GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — The year was 1975. Dave Thelen was a senior in high school. It was midnight and he had just arrived home after seeing the movie widely believed to be the first-ever summer blockbuster - "Jaws."
That movie was the first time Dave had ever heard of the Naval cruiser known as the USS Indianapolis. He'll never forget telling his mom about it.
"They talked about these guys being on the Indianapolis, laying in the ocean, ate by sharks. And my mouth was wide open, just freaking out. And my mom says 'Go talk to your dad about it.' And I go, 'What does my dad know about it?' And she said 'He was on that ship," Thelen said, remembering the details of the conversation as if it had happened yesterday.
Dave wasn't the only person in Dick Thelen's life to find out late about Dick being on that ship.
"My mom and dad were married in 1951. My mom did not know about it until 1958 until the first letter came. They wanted to get a reunion together in 1960. My dad got a thing in the mail, and he kind of looked at it and kind of threw it in the wastebasket. And my mom said 'What's this?'" Dave said.
Like many war veterans, Dick didn't want to talk about the horrors of what he experienced, and when you hear the details of the story, it's easy to see why that would be the case.
The USS Indianapolis was involved in a top-secret mission to deliver components of the first operational atomic bomb. That bomb, Little Boy, was eventually dropped on Hiroshima, Japan from a B-29 Superfortress called the Enola Gay. That event, along with the bombing of Nagaski three days later, led to Japan's surrender in World War II.
The mission was so secret that even the crew members aboard the USS Indianapolis didn't realize what they had delivered. They were on their way back when the Indianapolis was hit by Japanese torpedos. The ship sank in just 12 minutes.
"As you hit the water, you’ve got gasoline and oil. You swallow a little bit. It tastes terrible. You're going to throw everything up," Dave remembers his dad telling him.
For 104 hours, Dick and hundreds of others waited in the Pacific Ocean for help to arrive. Of the 1,196 men on board the Indianapolis, only 317 survived. Many of them were killed by sharks.
"[Dad] had a couple of them tap him right here on the side of his life preserver. And people always asked him, 'What did you do?' And my dad said, 'I froze,'" Dave said.
Dick believes the fact he was covered in gasoline and oil may have deterred the sharks, ultimately saving his life. But he witnessed so many of his fellow crew members die during the days that passed before help finally did arrive.
Michigan was second only to California when it comes to the number of crew members on board the USS Indianapolis. The crew included 98 service members from our state. That includes the last living survivor, Harold Bray, who lives in California now but is originally from the Upper Peninsula.
"There were about eight from Grand Rapids. Two survived. Five from Lansing. Three survived. Detroit had 40 and 19 survived. Out of the whole state, only 27 out of 98 survived," said historian Steve Hammond.
Hammond served in the National Guard from 1983 to 2006. He first heard about the Indianapolis around the year 2000 when he read about it in Parade magazine. Later he had a chance to read more about it as part of a military book club, and that's when he learned there were survivors from Michigan. Eventually, he got to meet some of those survivors and he's been on a mission to make sure the crew of the Indianapolis is remembered forever.
"Those guys went through Hell for five days. They should be recognized. Every one of them, and especially from this state. We need to be recognized in Michigan that we care about our heroes. Every one of them on that ship was a hero," he said.
"Without the Indianapolis I don't think some of us would even be here. They carried the atomic bomb components not knowing what was going on. And most made the ultimate sacrifice afterwards."
Nationwide there are five memorials for the USS Indianapolis, including the biggest one which is in the city of Indianapolis itself. Hammond has been working for years to get a memorial built near the Michigan State Capitol building in Lansing. He says there are a number of political leaders from both major parties that support the project. But it needs to be funded, to the tune of $250,000.
"It's a very attainable goal, if we can reach the people that can donate that much money or raise interest. And that's that's the problem we're having right now. I feel that this isn't just a Grand Rapids project, or Lansing project, or Detroit project. This is a Michigan project," Hammond said.
"I think we should all do our part."
Tim and Teresa Sobie, who own Sobie Meats in Walker, support the project and they're hosting a fundraiser for the memorial on October 14. Hammond is still looking for items that can be auctioned off at the fundraiser. If you'd like to help, you can email him at hammoste@mail.gvsu.edu. You can also send a check to VFW Post 701 in Lansing.
Dick Thelen eventually did start talking about what happened to him and hundreds of others on the USS Indianapolis. Until the day he died in 2021 of COVID-19, Dick never thought he was a hero. But Dave sees things differently.
"This is my dad. This is my hero, because what he did is he survived. I wouldn't have been here if he didn't. And he’d go out and tell the story. People need to hear that."
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