Rating: 
Summary: Superb!!
Review: It is amazing that after each of its disasters the military hirearchy immediately looks for a scapegoat. We have seen this time after time and it seems to be standard procedeure for our military leaders. This book is in the realm of the Kimmel writings, it is the story of a disaster and the search for and conviction of a scapegoat. Those responsible never seem to be taken to task. In this instance an Admiral with a personal vendetta against the accused's father, and a former hero of a submarine disaster who withheld information that would have prevented this catastrophe. This is a must reading for those who believe that justice must be served. It is too bad that the recognition of this event and its aftermath have come so late. It is too bad that the Naval Department still refuses to recognize fully the injustice that it did to a true war hero and his family. It is a superb book.
Rating: 
Summary: Dilema of "crime and punishment" - tragedy at sea.
Review: It is not surprising that books about human tragedies are usually interesting.
"Abandon Ship" makes no exception to this rule.
When Navy administrative system failed, Captain did not follow given recommendations and unpredictable change of visibility occurred, cruiser "Indianapolis" was torpedoed by Japanese submarine. All this happened 2 weeks before the end of the WWII on the Pacific and few days before the atomic blast destroyed Hiroshima. Ironically "Indianapolis" had just delivered uranium for the bomb to Tinian Island and was on its way to Leyte (Philippines).
It seems that fate was designed for unfortunate ship and its crew, making this sinking a greatest disaster at sea in the history of the USA. Moment of sinking and four days at the sea spent by survivors are presented vividly but with respect to those who died and suffered.
Book gets even more interesting when we read how Navy tried to find who possibly could be blamed for this tragedy and whom to punish. It looked that either many or just one person could have been accused and Navy officials chose the second, easier option. Unprecedented and controversial procedure took place during the investigation - very interesting and dramatic case indeed, that never had happened before.
Afterword by Peter Mass brings reader to year 2000 and sheds light on some unknown facts that have been revealed just recently. This makes the book even more fascinating.
Rating:
Summary: Chilling
Review: Newcomb's writing style is the perfect blend of historical text and storytelling. Plenty of reviews of this book cover the major points I'd want to make in this review, but one interesting facet of the way the events unfold in the book is the point-of-view of the torpedo attack itself. We get to read narrative accounts in succession from several surviving officers and crew, but the very first account we read is from the point of view of the Japanese sub commander. We get the cold, hard, wartime mission attack version before we get the frightening accounts of the terror and death from those who suffered it.
My introduction to the Indianapolis story was as a 9-year old hearing Robert Shaw's semi-fictional account of it in "Jaws". Some details in his monologue were not exactly accurate, but certainly were true to the spirit of the real event. Given the tragic events of the last few years and weeks (the WTC and Pentagon attacks, not to mention the Rhode Island nightclub fire of Feb. 2003 that burned alive nearly 100 concert-goers -- a recent event as I type this), it is horrifyingly simpler now to imagine the kind of fear and sheer terror the sailors on the Indianapolis went through, and to have empathy as well as sympathy. And the bureaucratic process that allowed this tragedy to happen and divert blame for it is shameful. If you aren't familiar with the story of the Indianapolis, grab this book and educate yourself. These events are too important to be lost to the sands of time, which is an increasing possiblility as the decades march on farther and farther away from World War II.
Rating:
Summary: Chilling
Review: Newcomb's writing style is the perfect blend of historical text and storytelling. Plenty of reviews of this book cover the major points I'd want to make in this review, but one interesting facet of the way the events unfold in the book is the point-of-view of the torpedo attack itself. We get to read narrative accounts in succession from several surviving officers and crew, but the very first account we read is from the point of view of the Japanese sub commander. We get the cold, hard, wartime mission attack version before we get the frightening accounts of the terror and death from those who suffered it.
My introduction to the Indianapolis story was as a 9-year old hearing Robert Shaw's semi-fictional account of it in "Jaws". Some details in his monologue were not exactly accurate, but certainly were true to the spirit of the real event. Given the tragic events of the last few years and weeks (the WTC and Pentagon attacks, not to mention the Rhode Island nightclub fire of Feb. 2003 that burned alive nearly 100 concert-goers -- a recent event as I type this), it is horrifyingly simpler now to imagine the kind of fear and sheer terror the sailors on the Indianapolis went through, and to have empathy as well as sympathy. And the bureaucratic process that allowed this tragedy to happen and divert blame for it is shameful. If you aren't familiar with the story of the Indianapolis, grab this book and educate yourself. These events are too important to be lost to the sands of time, which is an increasing possiblility as the decades march on farther and farther away from World War II.
