to announce ducks on the pond. Whose ducks? We
(31:35):
don't know. But he gets a PBY pilot in in
Palu and gives them our coordinates. And an hour and
a half later, 150 miles later, he comes on the
scene and Adrian Marks sees sharks attacking boys, and he
calls back base and Palou permission to do what he
(31:57):
knew was a no no, and that is to set
that PBY down in an open sea landing of ten
and 12 foot swells, and they tell him no way.
But he hangs the phone up on the on his command.
He put that big goose down, and I can see
it today as it hit that first swell and went up,
and finally he settled it down. He tore up one motor,
(32:20):
he ruptured the pontoon, but he set it down and
he picked up 56 boys. And anyone knows anything about
a PBY? You'd say it won't hold 56. It will
if you tie seven out on the wings and there
were seven out on the wing. Now he couldn't take off.
(32:42):
No motor, only one. One prop. But there was the
USS Doyle, which was in that vicinity. And it isn't
long till the Doyle comes on the scene. Now, marks
has already picked up 56 of us. So we're transferred
from the PBY to the Doyle. They take a five
(33:02):
inch gun, and they sank the plane because it would
never fly again. Well, it's a long story from there,
but my time is just about over. And there's one
thing that I would like to just read. And it
had to do with, the possibility that, uh, uh. That
(33:22):
Gwen could spot us in the water. Now, mind you,
he's flying. Let's say 4000ft. He's looking forward of him.
Let's say four miles. He's looking out. Peripheral vision. About
two and a half miles each side. He's looking at 20mi².
And to see a man's head down here. 6 to 8in. Impossible.
(33:45):
But in the providence of God, he saw us. Now,
they used to come to all of our reunions. But
may I say, uh, of the 1197, 880, my buddies
didn't make it at the end of four and a
half days. There were only 317 of us still alive.
(34:06):
There were 39 of we Marines aboard. Only nine of
us survived. There's only two of us still living today.
And of the 317, there's 36 of us still living today. Now,
what was the chances that Wilbur Gwynn would spot us?
(34:28):
Adrian Marks that picked us up. Here's what he had
to say. He said what were the chances we were?
Gwynn would fly a course which would take him directly
over you. And what were the chances that his radio
antenna would break while he was out on this mission?
What were the chances that he would open his bomb
bay doors and look straight down momentarily? And what were
(34:50):
the chances that he would look straight down in one
of you? You didn't have a chance in a million.
I know the most of you prayed a lot, and
I know that some of you feel that it made
a difference. Wilbur Gwynn is a wonderful man and a
fine pilot. He never said that. He heard a voice
speak to him. But was there an unseen hand upon
(35:11):
his shoulder? Did he find you by pure chance. The
odds against it are 1 in 1,000,000. Nay, 1 in 1,000,000,000.
But somehow he was chosen as the instrument to overcome
these impossible astronomical odds. Wilbur Glenn looked down at the
split second. That would become one of the great moments
(35:33):
of history. I, as well as you, am proud to
know him as a friend. Any sensible person knows that
no one can swim for four and a half days.
And yet you did. For 40 years I have reflected
upon the blind courage and the unbelievable greatness of spirit
that I saw when each survivor was brought aboard my airplane.
(35:57):
And I have been compelled by the evidence of my
own eyes to believe in miracles.
S1 (36:04):
Edgar Harrell, speaking from the heart to students at Moody
Bible Institute, you'll hear his concluding remarks straight ahead on
this edition of Chris Fabry Live! Our remaining moments with
(36:28):
Edgar Harrell, author of out of the depths. You can
find it at Chris favorite archive.org. We're going to hear
his concluding remarks to the students at Moody Bible Institute,
and then a behind the scenes interview. In this segment,
once again, Edgar Harrell.
S2 (36:44):
I believe in miracles. I believe likewise in the providence
of God. Were it not for the providence of God,
I can see myself out in the Marianas trough with
880 of my buddies. But instead, I see myself today
with this privilege of being here at Moody Bible Institute,
(37:06):
to tell of God's love and mercy for this World
War two marine, and I thank you so kindly for
this opportunity to share a bit of my story. Get
my book and you can read the rest of the story.
Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
S3 (37:26):
Thank you so much.
S1 (37:28):
Edgar, I have to ask you, when you stood up
there and you started talking to those students, it seemed
to me like some of them, they were really enamored
with you. They loved you. Just, you know, when you
when you stood 89 year old person talking to them,
but some of them didn't understand where you were going
with this story because they are so far removed from 1945.
(37:53):
Did you get the same thing?
S2 (37:55):
Yeah, I got the feeling, uh, and I expected it
because I was so excited to be there. I saw
their response, but, uh, I wondered too, um, how many
of these really know anything about or much about the
the Indianapolis. So it's given me that opportunity through the
(38:18):
years now to tell not only the Indianapolis story, but
to somehow to weave in the providence of God in
my life then, as well as in now.
S1 (38:28):
Yeah. And that's what I love about your story, that you,
you know, you you can't separate your faith in God
from what you were doing and serving your country. It
all went together, didn't it?
S2 (38:39):
That's right.
S1 (38:41):
Yeah. Uh, as you were, uh, in the water there
for those four, four and a half days, where did
your mind go? Did you think a lot about your
own parents and your siblings and this, uh, you know,
the girl that was waiting for you back home?
S2 (38:57):
Uh, you know, without without hope. What do you have
to hang on to? I had hope in. The Lord
delivered me somehow. Uh, and, uh, the fact that I
had someone back home, that I was so anxious and
eager to spend every ounce of, uh, any possibility of
(39:20):
making it. And, uh, so today I just look back
on the whole event and say, oh, there's not a
day passed. There's probably not many hours passed that I
don't just think of the Lord and the many, many
ways that he's blessed my life then as well as
now and then to have this opportunity to come back
(39:42):
to Moody, just even to come and speak to the
students and just to walk through on the grounds that
have changed so much since 85, when I was here,
maybe last. It's been a it's been a joy and
a real privilege.
