Nearly 61 years after surviving a living nightmare, it's still not easy for Adolfo Celaya to talk about what he endured that night in 1945.
Celaya, who grew up in Barrio Viejo, was an 18-year-old sailor on the USS Indianapolis. He worked in the ship's belly, where he helped feed oil into the vessel's four giant boilers.
But on the night of July 30, Celaya was on the ship's deck in the Philippine Sea with his Tucson buddy, Santos Peña.
Two Japanese torpedoes struck the cruiser. The Indy split and sank within 12 minutes, taking 300 of the 1,196 men on board with her.
Approximately 900 survivors found themselves in the water. They were adrift for nearly five days, fending off thirst, hunger, heat and, probably worst of all, ravenous sharks.
When they were finally rescued, 316 sailors and Marines remained.
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Celaya, Peña and a third Tucsonan, Fernando Sanchez, survived.
On Wednesday,Celaya, 78, who now lives in Santa Clara, Calif., will return to Tucson to attend the U.S. Navy Cruisers' Sailors Association. It's a reunion of sailors from several cruisers, including the ill-fated Indianapolis.
This will be Celaya's first reunion. He's never been interested in swapping horror stories with other sailors.
But with next week's reunion in Tucson, not far from where he grew up on South Meyer Street, it gives him a chance to see old friends, including Peña, who lives with his wife, Erlinda, in Barrio Hollywood.
It's unlikely Peña will attend the reunion, however. His 47-year-old son passed away recently. Peña's son used to accompany his father to the reunions.
But Celaya said he'll make sure he sees his former shipmate.
Celaya almost didn't make it into the Navy. One of his barrio running buddies had to persuade him to sign up.
"He kept telling me how nice it was," said Celaya, by phone from Florence, where he was visiting his brother.
After training in San Diego, Celaya boarded the Indianapolis in December 1944.
He joined Peña; Sanchez, the father of Sunnyside High School football coach Richard Sanchez; and Mike Quihuis, a 1932 Arizona welterweight boxing champion and former Spanish-language sports broadcaster.
Quihuis, who was reassigned before the ship sank, died in 1988. Sanchez died in 1984.
When the four Tucsonenses weren't on duty, they reminisced about their pueblo.
"We had a ball," Celaya said.
But it wasn't all fun, of course. They were fighting a war against the Japanese — and fending off the racial slurs from their fellow sailors.
"It was a tough time for Mexican-American sailors," Celaya said. "I was always in a fight."
But the fight for their lives came two weeks before the surrender of Japan and the end of World War II.
Celaya said that after he and Peña hit the water, they swam until they found a raft filled with sailors. There was no room on the raft so Celaya hung on its side with others. Peña found a second raft.
When daylight came, so did the sharks.
"You could hear the men hollering," Celaya said.
But he doesn't remember thinking of the sharks.
"All I could think of was how thirsty I was," said Celaya.
For 25 years after the sinking, Celaya could not talk about it. He does now to students and community groups.
It helps him deal with the awful memories, he said.
And it helps us remember his sacrifice, and that of others.
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