Rating: 
Summary: A scratchy monotone sleep aid....
Review: PLEASE NOTE: This review is of the abridged audio tape variety. My review? Don't buy it! Okay, I'll elaborate. The man doing the reading needed to quit smoking unfiltered Pall Malls many years ago, and really sounded as if he would of been better yelling directions through a bullhorn than trying to narrate a complex chain of events. His continuing attempt at changing the inflection of his voice to give the impression he was someone else would of been funny if it were not so annoying. If the content of the book is anything like the content of these cassette tapes, I would not rate it any higher than grade I am handing this. The monotone had me constantly rewinding my cassette player, trying to separate key facts from one another, and shift my attention when the story went in another direction. I couldn't do it, and was never able to keep up with the gravelly-voiced narrator, who tried to lull me into submission. He couldn't do it. I finished listening to all 4 tapes.
Rating:
Summary: nice to see truth prevail
Review: read it! - a sadly educational story of how life isn't always fair. it is good that the real story is told.
Rating:
Summary: Does truth prevail?
Review: Returning from its mission of delivering vital componants for the bombs that were to eventually hasten the second World War, the USS Indianapolis was doomed. Given orders to head to port, and not to take evasive actions, the Indianapolis was spotted by a Japanese submarine and torpedoed. This book is a very complete chronicle of the events leading up to and following the horrendous ordeal of the survivour of the Indanapolis. What makes it that much more remarkable, it was first published in 1958, when it was much more difficult to obtain records from the Navy and when people weren't as likely to speal ill of the armed forces. Richard Newcomb, pieces the facts and the recollections of some of the 316 survivors. What emerges is a portrait of a captain, following orders, not receiving full intelligence in regards to enemy submarines in the area, and the difficulty in penetrating the cloak of secrecacy ( and protection of self-interest) in the Pacific theatre. The court marshall transcripts are riviting and the appearance of Mochitsura Hashimoto, the commander of the attacking Japanese submarine is unprecedented. The list of survivors at the end of the book is stark reminder of the sheer numbers that were lost (I wish there had also been a list of the men lost). Anyone who has watched Jaws, remembers the scene when the shark hunter, Quint, rolls up his sleeve and recounts the horrible tale of the USS Indianapolis, the men picked off one by one by by injuries, the elements and the sharks. This is the real horror. What makes this tale even more riviting is the efforts of author Richard Newcomb to keep the inquirey open, and to seek a real justice for the ship's commander Charles McVay III. The addition of a middle schooler Hunter Scott, who picked the Indianapolis as a history project, and despite his youth, could see that justice was lacking, kept the quest alive. What is most striking is the fact that after all these years the truth remains the same. These men didn't have to die, the Navy treated McVay as a sacrifical scapegoat, and that the militery is still unwilling to admit its full responsibility ring loud and clear.
Rating:
Summary: Good interpretation of a complex chain of events.
Review: Richard F. Newcomb's "Abandon Ship!" succeeds in its primary goals of sifting through the reasons behind the sinking of the USS Indianapolis during the last days of World War II, and attempting to get behind the Navy's assignment of blame immediately afterward. Newcomb, a naval war correspondent, uses the reporter's tactics of extensive interviews and thorough research of unclassified documents to succinctly lay out his case for what happened and why. In July, 1945 a Japanese submarine torpedoed the cruiser Indianapolis with almost 1,200 sailors on board. Eight hundred men made it off the ship, but when recovered four days later, only 300 of the crew were still alive. Five hundred men died of shark attacks, exhaustion, dehydration, drowning, and other conditions related to exposure. The ship's commander, Capt McVay, survived to face court martial charges for actions allegedly contributing to the loss of his ship. The Navy even called the Japanese submarine commander that sank the ship to testify against Captain McVay. This was the only time a ship's captain was court martialed for losing a ship in wartime. After the court martial, the Department of the Navy also publicly assigned blame to other Naval personnel, who weren't even previously considered, for failing to report the nonarrival of the Indianapolis into Leyte. The Navy never admitted to the gaping hole in its policy that allowed the nonarrival of a major vessel to literally "slip" beyond notice. This failure to check up on the ship's nonarrival contributed to the majority of the Indianapolis' crew dying through exposure and shark attacks. The men were in the water for four days until a US plane sighted them by chance. No resuce efforts were launched until then. The architects of this policy were the Navy's highest ranking officers, and they weren't ever considered for punishment. Newcomb succeeds in piecing together the roles of several dozen key participants in the tragedy to explain what happened and why. His long experience with military organizations also enables Newcomb to translate the events for the lay reader. The book does suffer in its narrative prose at times due to Newcomb's colorful and fanciful phrasing, but in key passages it soars. Newcomb weaves over a dozen different perspectives of the sinking by crewmen in various parts of the ship to paint a vivd picture of what the ordeal was like. He also captures the atmosphere of Captain McVay's court martial and puts it in context with the average American's view of the sinking. At these times, the book crackles with tension. Newcomb's description of the sailors' ordeal in the water is lacking some realistic details, probably in deference to readers' sensibilities. After all, Newcomb wrote this only 13 years after the sinking. Many relatives and loved ones were still alive, and perhaps he wished to spare them anything graphic. Newcomb has clearly done his homework through countless interviews and exhaustive research. However, his access to Navy records was severly limited due to the relative freshness of these events in the public and the Pentagon's eye. With over 50 years between the sinking and now, the story of the Indianpolis bears a second look. Until then, this books still stands as an informative and riveting work.