S1 (39:56):
Did you want to say anything else to the students?
Was there anything because of the time? You know, you
didn't you couldn't say anything. Was there anything else that
you wanted to say that you didn't get a chance to?
S2 (40:08):
Well, possibly other than, uh, some kind of a challenge
to them, uh, in that, uh, they're here to prepare themselves, and, uh,
they're going to be the next generation that have that
are going to be in God's vineyard to be used. And, uh,
I probably would have said something of that nature to them. Uh,
(40:31):
they're at the right place at the right time. And
time is drawing so close to the Lord's return. And, uh,
it's a different story from that point on as far as, uh,
their being able to be a witness for the Lord
and these last days.
S1 (40:50):
You know, I think that is so true with your generation.
They call it the greatest generation. And every, every generation
has it's it's time to step up and to do something.
And you did that in the 1940s. And you've done
that since then as well. I think what we're experiencing
now is this time for the younger generation to step
(41:13):
up and do the same type of thing, maybe not
in a warfare situation, but with our faith and to
really cling to God, whatever that means, and and go
around the world with the message. Do you agree with that?
S2 (41:26):
I agree. In fact, I would say it's a different
warfare for the Christian today than it was even as
I was growing up. And uh, certainly the time is
drawing so, so short. And to have, uh, young people
banding together dedicated to the Lord and to come and just, uh, to, uh, well,
(41:47):
just to have many of those young men and the
ladies to to embrace me, to, uh, just, uh, feel
the warmth and the love of the Lord, you know, uh,
it does it does a great joy to this old
89 year old. Yes. As World War Two marine. Yeah.
I'm so honored.
S4 (42:08):
What did they say to you.
S1 (42:10):
When they were in line? And they'd give you a hug?
What did. What did they say?
S2 (42:14):
They didn't have to say anything I don't hear well, anyhow.
And many of them, I'd say they would maybe try
to say something and I'd say, I'm sorry, I don't
hear you, but I love you. And, you know, maybe
we would embrace again. But, uh, it was I have
to say this now, I've been to a lot of, uh,
(42:35):
lot of schools, secular schools, and they can, uh, you know,
cheer me and all that and, uh, shake my hands
and thank me. But, uh, it was different at Moody
to see, uh, many of them shedding tears with me
as we embraced because there was a real feeling of, uh,
(42:56):
of Christian, uh, sympathy and love and concern and real
thanks from them.
S1 (43:04):
I love your emotion when you're speaking and you get
emotional and this can happen on the stage, or it
can happen with an interview. Your voice gets a little
louder and it's you just want to get those words out.
And that is just the way that you process all
of that pain that's still back there, isn't it?
S2 (43:22):
Well, you know, I have to I have to say
that I feel many of those emotions that I had,
feelings that I had back then. They just come alive
today when I share of God's mercy and my life.
I know that I would not be here today were
it not for a loving God that loved me and
(43:45):
put his arm around me there in the depths of
the ocean, and and fulfilled the promise that I felt
that he was making to me. I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. Peace I give unto you, not as
the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your
heart be troubled. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. And
I can hear that. And I can just say, thank you, Lord.
(44:06):
Thank you Lord. And that was the that was the
hope and the encouragement that, you know, allowed me to spend, uh,
you know, every ounce of strength that I had to
fight for life and then to see how he's rewarded
me down through the years since then. And I just
give him praise today.
S1 (44:24):
But a lot of World War Two veterans never talked
about what they experienced, or they had a hard time
doing it. I think you have processed that through telling
the story.
S2 (44:35):
Uh, yes. Now, I might say that I did not
early on, and it was after nine over 11 that
my son said, dad, we've got to, uh, write your story.
We've got to tell your story. And I said, well,
I have a story to tell. Now, I had talked some, but, uh, um,
I had one time I had about 51 employees, and
(44:57):
they didn't know what I had experienced. Uh, I held
it back until finally I was kind of pushed into it.
But once I got it off of my my chest somewhat,
then I saw that it was a, it was a
maybe a tool that I could use in my Christian testimony. And, uh,
(45:20):
and I needed, uh, it was a good cathartic to
tell it the first few times. And then I saw
that the Lord used it in a mighty way through
the years in my life.
S1 (45:32):
I think a lot of people are going to be
encouraged through the story. Out of the depths is the book.
It's a featured resource. Today at, Chris delivers an unforgettable
World War II story of survival, courage, and the sinking
of the USS Indianapolis. And you pay tribute to all
of your, as you call them, your buddies who did
(45:52):
not make it. You paid tribute to them every time
you tell this story, their sacrifice, their courage. And I
want to thank you for doing that again here today.
Any final words for our listeners?
S2 (46:04):
Well, yes, I could wish that many would, uh, would
reward me by, uh, purchasing naturally, the book that has
been my story. And, uh, I love to share the
story because in sharing the story, it it's sharing God's
love and mercy. And in my life and many, many
(46:26):
people need to hear that part of the story.
S1 (46:29):
Yes. Well, Edgar, it is great to get to meet you. And, uh,
thank you for sharing that with us today. God bless you. Godspeed,
my friend.
S2 (46:38):
Thank you so kindly, Chris. It's been an honor to
be on your program. Thank you so much.
