![enola gay crew metallic taste enola gay crew metallic taste](https://render.fineartamerica.com/images/rendered/medium/metal-print/images-medium-5/enola-gay-mitch-cat.jpg)
“My whole side was burned on my left side, but other than that, I was okay.” “When the torpedoes hit right on the opposite side of the ship of me, it rolled me off of that,” you’ll hear Bray recall of the ten-foot drop that jarred him just after midnight. Placing a sleeping bag and pillow atop the 8-inch gun turret (#2), he took off his shoes and went to sleep. But upon finishing watch on the sweltering evening of July 29th, he decided to sleep topside, hoping it would be cooler. In his brief time aboard the ship, Bray had always slept in his assigned quarters, three decks below.
![enola gay crew metallic taste enola gay crew metallic taste](https://render.fineartamerica.com/images/rendered/square-product/small/images/rendered/default/print/8/7/break/images-medium-5/murderers-row-us-air-craft-carriers-everett.jpg)
After that cargo was unloaded on Tinian, the Indianapolis proceeded to Guam, departing for Leyte on July 28, 1945. Harold walked past it many times on the way to Tinian, pondering what could be so important that armed Marine guards would protect it around the clock.
![enola gay crew metallic taste enola gay crew metallic taste](http://www.side7.co.kr/mart5/upload/14679083623.jpg)
Unbeknownst to the crew, the large crate contained components of the bomb “Little Boy,” which when dropped from the Enola Gay over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, would help hasten the Japanese surrender. The USS Indianapolis just before leaving the United States for the final time. Well, the skipper didn’t even know what it was.” “We stopped at Hunter’s Point, and that’s when we picked up the bomb,” you’ll hear him say of the Indy’s top secret cargo. While there, he turned 18, began qualifying for shipfitter status, and embarked on what would become the final mission of a ship that had already earned ten battle stars in World War II. Harold was sent to Mare Island in California’s Bay Area, where he was assigned to the cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA-35). He graduated from boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Training Station on April 12, 1945, the same day that President Franklin D. He convinced his father to sign for him, and enlisted in the Navy in the middle of his senior year in high school, in December, 1944. Harold saw all of his older friends joining the war effort and wanted to sign up, but had to wait three years until he turned 17. When you went, you walked wherever you went, but when the war started things really changed for us.” “We didn’t even known what was outside of Ramsay,” you’ll hear him recall. positions on Oahu and elsewhere, and like many at the time, had never heard of Pearl Harbor before.ĩ3-year-old Harold Bray with a photo of his 18-year-old self. Harold was the second of four children in what he remembers as a “close knit family.” He was 14 when Imperial Japan attacked U.S. His father, a veteran of the British Army in World War I, worked underground in an iron ore mine. Our conversation with Harold begins with his childhood on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Harold Bray would have been among that group if he had been sleeping in his assigned bunk that night. fleet observed twelve minutes of silence, commemorating the twelve chaotic minutes that turned the Indianapolis from the fastest ship in the fleet, to a burning, sinking hulk of metal that would become the final resting place for hundreds of her crew. On the eve of the 75th anniversary, the entire U.S. Dozens of videos have been posted on the USS Indianapolis facebook and YouTube streams:
Enola gay crew metallic taste series#
Visit for the series of events and content for the three-day affair, which kicked off with the presentation of the Congressional Gold Medal to survivors. He had intended to join the others in person in Indianapolis, IN for that milestone reunion, but COVID-19 forced that effort to transform into a virtual reunion, spearheaded by the USS Indianapolis Legacy organization. Harold Bray is one of only eight survivors remaining as we mark the 75th anniversary. As a result, only 316 men survived to be rescued. Because no distress call ever reach other ships or outposts, it would be days before anyone else knew the ship had sunk. When the ship was struck by two Japanese torpedoes just after midnight on July 30, 1945, an estimated 900 men out of the crew of 1,195 made it safely into the water. Click the image to explore all the content from the USS Indianapolis virtual reunion.