Rating:
Summary: Good interpretation of a complex chain of events.
Review: Richard F. Newcomb's "Abandon Ship!" succeeds in its primary goals of sifting through the reasons behind the sinking of the USS Indianapolis during the last days of World War II, and attempting to get behind the Navy's assignment of blame immediately afterward. Newcomb, a naval war correspondent, uses the reporter's tactics of extensive interviews and thorough research of unclassified documents to succinctly lay out his case for what happened and why. In July, 1945 a Japanese submarine torpedoed the cruiser Indianapolis with almost 1,200 sailors on board. Eight hundred men made it off the ship, but when recovered four days later, only 300 of the crew were still alive. Five hundred men died of shark attacks, exhaustion, dehydration, drowning, and other conditions related to exposure. The ship's commander, Capt McVay, survived to face court martial charges for actions allegedly contributing to the loss of his ship. The Navy even called the Japanese submarine commander that sank the ship to testify against Captain McVay. This was the only time a ship's captain was court martialed for losing a ship in wartime. After the court martial, the Department of the Navy also publicly assigned blame to other Naval personnel, who weren't even previously considered, for failing to report the nonarrival of the Indianapolis into Leyte. The Navy never admitted to the gaping hole in its policy that allowed the nonarrival of a major vessel to literally "slip" beyond notice. This failure to check up on the ship's nonarrival contributed to the majority of the Indianapolis' crew dying through exposure and shark attacks. The men were in the water for four days until a US plane sighted them by chance. No resuce efforts were launched until then. The architects of this policy were the Navy's highest ranking officers, and they weren't ever considered for punishment. Newcomb succeeds in piecing together the roles of several dozen key participants in the tragedy to explain what happened and why. His long experience with military organizations also enables Newcomb to translate the events for the lay reader. The book does suffer in its narrative prose at times due to Newcomb's colorful and fanciful phrasing, but in key passages it soars. Newcomb weaves over a dozen different perspectives of the sinking by crewmen in various parts of the ship to paint a vivd picture of what the ordeal was like. He also captures the atmosphere of Captain McVay's court martial and puts it in context with the average American's view of the sinking. At these times, the book crackles with tension. Newcomb's description of the sailors' ordeal in the water is lacking some realistic details, probably in deference to readers' sensibilities. After all, Newcomb wrote this only 13 years after the sinking. Many relatives and loved ones were still alive, and perhaps he wished to spare them anything graphic. Newcomb has clearly done his homework through countless interviews and exhaustive research. However, his access to Navy records was severly limited due to the relative freshness of these events in the public and the Pentagon's eye. With over 50 years between the sinking and now, the story of the Indianpolis bears a second look. Until then, this books still stands as an informative and riveting work.
Rating:
Summary: Some of the best reading this year
Review: Several years ago I read a story abut a high school student whose research was directly responsible for the overturning of a court martial. I then saw a movie with Stacy Keach about the sinking of the BattleShip Indiannapolis. After that I was very interested in finding out more about the "Ship of Doom". Now having spent 6 great hours devouring every page of this true and gripping novel, I am certain that the miscarriage of justice has been righted. This book is as good as it gets, and for those who have ever served in the Navy, you'll be strolling down memory lane as they book details life aboard a ship. The book is a true testament and record to those who died and thos that lived. The book is a compelling look at the disaster, how the crew was affected and what happened to everyone, including the captain. Using actual testimony fromt he court martial, you have a first hand, inside look into how a chain of events can be looked at from several view points. If you are a histry buff, a Navy vet or anyone who loves a good mystery, than this book is certain must have and must read. Overall you'll be hard pressed to find any better work and this one gets my highest praise and recommendations.
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