World War II Honoree

Robert Frank Redd

Branch of Service

U.S. Marine Corps

Hometown

Jessup, Maryland

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Private. Inducted into the United States Marine Corps at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with recruit training assigned to the Fourth Recruit Battalion, Training Regiment; Marine Corps Base at Parris Island, South Carolina. Upon his graduation from Boot Camp, he was transferred to Camp Geiger, North Carolina for combat training. After the completion of infantry training, he was selected to attend Sea School at San Diego, California. Following Sea School training, he was transferred to the USS Indianapolis Heavy Cruiser CA-35, assigned to a Marine detachment in the Pacific Theater of Operations. After delivering parts for the first atomic bomb to the U.S. Air Base on the island of Tinian, she 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 in the Philippine Sea. In remembrance of the brave, his name is permanently inscribed in the tablets of the missing, memorialized at the Manila American Cemetery Location: Fort Bonifacio, Philippine Islands. In his Memory and Honor, a cenotaph memorial has been placed at the U.S.S. Indianapolis National Memorial in Indianapolis, Indiana. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.