You’ve heard the old crock about there being “no atheists in foxholes.” It’s equally a crock when applied to life jackets.
In a recent issue of Popular Mechanics, WWII navy veteran Donald Blum discusses his experience after the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in 1945. (You may recall that the Indianapolis delivered the first atomic bomb to the US airbase on the island of Tinian. Soon thereafter, on her way to the Philippines, the Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese torpedo. The survivors of the sinking spent four and a half days fighting off sharks and dehydration. Of a crew of 1196 only 316 lived. Many people know this story only from the 1975 film Jaws, in which Captain Quint reveals that he was one of the 316.)
Says Blum, “How is it I [survived] and so many did not? I firmly believe it was because I didn’t think I had anywhere to go–others believed heaven was waiting for them.”
Donald Blum: American hero, non-believer.
(Thanks to Martin H. for the tip!)