S1 (46:43):
Edgar Harrell. And you can find out of the depths
online Chris Fabry live.org. Our program is a production of
Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
Today on Chris Fabry Live. On this Memorial Day, we
celebrate the heroism, the sacrifice, the service of those who
gave the last full measure of devotion. We're going to
transport you in time to 1945. July 30th the USS
Indianapolis and its crew of 1196 men is making its
(00:31):
way toward a small island in the South Pacific. It
is midnight, and Marine Edgar Harrell and several others are
sleeping on the deck rather than down below. They are
returning from a top secret mission to deliver uranium for
the atomic bombs that would ultimately end World War Two,
(00:51):
but they're being watched. Shortly after midnight, six torpedoes are
sent toward the Indianapolis. You'll hear the rest of the
story today from Edgar Harrell, author of out of the depths.
I'm Chris Fabry. Welcome. I hope you'll stay with us.
In 2014, 89 year old Edgar Harrell spoke to the
(01:13):
students of Moody Bible Institute. And then he joined me
afterward on this program. And we're going to let you
hear what he had to say to the students. And
then you'll hear his response to a few of my questions.
Edgar was the last surviving marine of the USS Indianapolis.
He died in May of 2021 at the Tennessee State
(01:35):
Veterans Home in Clarksville. And his story is certainly appropriate
for us today. Our thanks to Ryan McConaughey doing all
things technical. Tricia McMillan is our producer. Don't call us today.
Our program is recorded. For those of you who have
contributed to this program to keep us going through the
last 17 years, thank you. This is the last week
(01:57):
we're offering a copy of a gorgeous hardcover book written
and illustrated by Ruth Jo Simons. Home is right where
you are. This looks like a children's book, and it is,
but it's really one of those stories. Do you remember
Love You Forever, a book you read to your child
that chokes you up when you read it because you
(02:18):
know they're not going to stay little? It's inspired by
Psalm 23 and the water colors are gorgeous. I'd love
to send you a copy. Click through today. June is
only a week away. Go to Chris Fabry Live and
give a gift right there. Chris Fabry. Let's go back
to 2014 and begin by reading from our featured resource today,
(02:42):
the book out of the depths. This is from the
introduction written by Edgar son, David Harrell. It is easy
to grow up in the United States of America and
take for granted the wonderful freedom we enjoy. I confess
that I have been guilty of being unintentionally indifferent about
our nation's liberty, and perhaps even harboring an unwitting apathy
(03:04):
concerning the wars that bought it. All too often, Memorial
Day and Veterans Day come and go with little serious
reflection about the enormous sacrifices that have been made. Maybe
this describes you as well. However, the bubble of peace
and prosperity that once preserved my cavalier attitude was suddenly
(03:24):
popped by the terrorist attacks of nine over 11. Instantly,
all Americans saw with our own eyes what evil looks
like up close and personal. Our false sense of security
exploded along with the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and United
Flight 93, in a Pennsylvania field with shocking abruptness. We
(03:45):
were all reminded that freedom is not free. A simple
yet profound truth our veterans know all too well. Because
of 911, I began to think deeply about our nation's
history like never before, the stark realities of past wars
and the valiant men and women who fought them were
thrust into the forefront of my mind. Almost overnight, I
(04:06):
developed a keen awareness of the evil that plunged us
into World War Two, the same kind of wickedness that
now plagues the world through radical Islam. I also began
thinking about the part my father played in that war,
along with his shipmates aboard the USS Indianapolis. I remember
dad's reaction to nine over 11. It was simply, here
(04:28):
we go again. He was right. The same diabolical evil
that motivated our enemies in World War Two was once
again at work. And once again, men and women of
valor must take up arms to ward off barbaric aggressors.
Heroic soldiers willing to give their lives to preserve our freedom.
But what is sad is how quickly we forget the
(04:50):
noble military contributions of the past. I remember hearing dad
talk about the war from time to time when I
was a little boy. I recall his reluctant stories about
the secret mission of the Indianapolis, the atomic bomb components
they carried, and especially the gripping tales about the sharks
when the crew was lost at sea for five days.
(05:12):
I even remember attending some of the Indianapolis reunions and
meeting captain McVay and being awestruck by his white Navy
uniform and medals. Still, the depth of my father's sacrifice,
and that of all the other World War Two veterans
did not really hit me until nine over 11. I
became a man on a mission, not just to tell
(05:32):
my father's story and honor the crew of the USS Indianapolis,
but to raise the awareness of the cost of freedom
and to rekindle the fires of true God honoring patriotism
and respect for our veterans. Fortunately, dad agreed with my goals,
but with even greater passion due to his personal experience.
(05:52):
My father, like many other World War Two veterans, has
had many opportunities to speak around the country in a
variety of venues, including public schools. In interviewing him to
write this book, I was saddened to hear about the
prevailing ignorance most students have concerning World War Two. He
indicated that even many of the teachers and administrators he
(06:12):
has met admitted they knew little about the war, not
to mention the USS Indianapolis tragedy. This only fueled my
fire to collaborate with my ex-Marine father in educating readers
about the heroism of our veterans, and ultimately glorifying God.
As you listen to this harrowing, true adventure, of course
(06:33):
his son says as you read this, but as you
listen today, you will quickly see the power of faith
and the undeniable hand of divine providence in the affairs
of men and governments. You will see the crippling effects
of sin and the ravages of war, and the transforming
power of the gospel of Christ in the hearts of men.
(06:54):
You will see the corruption of personal revenge and politics,
even in our own military, that stoop to tactics of
questionable integrity and succumbed to the temptations of injustice. You're
going to hear all of that today from a man
who lived it. A man who was on the USS
(07:14):
Indianapolis and who was in the water with many of
his friends who were killed, who died, who drowned, who
were attacked by sharks. This is a story not just
of survival, though. This is a story of God involved
in a soldier's life and the transforming power of Jesus Christ.
(07:38):
Edgar Harrell speaks to the students of Moody Bible Institute,
and you will hear it straight ahead on Moody Radio.
