| Home | Obituaries | Classifieds | Help Wanted | User's Guide | For Advertisers |
|
|
||||||
| GREENFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS | ||||||
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
[ Originally published on: Saturday, November 07, 2009 ]
A scholarship has been set up in memory of the late Buckland man who lived through five days in the shark-infested, oil-slicked Pacific Ocean after the USS Indianapolis was sunk by the Japanese in World War II.
Harold J. Schechterle served on the cruiser as a radarman 3rd Class. On July 30, 1945, the ship's surviving crew were left at sea for five days because the ship was never reported as missing. Only 316 of the 1,196 originally on board survived. Schechterle's group started out with 96, but only 11 survived. The incident is recognized as the worst in U.S. Naval history.
After his service in the Navy, Schechterle became a self-employed carpenter and cabinet maker. He died in April 2000.
For the full version of this story, you may purchase The Recorder electronically, by returning to the home page and clicking under ''E-Edition'' on the right side of your screen, or you can purchase the print edition, which is available throughout Franklin County, Massachusetts.
