The Charges

              Captain McVay was charged with two allegations:
"1. "Through negligence suffering a vessel of the Navy to be hazarded... by failing to cause a zigzag course to be steered... during good visibility."
2. "Culpable inefficiency in the performance of duty... by failing to issue timely orders to abandon ship.""
     The second charge was omitted because McVay called abandon ship two minutes after the torpedoes hit, but the first one remained. Captain McVay's first allegation states that he put his ship in danger because he was not zigzagging and failed to give adequate instructions to the night of the sinking. Originally, others were charged with letters of reprimand, but they were omitted so the entire blame rested on McVay's shoulders.
          I feel that it was not McVay's fault that the ship sunk because the vision was not clear when he gave the orders to not zigzag and asked his crew to tell him if there were any changes in weather. The moon came out and the crew decided not to tell him because it was not a major weather change. McVay could not have possibly known that there would me a Japanese submarine waiting for him. What really shocked me was when the Navy decided that McVay was not of rank and did not tell him some vital information. The Navy was fully aware that there were submarines in the area and did not provide the Indianapolis with an escort ship to search and take down submarines. The Navy blames McVay for poor judgement of not zigzagging, but McVay probably would have been zigzagging if he had been provided with that life-saving information. For now, the blame rests on McVay's shoulders.