A Story From Beneath the Surface

The exoneration of the WWII ship captain you've never heard of.

Catch Up

Hello all! It’s been a while. If you’re new here, my name is Brock and I’m a host of the Scuttlebutt Podcast, what I hope is an entertaining and instructive podcast serving our current and former military members.

I’ve been absent from weekly write ups just as a matter of time constraints. My goal from the beginning has been and remains delivering a high quality podcast on a weekly cadence. I hope to be writing follow up pieces and extra content more in the near future as time allows.

Thank you’s are certainly in order - a few weeks back we crossed the 1000 downloads mark which is just a fantastic milestone. Not only is that just a nice round number, but it feels encouraging to think of the leverage associated with podcasting. If you had a speaking engagement and 1000 people showed up, that would be a great turn out! I view this in a similar light.

I try not to get too promotional because that’s hard for me, but I’d appreciate any of the following:

• A rating/review on your podcast platform - Not asking for a perfect review, I love honest feedback and want desperately to improve. Reviews helps tell Apple and Spotify that this is a real show and helps new listeners find it.

• Sharing the podcast or this email with a friend. I even have a button for you.

In the hopes of building up the writing habit again, I’m looking to consolidate some of my efforts because there isn’t a lot of cross pollination of platforms. In honor of todays episode, “27. William Toti on Controlling the Narrative Amidst Chaos”, I wrote a brief thread on Twitter I thought I’d share here - quick snippets of a miraculous story as a way to encourage listening to this episode.

If you don’t need convincing, you can check out this week’s episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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A Real Story

This week on the podcast, I hosted my most distinguished guest yet. His story begins 80 some odd years ago, at the height of World War II. Let's take a trip down memory lane to learn about perhaps the most important Navy ship you've never heard of.

The USS Indianapolis (CA-35), a Portland-class heavy cruiser, was launched in 1931 and quickly gained notoriety. The Indy was the flagship for Scouting Force 1, part of the Navy's reorganization after WWI, and then the flagship for Admiral Spruance in 1943 across the Pacific.

Throughout 1944, the Indy was a part of nearly every battle in the Pacific including the Battle of Saipan, Philippine Sea, and Peleliu. Following several of these major battles, Indy sailed back to Mare Island California to refit.

Returning to the fight in early 1945, Indy was one of the ships supporting not only the invasion of Iwo Jima, but Okinawa as well, bombarding beach defenses with 8 inch shells. Indy is credited with shooting down 6 enemy planes. The support was absolutely pivotal.

In the heat of battle, a Japanese Hayabusa single engine fighter evaded Indy's 20mm guns and was able to release a bomb which exploded under the ship, leaving massive damage to the keel and flooding in major shipboard compartments.

The bombing killed 9 crewman and left the ship at a 15 degree list to the portside, but still managed to limp back to Mare Island under her own power, in need of major repairs.

Coincidence or fate, Indy happened to be in the right place at the right time for her next mission, a top secret one. 16 July 1945, Indy and her crew loaded up what was actually the components for the atomic bomb, "Little Boy", which would be dropped on Hiroshima weeks later.

After delivering the bomb to Tinian, Indy was sailing towards Leyte when it was struck by two torpedos on 30 July 1945. After 12 minutes afloat, Indy's stern rose and sunk to the bottom of the Pacific, taking over 300 of the 1200 crew members with her.

The Navy missed / disregarded SOS messages and the crew members floated in the water, with minimal water and supplies, for 5 days. By happy circumstance, LT Gwinn spotted the men in the water, provided quick assistance, and mustered a rescue mission. 316 total were rescued.

What was already a sad story, takes an even darker turn. The captain of the ship, Charles McVay, is court martialed for not "zig zagging" and hazarding his ship. McVay later took his own life in 1968.

Enter my guest, William "Bill" Toti, the commanding officer of USS Indianapolis (SSN-697). After striking up a relationship with the survivors of the ship, Bill was recruited to assist in the efforts to investigate the sinking.

Bill used modern day computers aboard his submarine to conduct an analysis of the torpedos that sunk the original Indy and was able to determine, that no maneuver McVay took that day could have saved the ship from the torpedos.

With some help from archives investigators, a senator, and a sixth grade student, they were able to exonerate McVay, clearing his name for good. This resolution was signed by Bill Clinton in 2000.

The wreckage of the Indy was found in August 2017 by Paul Allen's "USS Indianapolis Project". There are 2 remaining survivors from the sinking.

It was such a pleasure to dive into this crazy story and I feel so connected to it. Not only is it a part of our nation's history, but a pivotal time in our Navy’s history as well.

I consider it such an honor to have gotten to interview Bill Toti, for the podcast to hear the telling of this story from a true expert. I hope to have done justice to two compelling captains, a wonderful ship, and a fighting crew.

After hearing the story of the Indy, I get to talk with Bill about his learnings transitioning to industry which led to him writing the book “From CO to CEO, A Practical Guide for Transition from Military to Industry Leadership”.

Bill talks about why leadership skills isn’t enough to compete with in the real world and how starting with the end in mind can jumpstart service members careers after the service and can keep them from losing the “fire in the belly” as he calls it.

You can check out Bill and his work on his personal website.

If you enjoyed this brief story, you’ll love it even more from the expert. You can listen here.