(07:59):
Thank you for joining us for this Memorial Day edition
of Chris Fabry Live. We are going back to 2014
to hear from the late Edgar Harold. He spoke to
students at Moody Bible Institute that year. Edgar has written,
along with his son, David, out of the depths and
unforgettable World War II story of survival, courage, and the
(08:22):
sinking of the USS Indianapolis. Here is Edgar. Harold.
S2 (08:28):
Thank you so very, very much. It's indeed an honor
to be with you people today. And I have some
special honored guests I see here on the front row,
some of my contemporaries. And, uh, good to have you
with us, sir. Thank you. Now, I'm honored that you would, uh,
(08:55):
allow an 89 year old World War Two marine to
be with you today. Now, may I ask this? You
take a good look at this 89 year old marine.
And now you know why the Marine Corps is still
(09:15):
looking for a few good men. All right. Now, I
don't know what you know about the sinking of the
USS Indianapolis, but I have a few minutes to tell
you something about it. As an 18 year old boy
from Kentucky, I joined the Marine Corps after boot camp
(09:38):
and sea school. I found myself in San Francisco, and
there was a big USS Indianapolis, and that was to
be my home for the rest of the war. I
was at Saipan, Tinian, Guam, sea battle, Philippine seas down
in Peleliu. I was at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Three
(09:58):
air strikes on Tokyo. And lastly, I was a marine
guard that guarded fat man and little boy. You know
who fat man and little boy were? I'll tell you
who they were. They were the two atomic bombs that
a few days later, would be dropped at Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
(10:20):
It was after Okinawa where we had received the kamikaze plane.
We lost several boys. We had to come back to
the States for repair soon after repair. We looked out
on the dock and there was a big container being
brought aboard our ship. And my marine captain said, Harold,
(10:42):
I want you to station a guard in the port
hangar deck. What do we have, Captain Parkes? Parks, he said,
we don't know. Don't know what we're transporting. He says no.
We are told that every hour that we delay in
getting it to the forward area would cost lives. So
that tells us that we've got a hot potato. And
then there was a couple of proposed to the Air
(11:02):
Force officers that came aboard. And what they had with
them was a little canister in a metal cage with
a padlock on it. And a couple of sailors took
them up to a stateroom, and they fastened a piece
of scrap metal to the deck over that, and spot
welded it so it couldn't get away. Now, they were
(11:23):
scientists from Los Alamos, New Mexico. And what they had
was half of all the uranium that America owned at
that time. The other half was to be flown to
meet us in Tinian Island. We have that cargo. We
are headed for ten, and it's only 5300 miles. We
(11:44):
made that in ten days, 530 mile a day in
a heavy cruiser, we backed up from 10 a.m. to Guam. Xenpak.
That's the Central Pacific Command. We received our sailing orders,
which was to go to the Philippines to prepare for
the main invasion of Japan. Three days out of Guam unescorted.
(12:09):
We asked for an escort that they refused us an escort, but, uh,
they were not truthful. They could have told us you
need an escort because we've broken the Japanese code. We
know everything that they're doing. We know that the Damen
group of submarines are working in those waters. We even
(12:29):
know that we lost the USS Underhill four days ago.
We lost 129 boys. They don't tell us that they
send us out in harms way, unescorted. Three days out
of Guam, on our way to the Philippines, we encountered
a Commander Hashimoto and a submarine. He was able to
(12:51):
put his little periscope up and pick us up. We
had no underwater sound gear. We didn't know he was
out there. About 14 minutes past midnight, he had target
Red stand by fire, and every two seconds he fired
a torpedo. I had gotten off of watch at 12:00
(13:11):
that night. And mind you, we are in 110 degree
weather and no air conditioning aboard the ship. And a
good captain could say, you're welcome to go topside and
find your make your pallet any place out on the
open deck. So when I got off of watch, I
went below deck and I got my blanket. I didn't
get my kapok jacket. I got my blanket. And I
(13:34):
went all the way forward under the barrels of number
one turret. I used my shoe as my pillow, and
I lay down there and just begun to doze off
to sleep, and all of a sudden a massive explosion.
When I say massive. That first torpedo caught about 40ft
of the bow of the ship off. When I say
cut it off, it wasn't there. Uh, we're about three
(13:58):
about three decks deep at that point. And now we've
become a funnel and we're moving about 17 knots or
by 15 mile an hour. We're pushing. Water is coming in,
breaking the bulkheads down below the second torpedo, back close
to the marine compartment. No one lived to tell about that.
(14:18):
I know that I'm to make my way to my
emergency station back on the quarterdeck. And as I began
to make my trek back there, there were those who
were coming out of the forward area that was mostly
officer's quarters. And as they came from the internal, you
could see that they were just in their night clothing,
maybe just a pair of skivvies, but they were flash burned, Burn, uh, face, arms.
(14:43):
And if they dared to touch the bulkhead, which was
red hot, they left their skin of their head on
the bulkhead. They came out on the open deck pleading
for someone to help them. That's not my responsibility. And really,
nothing that I knew that I could do. I'm making
my way back to my emergency station. I get back
there realizing I don't have a life jacket. Now, the
(15:06):
first hundred yards of the ship is already under. And
as I got on the quarterdeck, my marine lieutenant was there. Uh,
Lieutenant Stauffer. Permission to cut down some of those kapok jackets.
He said not until we get word to abandon ship.
The ship is sinking even by now. If you could imagine,
the quarter deck of the ship normally is about eight
(15:28):
feet above waterline on the starboard side. Now, there was
water on the quarter deck. Wait until we get word.
There's over. P.A. system is out. No electrical power of
any kind. The only lights we had was the inferno
from the explosions below deck. There was a Navy, Navy,
(15:49):
Navy commander that came from below deck. And as he
came through the hatch, I recognized who he was. And
he was nearly flash burned. And someone hollered out, get
the commander a life jacket! So they began to cut
some of those down, and I managed to get me
a kapok jacket, waiting for word to come. And finally,
word trickles down to good. Captain had given word to
(16:10):
abandon ship, and now we're rushing to the high side,
the port side to leave the ship, and I recall
making my way over to that steel cable, looking out
into the blackness of the night and seeing all that
oil on the water and seeing boys jump on each other.
