WASHINGTON – Days after the U.S. Navy discovered wreckage from the USS Indianapolis, a Navy cruiser that sank during WWII in 1945 after being torpedoed by a Japanese submarine, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) renewed his call on the U.S. Navy to posthumously award Navy Chaplain Lieutenant Thomas M. Conway – a Waterbury native who perished after the Indianapolis was torpedoed – with the Navy Cross. The Navy Cross is America’s second highest military decoration for valor. Murphy has worked with Bob Dorr, Secretary of the Waterbury veterans Memorial Committee, the entire Waterbury Veterans Committee, and veterans’ organizations across the country to secure the award for Father Conway. He also introduced a Senate resolution in 2013 to award Father Conway with the Navy Cross, and, joined by U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, presented new evidence and documentation about Father Conway’s actions to the Navy.

“I wholeheartedly support the Waterbury local veterans committee and the living survivors of the USS Indianapolis who’ve made it their mission to get Father Conway the recognition he deserves,” said Murphy. “I paid a visit to the memorial statue of Father Conway during my walk across Connecticut last week, and it was a chance for me to reflect on Father Conway’s incredible selflessness that led him to sacrifice his own life in order to save others. There’s no doubt that Father Conway deserves the Navy Cross, and I’m going to continue pushing the Navy to posthumously award it to him.” 

Father Conway, who grew up on Cooke Street in Waterbury, was a chaplain aboard the USS Medusa and the USS Indianapolis during the Second World War. Father Conway was among the roughly 900 sailors left in the water facing shark attacks, dehydration, and exposure after the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed. For three straight days, Father Conway swam back and forth among crew members, helping individual sailors who drifted away to rejoin their comrades, organizing prayer groups, and urging the increasingly dehydrated and delirious men not to give up hope of rescue. He died on the third night, August 2, 1945, shortly before Navy pilots spotted the survivors.

Just 316 men survived, making the sinking of the USS Indianapolis the single greatest loss of life at sea in the history of the U.S. Navy. The living survivors of the USS Indianapolis have made it their mission to make sure Father Conway is recognized by the U.S. Navy for his acts of heroism, saving many of their comrades’ lives at sea.

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