By Navy Personnel Command Public Affairs
The Navy has officially changed the status of 13 Sailors lost when the USS Indianapolis (CA 35) was sunk in 1945 from “unaccounted for” to “buried at sea,” Navy Casualty announced May 27.
The change in status is the result of extensive research between Naval History and Heritage Command, Navy Casualty Office, the USS Indianapolis Survivors Association, the USS Indianapolis Legacy Organization, and the Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation.
The announcement helps bring closure to the families of these Sailors who lost their lives at the end of a secret mission which helped end World War II.
The USS Indianapolis sank on July 30, 1945, after being struck by two Japanese torpedoes.
The Sailors whose status changed are:
• Seaman 1st Class George Stanley Abbott
• Seaman 2nd Class Eugene Clifford Batson
• Gunner’s Mate 1st Class William Alexander Haynes
• Seaman 2nd Class Albert Raymond Kelly
• Seaman 1st Class Albert Davis Lundgren
• Fireman 1st Class Ollie McHone
• Seaman 2nd Class George David Payne
• Storekeeper 3rd Class Alvin Wilder Rahn
• Ship’s Cook 3rd Class Jose Antonio Saenz
• Coxswain Charles Byrd Sparks
• Radioman 2nd Class Joseph Mason Strain
• SSML3 Angelo Anthony Sudano
• Gunner’s Mate 3rd Class Floyd Ralph Wolfe
Approximately 300 of the ship’s 1,195 Sailors went down with the ship, and some 900 men were set adrift. Only 316 survived. Due to administrative errors, many Sailors who were recovered from the ocean and buried at sea from responding vessels were misclassified as “missing in action “or “unaccounted for.”