And as I held on to that rail, may I say,
(16:33):
there's times when you pray and there's times when you
pray and I'm praying. I'm pouring my heart out to
the Lord. I don't want to die. I made him
all kinds of promises. I tell him. Uh, mom and
dad back home. Six younger brothers, older sister and a
younger sister and a certain brunette that said that she
(16:53):
would wait for me. May I get ahead of the
story and say she waited? We were married in 19.
We were married in 1947. This past July or 66,
this coming July, our 67th. I talked to her last evening. Now,
(17:19):
I held on to that rail and I stepped over
the rail. I made two big long jumps, and my
K-pop jacket came up over my head, and I began
to swim away from the ship. Looking and seeing the
first hundred yards of the ship is under. By the way,
it's twice the length of a football field. 610ft long.
So the first hundred yards is under. Boys were jumping
(17:42):
off of the fantail, some jumping into those screws that
are still turning. I saw the ship as she completely
turned and went under, and I made my way out
to about 80 boys and I first thing I want
to know, any Marines? Any Marines. There were two more Marines.
One had been blown against a bulkhead and had multiple
(18:02):
breaks in his body. And I actually was with him
for the next hour when he passed on to eternity.
My other buddy had gone in the water head first
with all that oil in his eyes and looking up
at that 100 degree sun, he's going to have just
big sore sockets the next few days. We take inventory
(18:23):
of some that didn't have life jackets. Many were injured
and they're going to need some assistance, and many of
them passed away that night. The next morning, the first day.
Now we had company. When I say we had company,
at any given time, you could see a big fin
cutting through the water, and you can imagine what that
(18:43):
does to you. You think, you know, this is the
end of life. They're going to attack us. And out
of fairness to the sharks, they weren't attacking us. But
it isn't long till some straggler would be out by
himself and. And you'd hear blood curdling scream. You'd look
and you'd see that kapok jacket goes under. And a
(19:05):
few moments later it comes back to the surface. Fins, fins,
fins around the blood. You dare not to go and
check who your buddy might have been some time later.
Maybe you check him and you find out that the
bottom torso is gone, or he's disemboweled and now he's
going to be there in that 100 degree weather for
the next days. Let's go through that first day we
(19:29):
lost several boys. Go to the second day. The second
day you. I'm sure all of you feel that you've
been thirsty, but have you been so thirsty that your
lips are parching open, bleeding? You have all that oil
on you and, um, your tongue now is swelling in
your mouth and you can hardly talk. And you see
(19:50):
boys that maybe have torn off some of their clothing,
and they put some salt water up in there, and
they drink a few swallows of salt water and within
a within the hour. Now they are not coherent at all.
They don't know you. You may have a canteen of
water in your and your kapok jacket, and someone takes
(20:12):
out his sheath knife and he stabs his buddy. And
then all the blood and then all the sharks. Okay,
the third day or the second day, about noon, we
look and we see a little rain cloud coming over.
And as it got closer and closer, you could see
it's raining. Look, it's raining, it's raining, it's raining and
(20:34):
you open your mouth heavenward. And how much water can
you catch in your big mouth? Not much. You take
those greasy hands and you somewhat funnel a little water,
and you get a few tablespoons full of water. Now. Sharks. Sharks. Sharks.
Through the next night into the third day. Now. By
the third day at noon, there are only 17 of
(20:55):
us left. There were about 80. 17. You can use
your own imagination as to what has happened. But we
are desperate. We know that we can't make it much longer.
We see planes flying over 30,000ft, our B-29s bombing Japan.
But no one is looking for us. Our souls have
(21:20):
been ignored. No one's looking for us. We are just
left alone there. And then sometime, then, uh, hear that? Uh, that, uh,
third day that we were so, so desperate. 17 of us.
And may I say again it's time to pray. And
(21:43):
I often say there's no such thing as an atheist
in foxholes. There were no atheists out there. Everyone prayed.
And I say there are time comes in an individual's life.
I don't care who you are. You will pray. You
may not know to whom you're praying and it makes
a difference. And we were praying. And those of us
(22:05):
that would pray audibly. I recall this one sailor praying, God,
if you're out there, I don't want to die. I've
got a son back home I've never seen. And God,
you have to send us help or we can't make it.
And we were pleading with the Lord. After our little
season of prayer. We came upon a swell ten 12
foot swells. We look out a distance and said, look, look, look,
(22:29):
there's a raft. And here, sure enough, was a rag.
We could holler at them. They back at us in English.
It has to be our buddies. It isn't long to.
The little raft comes into our group. Now there was
no one on the raft. A little makeshift of a raft,
but no one was on it. Five sailors were around it.
And even the day before. And the third day. Now
(22:53):
our jackets are gone. What do you do when you
K-pop jacket won't hold your head out of the water?
You take it off and you sit in it, and
now it has enough buoyancy that you have to keep
swimming constantly, or else it'll put your head in the water.
You don't have the strength to get that back under you. Okay,
that little raft, you know what was on it? Kapok
(23:15):
life jackets. Now, do you think that wasn't providentially. Yes.
They had taken kapok jackets off of boys already expired.
And like the old sponge that won't hold any more water.
You squeeze that sponge out and it'll hold more water.
And they had taken those kapok jackets off of boards
that already expired and squeezed them out, put them up
(23:36):
on that little raft, and now they're drying and we
had a change of life jacket. Let's go through a
little further. They say we've got to get close enough
to Philippines that someone will spot us. Well, okay, we
are invited to join them. I say to my marine
buddy Spooner, I'm going to go with him. He said, Harold,
(23:58):
if you're going, I'm going to two Marines join five sailors.
