"I didn't want to end up in the belly of some shark and neither did the other guys." (Audio Interview, Part 2, 5:38)

Giles G. McCoy

Giles McCoy, 1940s. War: World War, 1939-1945 Branch: Marine Corps Unit: 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division Service Location: Peleliu Island (Palau); Iwo Jima; Pacific Theater Rank: Private First Class Place of Birth: MO

After surviving three of the Pacific Theater's most harrowing campaigns and a kamikaze attack, Marine Giles McCoy thought the worst was over when his ship returned to the States for repairs in the summer of 1945. But that ship, the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis, had one more mission to perform, whose aftermath-hundreds of men stranded for days in shark-infested waters--was an event whose horrible consequences still reverberate.