Today is Veterans Day. Edgar Harrell, retired Marine and World War II veteran, is one of my favorite people in the world.
He was one of 300 survivors of the 1945 sinking of the USS Indianapolis, after swimming in the ocean with sharks for over three days before being “accidentally” found. I put that word in quotes because Mr. Harrell has lived out the next six-plus decades of his life as a gift from God, a providential sparing of his life.
I’ve read aloud to my sons Mr. Harrell’s entire book-length account of the Indianapolis ordeal.
Then, I took them to meet him up in Indianapolis a few years ago on Memorial Day, where he stood next to the memorial for his fallen comrades from that ill-fated ship and told visitors the story. Dry eyes were nowhere to be found.
And a few weeks ago, I loaded up my kids and we headed over to see him in his home. He and his lovely wife of 6+ decades hosted my children and I for an afternoon of his telling them the whole story. I had brought my video camera and recorded it, thinking to share it here with you. The audio was awesome, but the video had some technical issues.
That’s when I remembered that I’m not the first person to sit in his office to record his story. When his book, “Out of the Depths,” released a few years ago, the publisher sent a full crew to film and produce a video about his experience on the Indianapolis.
The events of those days are being brought to the big screen, starring Nicolas Cage and Tom Sizemore. I’ll be the first in line for tickets to see that.
But nothing compares with hearing these veterans tell the story firsthand.
So, on this day of remembering our military veterans, here is a moving video of Marine Edgar Harrell, veteran and hero of the USS Indianapolis. This is a reminder of the importance of honoring our military veterans. And it is also a reminder of the importance of memoirs — people with important stories taking the time and forsaking their own privacy to give the world a picture of events that shaped their life … and can help shape the moral imagination of the next generation.
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