We think that we're going to swim to the Philippines
with that little raft. We don't know. It's another 500 miles,
but we've joined them and we're going to go to
the Philippines sometime. Then later that afternoon, we see that,
you know, it's overcast and and we don't see the sun. Now, tonight,
(24:19):
we won't be able to see the moon and we
won't be able to see the Southern Cross. And how
do we know which way is the Philippines? Well, there
was some time later that afternoon that we came upon
the swell, and I saw some debris out there and
I said, look, look, uh, that looks like just an
old crate. I'm going to swim out and see what
(24:40):
that might be. And they say, yeah, a shark will
get you. Well, there was an influence that go and see.
And I'm dog paddling. And as I got closer and
closer to that little crate out there, and as I
saw those potatoes in that crate, you know, I didn't
pause to thank you, Lord, for what I'm about to
(25:01):
partake of. But in desperation, I got to hold that
first potato, and as I got a hold of it
kind in the agony of defeat, that rot began to
squeeze through my fingers, and I thought, rotten potatoes! And
I took my hands and I squeezed that rot off.
And then I took my mouth and my teeth, and
I peeled that with my teeth. I didn't spit out
(25:22):
all the rod, and I ate a maybe a little
potato or two, to. And I thought, you know, I
may be out here another day. I fill my pockets
full of potatoes, and I began to make my way
back to my buddies, nibbling on a potato. What is it?
Rotten potatoes. But they leave the raft and they came
and joined me.
S1 (25:42):
Edgar Harrell is joining us today. He is the author
of out of the depths. It's our featured resource at
Chris Fabry Lives. We'll pick up the story after we
take a quick break here on Moody Radio. It's an
(26:05):
amazing story of survival, of courage, of faith, of answered prayer.
More from Edgar Harrell in just a moment, I want
to mention on this Memorial Day, the men and women
of Carenet here anguished cries of pregnant women every day.
And they come alongside them and they help them see
the The ramifications of the choice that many in society
(26:28):
say is just so easy to make. Make a choice.
Move on with your life. If you go to the website. Chris. Org,
we have a green link to connect. Click that somebody
you know is going to need the Ministry of Care net.
Find out more. Maybe volunteer in a resource center near you.
Support them. Pray for them. Click the green net link
(26:49):
at Chris Fabry live. Edgar Harrell was the last surviving
marine from the USS Indianapolis. Our featured resource chronicles his experience.
It's titled out of the depths. We have it linked
at archive.org. Let's hear more now from Edgar Harrell.
S2 (27:08):
The next day, the fourth day. The fourth day. Where
is the raft? Where is my buddy Spooner? I don't
know what happened. I'm losing it then. And I don't
know what has happened. The fourth day. Well, I've got
to go back and and pick up one thing that
happened that night. That is at the end of that
(27:32):
third day. Sometime later that night, we heard voices again. Now,
we were nearly at the point that you could imagine
that you could hear things. You could even see things
that weren't there. So that's where we are. But we
heard voices, and it isn't long till a Navy lieutenant,
Charles McKissick from Texas, was leading, I don't know, 5
(27:54):
or 6 boys. It's dark. And they came in by voice.
And as they came into our group, uh, we tell
them that we're trying to make our way to the Philippines.
You're not going to push that raft to the Philippines?
Yes we are. We've got spare tires. We showed them
how they could take off their jackets and put one
at least to hold more water than what they have.
(28:17):
And now we're struggling through the night. Now, I'll bring
you to the fourth day. The fourth day. I'm not
with the raft. I'm not with my buddy Spooner. Where's
the raft? I don't know, I'm with McKissick on one sailor.
I look at this sailor and I see his head
has already dropped in the water. I go over and
I shake him and he's alive, but he could care less.
(28:39):
And may I say, may I say this? Honestly? It's
much easier to die than it is to live. Believe me.
The second time he was still alive, the third time
he's gone. So it's just McKissick and myself and we
are struggling now. We are still having to sit in
our kapok life jacket, and thus we're having to swim.
(29:02):
And then all of a sudden, not that 30,000 foot plane,
but one down, maybe 3 or 4000ft. Look, look, there's
a plane, there's a plane. So what would you do?
You splash water, you wave, you even yell at him.
And if he knew you were down there, impossible for
him to see you. But in the providence of God.
(29:24):
You know what? He saw us. Let me tell you
the factual story, Lieutenant. Gwen. Flying a Ventura. I call
it a I call it a B-25 out on a
search and destroy with wheels on it. Here he is
up there, and he's going to fly directly over us.
But what is happening up there? We think he sees us.
(29:46):
He's coming in fourth. No, he hasn't seen us. Let
me take you up there, Lieutenant. Gwen. Then flying at
about three 4000ft. He's having trouble with his radio antenna.
That antenna, the trailer on that little antenna behind the aircraft,
the stabilizer had come off, and that was just flipping
(30:07):
back and forth, and he couldn't reach back at his base.
And he says to the co-pilot, take over. I'm going
to go aft and put something on that radio antenna,
and he goes aft and he opened the bomb bay door.
He glances down at a split second, like the Boy
Scouts mirror. He sees the sun hitting the oil off
(30:29):
of our clothing and the debris and the water, and
he rushes back to take over control of the plane,
and the crew says, what is it? They knew he
saw something. He says, look down there. And then he
reaches over and he gets a speaker phone. He says,
load the bombs, load the bombs. They loaded the bomb.
(30:49):
We see him coming in. Thank you, thank you. He
sees us. He had not seen us. He had not
seen us. But the bombs are loaded. When he saw
that oil slick on the water, a sub is there.
