Of 1,196 crewmen, about 300 died immediately.
He was 18, too, and we both came from the Midwest.
Then we got assigned to theIndianapolistogether.
We played cards and ate and went drinking together we became real close friends.
When the first torpedo hit after midnight, I was sleeping topside it was too hot below deck.
The explosion threw me into the air.
The ship was listing heavily, and the quarterdeck was on fire.
There was a lot of shouting, and explosions.
Then the ship just slid away beneath us.
There werent enough rafts.
Then on the second day, Terry saw me.
I was glad to see him.
So we tried to keep floating near one another, Terry and me and two other guys.
They were long days: You pass out, then come to, then pass out again.
We were slowly dying.
Waking up less, the sun beating down still no food or water.
But the diesel fuel masked me I dont think they cared for the smell.
Two of the guys died from the effort in our condition, their hearts gave out, I think.
Then Terry started to swim toward it.
And while I watched, I saw a shark take him, just 20 or 30 feet away.
I was three-quarters out of my head, so close to death my mind was coming and going.
But I thought, its over.
Later, I somehow made it to that raft, and there were four guys in it.
I was too weak to pull myself in, so I tied myself to it.
That night we were rescued, a little after midnight.
They said that nearly all of the survivors were the ones who were in vests and stayed mostly submerged.
Im a lucky guy, but I think about Terry all the time, even 73 years later.
Thelen, 91, became a long-haul trucker after the war.
A Lansing, Michigan, resident, he is a proud father of six and grandfather of seventeen.
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