Veteran survived sinking ship in WWII

PANAMA CITY BEACH — CM2 Trevor Buckett knew his grandfather’s story, but as Trevor was growing up Victor Buckett spoke very little of his harrowing experiences in World War II aboard the USS Indianapolis.

Trevor Buckett will graduate Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center later this month. On Friday, he finally heard his grandfather describe the sinking of the Indy.

“That was the first time I’ve heard him speak (about the ship),” Trevor Buckett said.

Victor Bucket, 92, is one of only a handful of living survivors of the Indy, which had just delivered secret cargo to a station in the South Pacific when a Japanese submarine sunk the flagship. The incident inspired a scene in the 1975 film “Jaws,” in which one of the characters described surviving for days in shark-infested waters:

“So, 1,100 men went in the water, 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29, 1945,” Quint told Hooper and Chief Brody. “Anyway, we delivered the bomb.”

Aside from some details — the Indy was actually attacked June 30, and 317 survived — Buckett told a similar story to a packed auditorium. He told of handing out life jackets before he “just walked right off the side into the water,” of swallowing diesel oil when the sinking ship’s still-spinning propeller pushed a wave over his head, of sharks coming in thousands, including the one that swam right between his legs, and of close friends who were there at sundown but lost forever by the next morning.

It was four days before the survivors were rescued. Buckett, who lives in Naples, still goes to the reunions with the remaining survivors, of whom there are roughly three dozen.

“I hope every one of them lives to be 105,” Buckett said. “And I hope I’m standing at their side.”

Buckett received lengthy applause, and several sought him after the speech for an autograph.

“This is our legacy,” Cmdr. Hung Cao told the assembly after Buckett’s address. “This is the indomitable fighting spirit of the American man.”