He's coming down. Bombs loaded. And then as he gets
down in under the thousand foot or so, he sees
(31:12):
15 foot sharks. He sees sharks attacking boys and he
comes down. He can't land those wheels on the water.
So he comes down and he circles those. I can
see him today as he circles us, and he goes
back up 4 or 5000ft, where he reached back and
pulled to announce ducks on the pond. Whose ducks? We
(31:35):
don't know. But he gets a PBY pilot in in
Palu and gives them our coordinates. And an hour and
a half later, 150 miles later, he comes on the
scene and Adrian Marks sees sharks attacking boys, and he
calls back base and Palou permission to do what he
(31:57):
knew was a no no, and that is to set
that PBY down in an open sea landing of ten
and 12 foot swells, and they tell him no way.
But he hangs the phone up on the on his command.
He put that big goose down, and I can see
it today as it hit that first swell and went up,
and finally he settled it down. He tore up one motor,
(32:20):
he ruptured the pontoon, but he set it down and
he picked up 56 boys. And anyone knows anything about
a PBY? You'd say it won't hold 56. It will
if you tie seven out on the wings and there
were seven out on the wing. Now he couldn't take off.
(32:42):
No motor, only one. One prop. But there was the
USS Doyle, which was in that vicinity. And it isn't
long till the Doyle comes on the scene. Now, marks
has already picked up 56 of us. So we're transferred
from the PBY to the Doyle. They take a five
(33:02):
inch gun, and they sank the plane because it would
never fly again. Well, it's a long story from there,
but my time is just about over. And there's one
thing that I would like to just read. And it
had to do with, the possibility that, uh, uh. That
(33:22):
Gwen could spot us in the water. Now, mind you,
he's flying. Let's say 4000ft. He's looking forward of him.
Let's say four miles. He's looking out. Peripheral vision. About
two and a half miles each side. He's looking at 20mi².
And to see a man's head down here. 6 to 8in. Impossible.
(33:45):
But in the providence of God, he saw us. Now,
they used to come to all of our reunions. But
may I say, uh, of the 1197, 880, my buddies
didn't make it at the end of four and a
half days. There were only 317 of us still alive.
(34:06):
There were 39 of we Marines aboard. Only nine of
us survived. There's only two of us still living today.
And of the 317, there's 36 of us still living today. Now,
what was the chances that Wilbur Gwynn would spot us?
(34:28):
Adrian Marks that picked us up. Here's what he had
to say. He said what were the chances we were?
Gwynn would fly a course which would take him directly
over you. And what were the chances that his radio
antenna would break while he was out on this mission?
What were the chances that he would open his bomb
bay doors and look straight down momentarily? And what were
(34:50):
the chances that he would look straight down in one
of you? You didn't have a chance in a million.
I know the most of you prayed a lot, and
I know that some of you feel that it made
a difference. Wilbur Gwynn is a wonderful man and a
fine pilot. He never said that. He heard a voice
speak to him. But was there an unseen hand upon
(35:11):
his shoulder? Did he find you by pure chance. The
odds against it are 1 in 1,000,000. Nay, 1 in 1,000,000,000.
But somehow he was chosen as the instrument to overcome
these impossible astronomical odds. Wilbur Glenn looked down at the
split second. That would become one of the great moments
(35:33):
of history. I, as well as you, am proud to
know him as a friend. Any sensible person knows that
no one can swim for four and a half days.
And yet you did. For 40 years I have reflected
upon the blind courage and the unbelievable greatness of spirit
that I saw when each survivor was brought aboard my airplane.
(35:57):
And I have been compelled by the evidence of my
own eyes to believe in miracles.
S1 (36:04):
Edgar Harrell, speaking from the heart to students at Moody
Bible Institute, you'll hear his concluding remarks straight ahead on
this edition of Chris Fabry Live! Our remaining moments with
(36:28):
Edgar Harrell, author of out of the depths. You can
find it at Chris favorite archive.org. We're going to hear
his concluding remarks to the students at Moody Bible Institute,
and then a behind the scenes interview. In this segment,
once again, Edgar Harrell.
S2 (36:44):
I believe in miracles. I believe likewise in the providence
of God. Were it not for the providence of God,
I can see myself out in the Marianas trough with
880 of my buddies. But instead, I see myself today
with this privilege of being here at Moody Bible Institute,
(37:06):
to tell of God's love and mercy for this World
War two marine, and I thank you so kindly for
this opportunity to share a bit of my story. Get
my book and you can read the rest of the story.
Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
S3 (37:26):
Thank you so much.
S1 (37:28):
Edgar, I have to ask you, when you stood up
there and you started talking to those students, it seemed
to me like some of them, they were really enamored
with you. They loved you. Just, you know, when you
when you stood 89 year old person talking to them,
but some of them didn't understand where you were going
with this story because they are so far removed from 1945.
(37:53):
Did you get the same thing?
S2 (37:55):
Yeah, I got the feeling, uh, and I expected it
because I was so excited to be there. I saw
their response, but, uh, I wondered too, um, how many
of these really know anything about or much about the
the Indianapolis. So it's given me that opportunity through the
(38:18):
years now to tell not only the Indianapolis story, but
to somehow to weave in the providence of God in
my life then, as well as in now.
S1 (38:28):
Yeah. And that's what I love about your story, that you,
you know, you you can't separate your faith in God
from what you were doing and serving your country. It
all went together, didn't it?
S2 (38:39):
That's right.
S1 (38:41):
Yeah. Uh, as you were, uh, in the water there
for those four, four and a half days, where did
your mind go? Did you think a lot about your
own parents and your siblings and this, uh, you know,
the girl that was waiting for you back home?
