Stranded in Shark Infested Waters (Part 1) - Ed Harrell

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Out of the Depths

Day 1 of 4

Guest: Ed Harrell

From the Series: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis

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Bob: Sixty years ago this week on the night of July 30, 1945, just weeks before the end of World War II, a Japanese submarine launched torpedoes that would sink the USS Indianapolis. Marine Ed Harrell was on board that night.

Ed: When I actually left the ship, and there I prayed that somehow the Lord would see me through what lie ahead, and yet I had the foggiest idea that I'm going to be out there for four-and-a-half days. There's times when you pray, and there's times when you pray, and there is a difference.

Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Monday, August 1st. Our host is the president of FamilyLife, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine. Of the nearly 1,200 men who were onboard the Indianapolis on that night only 317 survived. Ed Harrell was one of the survivors, and we'll hear his story today.

And welcome to FamilyLife Today, thanks for joining us on the Monday edition. Dennis?

Dennis: Bob, I want you to imagine with me a pretty dramatic scene. Just consider yourself being 20 years old, you're a Marine, you're tough, you're physically fit, but you're alone, you're in the ocean, you've just lost your ship, and you and about 80 others are floating in the middle of the night in the ocean in lifejackets. We're going to hear a story – one of the most compelling stories I think I've ever heard from a gentleman who joins us on FamilyLife Today – one of the survivors of the USS Indianapolis.

Bob: A man who doesn't have to imagine what you just described because he lived through it.

Dennis: That's exactly right. Ed Harrell joins us on FamilyLife Today. Welcome to the broadcast, Ed.

Ed: Thank you so much. It's a delight to be with you.

Dennis: Ed is not only a survivor, but he was a businessman for 38 years. He's served as a member of the board of trustees at Moody Bible Institute, a great ministry. He and his wife Ola, who have been married since 1947 – that's a lot of years, that's a lot of years, live in Paris, Tennessee. They have two children, eight grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Ed: That's right.

Dennis: You've lived quite a life, Ed, but you're one of the few, one of the few survivors of that tragedy. Take us back, first of all, to when you signed up. Why in the world did you sign up to be a Marine? It was 1943, is that right?

Ed: That's right, 1943. I don't know that I can even know why I really did at the time, but I knew that the war was getting pretty close to home, it sounded to me. In fact, when I heard that the Japanese and the American forces were having quite a battle at Midway, I was thinking that Midway was maybe between San Francisco and Hawaii, and so I thought, you know, they're getting pretty close to America, so, actually, I had just finished my junior year in high school, and I volunteered then for the Marine Corps.

Bob: You were 17, 18 years old?

Ed: I was 18 when I – I actually became a Marine when I was 18.

Bob: You know, Ed, my son is a junior in high school, and the thought of my son saying, "I'm going to sign up to be a Marine in the middle of this kind of conflict, as a parent, I'm not sure I'd endorse that plan. Were your parents behind it?

Ed: Yes, I think they pretty much agreed. Dad pretty much agreed. They didn't necessarily want to see me leave, but they knew, too, the little Silvertone radio that we had was telling us quite a bit what was happening in the Pacific, and I didn't have much problem convincing them that I wanted to go. In fact, I have two grandsons in the Marine Corps today.

Dennis: Do you remember that time when you said goodbye to your dad?

Ed: I do. My dad was 37 or 39 years old, and I thought he was an old man then, but I told him goodbye at the bus station.

Dennis: Did you hug?

Ed: Yes, yes, we did.

Dennis: Were there tears?

Ed: There were some tears, there were some tears.

Dennis: What did he say to you?

Ed: I don't know that I can remember what he said, but I'm sure that the advice that he gave me, he was a fine Christian man, and I'm sure it was some good, solid advice that he was giving me.

Bob: Why the Marines? Why did you pick them instead of the Army or the Navy or the Air Force?

Ed: I wondered sometimes why if I picked the wrong one, but I really don't know. I even considered, after I got in the Marine Corps, that I would be a paratrooper. After I got through sea school, then they said – after I got through boot camp, they said, "You're going to sea school," and I didn't know what that meant, either, but I went through sea school, and then they said, "You're going aboard a large combatant ship," and so I waited, then, until the Indianapolis was in port and caught it at San ...