The Enemy That Will Not Be Tamed, Is Our Mind

The USS Indianapolis was a ship that went down in the Philippines in WWII 1945.  The circumstances surrounding it were unusual.  Information that could have helped Captain McVay make decisions to possibly save the lives of his men was not given to him so the majority died. He was court martialed mostly because the American people wanted a "head on a silver platter," someone to blame for the deaths of their husbands, brothers, and sons, and the Navy would deliver someone as long as the men at the top did not get blamed for not providing much needed vital info to the Captain. Such is the way of this government in their treatment of military men.  It happens.

As a result of the court martial,  the Captain was retired from his chosen military life and the families of the deceased sent him hateful letters and gave him life threatening phone calls for the remainder of his life. When his wife died, he could not stand anymore so he committed suicide in 1968, he was 70 y o.  He lamented the loss of those men for the rest of his life, he loved his crew.

Fast forward a 12 y o boy, Hunter Scott, doing a class project in 1996. He researched the sinking of the USS Indianapolis and Captain McVay. It was this research that opened the case and eventually exonerated Captain McVay of all wrong doing but it was 2001, 52 years too late, the good Captain committed suicide (1968) because of this dishonor to him.  He suffered in silence.

Men do suffer in silence when the law has spoken.  This is one thing to know about good military men. They make solid decisions that they believe are right based on training and critical thinking skills and it takes much "talk" to get to the truth of every complicated situation that goes off course. But how else can we operate in a world of differing opinions if not some foundation of truth?  We all go on trial when some our actions are called into question.

If we humans die out it will be because we killed off our own species, the universe is a friendly place. It is humans who are divisive and superficial.  What thoughts do we have that keep us angry? What thoughts do we have that keep us separated one from another? Are these differences really worth fighting over and killing off the human race? If we are to save our existence on the planet we must find ways to unite ourselves, forget religious teachings that cause war, forget skin colors, facial differences, there is no such thing as "chosen people" or blue blood, there is just us.

There is a quote given by Captain McVay in the beginning of the movie USS Indianapolis about the Japanese warriors that gives me pause to think about our survival as humans on this planet.

Captain McVay:

"There will always be war until we kill off our own species. The difference between us and them is we want to do our duty and go home. The man that flew his kamikaze plane into the bow of our ship knew he wasn't going home, he was on a suicide mission using his body as ammunition.  God help all of us when we face an enemy like that."