World War II Honoree

Alvin Wilder Rahn

Branch of Service

U.S. Navy

Hometown

Savannah, Georgia

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Storekeeper Third Class. He was inducted into the United States Navy February 25, 1944 at Spartanburg, South Carolina. Served as a Storekeeper aboard the USS Indianapolis Heavy Cruiser CA-35, in the Western Pacific Theater of Operations. After delivering parts for the first atomic bomb to the U.S. Air Base on the island of Tinian, the warship along with her shipmates departed for the Philippine Islands. Reported missing in action, lost at sea when the Cruiser was hit by two torpedoes from an Imperial Japanese submarine Monday, July 30, 1945, sinking in twelve minutes. His name is permanently inscribed in the tablets of the missing, memorialized at the American Cemetery at Fort William-McKinley in Manila, Philippine Islands. In his Memory and Honor, a cenotaph memorial has been placed at the Laurel Grove Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.