S2 (38:57):
Uh, you know, without without hope. What do you have
to hang on to? I had hope in. The Lord
delivered me somehow. Uh, and, uh, the fact that I
had someone back home, that I was so anxious and
eager to spend every ounce of, uh, any possibility of
(39:20):
making it. And, uh, so today I just look back
on the whole event and say, oh, there's not a
day passed. There's probably not many hours passed that I
don't just think of the Lord and the many, many
ways that he's blessed my life then as well as
now and then to have this opportunity to come back
(39:42):
to Moody, just even to come and speak to the
students and just to walk through on the grounds that
have changed so much since 85, when I was here,
maybe last. It's been a it's been a joy and
a real privilege.
S1 (39:56):
Did you want to say anything else to the students?
Was there anything because of the time? You know, you
didn't you couldn't say anything. Was there anything else that
you wanted to say that you didn't get a chance to?
S2 (40:08):
Well, possibly other than, uh, some kind of a challenge
to them, uh, in that, uh, they're here to prepare themselves, and, uh,
they're going to be the next generation that have that
are going to be in God's vineyard to be used. And, uh,
I probably would have said something of that nature to them. Uh,
(40:31):
they're at the right place at the right time. And
time is drawing so close to the Lord's return. And, uh,
it's a different story from that point on as far as, uh,
their being able to be a witness for the Lord
and these last days.
S1 (40:50):
You know, I think that is so true with your generation.
They call it the greatest generation. And every, every generation
has it's it's time to step up and to do something.
And you did that in the 1940s. And you've done
that since then as well. I think what we're experiencing
now is this time for the younger generation to step
(41:13):
up and do the same type of thing, maybe not
in a warfare situation, but with our faith and to
really cling to God, whatever that means, and and go
around the world with the message. Do you agree with that?
S2 (41:26):
I agree. In fact, I would say it's a different
warfare for the Christian today than it was even as
I was growing up. And uh, certainly the time is
drawing so, so short. And to have, uh, young people
banding together dedicated to the Lord and to come and just, uh, to, uh, well,
(41:47):
just to have many of those young men and the
ladies to to embrace me, to, uh, just, uh, feel
the warmth and the love of the Lord, you know, uh,
it does it does a great joy to this old
89 year old. Yes. As World War Two marine. Yeah.
I'm so honored.
S4 (42:08):
What did they say to you.
S1 (42:10):
When they were in line? And they'd give you a hug?
What did. What did they say?
S2 (42:14):
They didn't have to say anything I don't hear well, anyhow.
And many of them, I'd say they would maybe try
to say something and I'd say, I'm sorry, I don't
hear you, but I love you. And, you know, maybe
we would embrace again. But, uh, it was I have
to say this now, I've been to a lot of, uh,
(42:35):
lot of schools, secular schools, and they can, uh, you know,
cheer me and all that and, uh, shake my hands
and thank me. But, uh, it was different at Moody
to see, uh, many of them shedding tears with me
as we embraced because there was a real feeling of, uh,
(42:56):
of Christian, uh, sympathy and love and concern and real
thanks from them.
S1 (43:04):
I love your emotion when you're speaking and you get
emotional and this can happen on the stage, or it
can happen with an interview. Your voice gets a little
louder and it's you just want to get those words out.
And that is just the way that you process all
of that pain that's still back there, isn't it?
S2 (43:22):
Well, you know, I have to I have to say
that I feel many of those emotions that I had,
feelings that I had back then. They just come alive
today when I share of God's mercy and my life.
I know that I would not be here today were
it not for a loving God that loved me and
(43:45):
put his arm around me there in the depths of
the ocean, and and fulfilled the promise that I felt
that he was making to me. I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. Peace I give unto you, not as
the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your
heart be troubled. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. And
I can hear that. And I can just say, thank you, Lord.
(44:06):
Thank you Lord. And that was the that was the
hope and the encouragement that, you know, allowed me to spend, uh,
you know, every ounce of strength that I had to
fight for life and then to see how he's rewarded
me down through the years since then. And I just
give him praise today.
S1 (44:24):
But a lot of World War Two veterans never talked
about what they experienced, or they had a hard time
doing it. I think you have processed that through telling
the story.
S2 (44:35):
Uh, yes. Now, I might say that I did not
early on, and it was after nine over 11 that
my son said, dad, we've got to, uh, write your story.
We've got to tell your story. And I said, well,
I have a story to tell. Now, I had talked some, but, uh, um,
I had one time I had about 51 employees, and
(44:57):
they didn't know what I had experienced. Uh, I held
it back until finally I was kind of pushed into it.
But once I got it off of my my chest somewhat,
then I saw that it was a, it was a
maybe a tool that I could use in my Christian testimony. And, uh,
(45:20):
and I needed, uh, it was a good cathartic to
tell it the first few times. And then I saw
that the Lord used it in a mighty way through
the years in my life.
S1 (45:32):
I think a lot of people are going to be
encouraged through the story. Out of the depths is the book.
It's a featured resource. Today at, Chris delivers an unforgettable
World War II story of survival, courage, and the sinking
of the USS Indianapolis. And you pay tribute to all
of your, as you call them, your buddies who did
(45:52):
not make it. You paid tribute to them every time
you tell this story, their sacrifice, their courage. And I
want to thank you for doing that again here today.
Any final words for our listeners?
S2 (46:04):
Well, yes, I could wish that many would, uh, would
reward me by, uh, purchasing naturally, the book that has
been my story. And, uh, I love to share the
story because in sharing the story, it it's sharing God's
love and mercy. And in my life and many, many
(46:26):
people need to hear that part of the story.
S1 (46:29):
Yes. Well, Edgar, it is great to get to meet you. And, uh,
thank you for sharing that with us today. God bless you. Godspeed,
my friend.
S2 (46:38):
Thank you so kindly, Chris. It's been an honor to
be on your program. Thank you so much.
S1 (46:43):
Edgar Harrell. And you can find out of the depths
online Chris Fabry live.org. Our program is a production of
Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
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