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"  There is one thing missing from the survival stories that you published in the April 2010 issue--the desire to live. You may think that is in all peoples&amp;#039; thoughts, but it is not.  I am a survivor of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. I was on watch just after midnight when the ship was hit [by torpedoes fired from the Japanese submarine I-58]. At first I thought it was a boiler exploding because I saw flames shooting up through the stack. We lost communications, and in a few minutes we began to list starboard. I slipped and fell, and when I got up the ship was leaning. My watch station was about 60 feet up and I saw water a few feet from me. I prepared to jump.  Training taught me to swim away so I would not get caught in any suction. I swam as far as I could on one breath, and when I looked again, I saw a propeller coming down on me, still turning. I became a motivated swimmer, and the next time I looked the ship was gone. Here I was, alone, in the middle of the ocean without a life jacket, in the pitch-black darkness. I thought I would wake up in my bunk, dry, having had a bad dream. I swam about an hour and finally found two sailors with a preserver. I hung on to it until morning when I spotted a loose life jacket. Some time that afternoon, we saw a small group of sailors with four big life floaters built for about 10 people each. I could not get aboard because there was no room but I tied myself to the group. I know how delirious the others got. I decided I would use as little energy as I could and only worry seriously when I could see no others&amp;#039; faces.  The group had a keg of water but it was impossible to drink out of it. It was heavy and, when lifted, one would go underwater. Some sailors were attacked by sharks. Some, in their delirious states, would swim away, and others said they were going &amp;quot;below&amp;quot; to the drinking fountain. Some said they had been to the ice cream stand on the ship.  During the fourth day, a plane spotted us and waggled its wings. We waited well past midnight for a ship to pick us up. No one missed us, although Navy ships used to run on tight schedules and we were expected for gunnery practice almost three days earlier. This was the worst screw-up the Navy ever had. Out of the original crew of 1199, only 316 survived.  How is it I did and so many did not? I firmly believe it was because I didn&amp;#039;t think I had anywhere to go--others believed heaven was waiting for them. To survive, I kept thinking I should keep on treading water and waiting. I hope this brings to your attention the will to live as the most important ingredient in a rescue. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/outdoors/a5656/uss-indianapolis-survivor/>