Melvin Robert Larsen
Era: World War II
Military Branch: Army
LARSEN, Melvin Robert
Melvin Robert Larsen was born on January 21st 1928 to Sam Melvin & Clara Rosanna [Yocum] Larsen in Hinckley Minnesota.
Mr. Larsen was inducted into the U.S. Navy on February 2, 1945. He was a Seaman 2nd Class (S2c) aboard the USS Indianapolis.
The USS Indianapolis epic story is that In July of 1945 it is in San Francisco harbor being loaded with a mysterious cargo. The USS Indianapolis was on a top - secret mission of delivering parts of the "Little Boy" atomic bomb to the island of Tinian in the Pacific. On August 6th “Little Boy” is dropped over the City of Hiroshima, Japan ushering in the Atomic Age.
After offloading the Bomb in Tinian, the Indianapolis sailed to Guam and then to the Philippines but it was hit with two torpedoes on the night of July 30th and it sunk in 12 minutes. Of the crew of 1,196 onboard, 900 made it into the Pacific Ocean. S2c Larsen was listed as one of the nearly 296 that went down with the ship. Of the 900 who manage to get off the ship only 316 who survived shark infested waters for 5 days awaiting rescue. The mission was so to-secret that they were not reported overdue for a week. Only by chance does a Navy pilot notice hundreds of men bobbing in the water for 4+ days and radios for assistance.
It is the biggest disaster in U.S. Naval history although largely overshadowed by the very Bomb that they had just unloaded days before at Tinian.
S2c Larsen was declared dead on July 30th 1945 at the age of 17 years old. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart. He is honored at the Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines as well as on the USS Indianapolis Memorial in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Source(s):
Albert J. Amatuzio Research Center | Veterans Memorial Hall (vets-hall.org)
Page 14 WWII Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard Casualty List - Fold3
Melvin R Larsen: PERSON, pictures and information - Fold3.com
U.S., World War II and Korean Conflict Veterans Interred Overseas - Ancestry.com
