WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (Tribune News Service) — The USS Indianapolis carried nearly 1,200 souls when Japanese torpedoes ripped into its starboard side 78 years ago, just after midnight on July 30, 1945.

Among them was Navy Signalman First Class Maryian J. Wojciechowski, a 25-year-old from Scranton and veteran of about 15 major World War II naval engagements and operations.

Also aboard the doomed vessel was 22-year-old Seaman First Class Donald A. Eyet of Falls, who planned to use his Navy money to buy the farm next to his father's homestead after the war.

They never saw home again.

The Indianapolis sank in about 12 minutes. Whether Wojciechowski and Eyet went down with the heavy cruiser immediately or escaped alongside some 900 crew members into the shark-infested waters of the Philippine Sea, where a waking nightmare would unfold over the coming days, remains unclear.

"Sometimes you're better off not knowing what happened," Eyet's nephew, 66-year-old Falls-resident David Turk said last week.

Navy command learned of the ship's sinking on Aug. 2, 1945, when survivors adrift in the water for more than three days were spotted by aircraft and recovered. Only 316 hungry, dehydrated and sometimes delirious members of the crew survived the ordeal. Wojciechowski and Eyet weren't among them.

To honor the sacrifice and memory of those lost, volunteers from the nonprofit Stories Behind the Stars recently wrote memorials for each of the 37 Pennsylvania sailors and marines who perished with the Indianapolis. The narratives read like brief encyclopedia entries, preserving for posterity a record of each man's life and service in the context of the Indianapolis tragedy.

Other local lives lost with the Indianapolis include Yeoman First Class Homer Benton Stone, 24, Montrose, Susquehanna County; Electrician's Mate Second Class Charles Norman Everett, 23, Effort, Monroe County; Machinist's Mate Third Class Emerson David Luhman, 22, Weatherly, Carbon County; Fireman Second Class Scott Albert Johnston, 25, Athens, Bradford County; and Seaman First Class Raymond A. Mehlbaum, 30, Ashland, Schuylkill County.

"To me, when I'm looking at each one of these guys, each one has a different story," said Kathy Harmon, the nonprofit's volunteer Pennsylvania state director. "They have a different background, where they came from, family that they left behind. Whether they volunteered to get into the service or were drafted, they just all ended up there together."

Wojciechowski, a graduate of Scranton Technical High School, enlisted in the Navy in October 1940. He was aboard the USS Nevada when that battleship ran aground during Japan's surprise attack at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, according to newspaper records and his Stories Behind the Stars tribute, and was transferred to the Indianapolis shortly thereafter.

The 9/11 Memorial Committee of Lackawanna County, which erected in 2017 a Pearl Harbor memorial plaque at Courthouse Square in Scranton, was not aware of Wojciechowski's service there when notified by The Sunday Times last week. The memorial has been updated since its unveiling and currently includes the names of 158 Lackawanna County veterans, or those with county roots, who were present at Pearl Harbor and the surrounding bases the morning of the Japanese strike.

It will eventually include Wojciechowski's name as well.

"We will order a nameplate and we will add our North Scranton hero to that list," 9/11 Memorial Committee Chairman Charlie Spano said.

During the war, Wojciechowski married the widow Elizabeth Logan in Scranton on Nov. 16, 1944, though his married life was short-lived. His last visit home coincided with Victory in Europe Day, May 8, 1945, when America and its allies celebrated the capitulation of Nazi Germany and the end of the war in Europe.

The Indianapolis and its crew would soon play a major role in ending the war in the Pacific.

It set out from San Francisco on July 16, 1945, on a top-secret high speed run to the Northern Mariana island of Tinian. Aboard were core components of the atomic bomb "Little Boy," which the U.S. dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on Aug. 6. The Indianapolis completed its mission and delivered the bomb components July 26, just days before meeting its demise.

The torpedo attack, sinking and harrowing ordeal of the stranded sailors — many whose lives were claimed by shark attacks — was referenced in the 1975 film "Jaws." In a speech, shark hunter Quint, played by actor Robert Shaw, describes the horror of the sinking's aftermath.

Eyet had about a week to get from his home in Falls to San Francisco before the Indianapolis departed. Turk, Eyet's nephew, said he had a bad feeling about going back.

Turk's Exeter Twp. home sits catty-corner to the property where Eyet and his many siblings grew up. The border between Luzerne and Wyoming counties splits the homestead property, which still remains in the family.

Last week, Turk spread out across his kitchen table a collection of photos of his late uncle. In one, Eyet stands with his parents shortly before boarding the bus that would take him from home for the last time.

Among the photos was the original telegram, dated Aug. 12, 1945, that delivered devastating news that Eyet was missing in action. His body was never recovered.

Eyet's death at sea weighed heavy on his father, Turk's grandfather, who died in 1974.

"It bothered him every day," Turk recalled. "There was days when he called me Don instead of David."

Despite his absence, "Uncle Don" remains a beloved figure in the family that's passed down his memory and story for generations. The biggest disservice one can do, Turk said, is not remember.

"In our family ... we pass this on to all the kids," he said. "There's four and five generations now since my Uncle Don, and they all know about this and they're all interested, which is a great thing. We all should be that way."

Framed in Eyet's former home is a document from President Harry Truman honoring his service.

"He stands in the unbroken line of patriots who have dared to die that freedom might live, and grow, and increase its blessings," it reads. "Freedom lives, and through it, he lives — in a way that humbles the undertakings of most men."

(c)2023 The Citizens' Voice (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.)

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