The Quest to Bring a USS Indianapolis Hero Home

LORAIN, Ohio - May 23, 2016 - PRLog -- The journey to bring John Rozzano Jr. home began nearly a decade ago for his great neice, Jaclyn Bradley Palmer.  Lost at sea, the 18 year old sailor was never returned home to his family after his ship, the legendary USS Indianapolis, sank during World War II.  After delivering the components of the first atomic bomb, the vessel was torpedoed by a Japan submarine, sinking the ship in only 12 minutes.  Of 1196 crew members, only 317 survived shark infested waters.  Because of the secret nature of the ship's mission, the men went without resue for 5 nights and 4 days.  John Rozzano Jr. was never found.

For Palmer, age 36, the legend of Rozzano intrigued her from a young age.  "I saw the photographs and heard stories of him from my grandmother" she says "but was inspired to give him a tribute when I learned he had never been honored."  Without a memorial, funeral, obituary, or recognition of any kind, Palmer set out to right this wrong through an adventure chronicled in a feature-length documentary.  Over a nine-year span, she researchered documents, interviewed family and met with USS Indianapolis survivors, trying to piece together history and learn of Rozzano's final hours.

In April of 2016, Rozzano's decendants came together to give him a long-overdue memorial and a monument was placed in a public park in his hometown of Lorain, Ohio, a suburb West of Cleveland.  Due to media coverage and memorial preparations, items of Rozzano's surfaced, including a letter which had been hidden for 70 years.  "All this time, in searching for my uncle, we found that he was looking for us, too" said Palmer.

This Memorial Day (2016), the world will learn of Rozzano's legacy.  The film in it's entirety will premiere at The Lorain Palace Theater in Lorain on Sunday, May 29 at 2PM. It will also premiere online via YouTube.  "It is my hope to pay tribute to Johnnie and all the men of the USS Indianapolis through this film" Palmer said, "Men who so appropriately belong to our country's Greatest Generation."

It is a story of a legacy; a film about a hero.  A documentary full of miracles, in the quest to bring a soldier home.

Readers may watch the doumentary for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ0U-wQaGz8