In this episode of the Crux True Survival Story Podcast, hosts Julie Henningsen and Kaycee McIntosh recount the remarkable World War II survival tale of Ray Downs and his family. On May 19, 1942, eight-year-old Ray, his mother Ina, his father Raymond Sr., and his sister Lucille were aboard the merchant ship Heredia, which was struck by German U-boat torpedoes 40 miles off the coast of New Orleans. Despite the ship sinking rapidly, the entire family miraculously survived 20 hours in the shark-infested waters of the Gulf of Mexico before being rescued, defying the odds amid wartime peril.