Driving through downtown on Veterans Day and seeing people out shopping in droves treating the day like another woohoo carefree day off, I loved hearing Delia voice a little righteous anger; she thinks people who are not veterans or family members of vets should donate this day’s wages (if they are getting holiday pay on Veterans Day) to ACTUAL VETERANS.
I have a whole list of Veterans Day-relevant movies, books, and TV shows to recommend, but since the day is almost over I whittled it down to ONE that Delia and I watched, and will watch again:
“The story of the greatest sea disaster in U.S. Navy History, told for the first time by only the men who lived it. In the most top secret Navy mission of World War II, the crew of the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis delivers components of the atomic bomb to Tinian island. Four days later, two Japanese torpedoes sink the ship in the Challenger Deep, triggering an epic tale of survival. For 5 days.”
U.S.S. Indianapolis: The Legacy Project is currently free to watch (with ads) via Amazon Prime Video.
This movie is not just about surviving “one” trauma (being torpedoed & sinking) or TWO traumas (living while your friends die agonizing deaths all around you) or THREE+++ (sharks and starvation and all of your skin softening and almost totally sloughing off after being brined in ocean saltwater for days and nights on end, and the devastating probability nobody is going to rescue you and you are going to die forgotten while the other survivors one by one succumb to exhaustion, sharks, suicide, and hallucination-fueled murder). After you have endured so much indescribable horror and, so mind-fuckingly improbably, survived. It is also about the failure and betrayal of the US Navy (and, I think, the predatory nature of military recruitment). But through survivors’ stories. REAL INTERVIEWS. Not preaching. From people who then survived DECADES of PTSD and barely — if at all— ever talked about any of this mind-blowing stuff they lived through.
The story of the USS Indianapolis and its survivors is so huge, unbelievable, and compelling you will want to read and watch more (and be like, HELLO why aren’t we still talking about this?!? And making some kind of useful amends to these people and their families?). There is a dramatized Nicolas Cage movie (USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage) which we couldn’t get through, as much as we do love Nic Cage, and another documentary we did watch in its entirity: USS Indianapolis: The Final Chapter fills in some gaps and gives additional interesting perspectives.
It’s important to acknowledge military veterans’ service and experiences, and listen to real people’s stories (especially on days that are supposed to honor them). It’s amazing — truly AMAZING — to be able to listen to them bear witness to these incredible events that are part of our human story that most of us are SO LUCKY we have not and will not go through ourselves. These parts of our human story that are shouldered by individuals who come “home” to the isolating weirdness of being surrounded by people like us who have no idea what it was like — what they went through, and STILL go through after harrowing traumas — and on top of that to have the stories told about it be bullshit and scapegoating by the government that put you through that shit in the first place.
Even if you don’t see combat or go through anything deemed medal-worthy (a shifty set of standards that doesn’t always make sense), serving in the military is giving up your freedom for a period of time and entering into unique subcultures that makes your life different from the lives of people who do not. It’s a big weird deal. I’ve never heard anyone describe it as a walk in the park.
Special thank you and big {{{{{hugs}}}}} to our many fans, followers, friends and supporters who have served in the armed forces.
