They survived the worst U.S. naval disaster at sea in U.S. history and Tuesday they shared their stories with Valley residents.

Four survivors and two rescuers of the USS Indianapolis wreck told an audience at Blue Ridge Community College their story about floating in shark infested waters for four days while waiting to be rescued.

They are among 68 of the 300 survivors who are still living. There were more than 1,000 men on the ship when it sank.

The USS Indianapolis was carrying parts of the atomic bomb, which were later loaded into the Enola Gay and dropped on Hiroshima. However, not one of the survivors knew what highly classified cargo they were carrying at the time, including the captain, Charles McVay.

The ship was hit by torpedoes from a Japanese submarine just after midnight on July 30, 1945. It took 12 minutes for the Indianapolis to sink.

Nine hundred men survived the initial blast and were stranded in the Philippine Sea.

Due to human error, it wasn't reported when the ship failed to arrive at its destination on the island of Tinian. So there was no search for the ship.

The men fought extreme dehydration, hallucinations and constant shark attacks for four days. On the fourth day, a U.S. plane flying over spotted the men floating in the sea and called recovery boats to the scene. Three hundred men made it out of the ocean alive.

One survivor says, more than 60 years later, it's still difficult to talk about the experience.

"The more you talked and got it off your chest, the easier it was and it now seems like a bad dream. By the way, every night, I do dream. I just don't know how to make it not," says crew member, L.D. Cox of Comanche, Texas.

James Belcher was also a member of the ship's crew. His son, Jim, now resides in the Valley and organizes reunions for the living members of the crew. He brought the six men to Virginia to share their stories.

"I know none of them want is for these stories to go to the grave with them. They want people to hear them before they die, so they are willing now to tell the stories that they probably weren't willing to tell 20, 30, 40 years ago," says Jim Belcher Jr.

There is still a chance to catch the presentation if you missed it. "Remember USS Indianapolis" will be at Blue Ridge Community College Wednesday morning in the Plecker Center. The presentation starts at 10 a.m.