Name: Robert Urban GREEN
Rank / Rating: S2-Seaman Second Class
Service #: 727 16 70
DOB: Feb 12, 1927
From:
Parents: Charles Leonard Green and Odessa Maude Johnson Green
Went Aboard: May 7, 1944
Age When Ship Went Down: 18 years, 5 months, 18 days
Spouse:
Children:
Grandchildren:
Bio Submitted By: Admin
Date Posted:

When the Indy sank, Bobby was almost 18 1/2 years old. He was born on February 12, 1927, to Odessa Maude Johnson and Charles Leonard Green. His parents were both deaf and he grew up poor, the second of four children (siblings Harry, Danny, and Paula). They lived in downtown Chicago and their house was eventually torn down to build the old Chicago Stadium. When he was 8 years old, he and his two brothers were sent to Elwood School for Boys and were not allowed to return home to their family until they learned a trade. His sister was only 4 years old at the time.

According to his brother Danny, Bobby was a "ladies man" and always could get the girls! Once he returned home from Elwood, Bobby attended McKinley High School in Chicago and was in the school orchestra. His sister Paula remembered that he always looked out for her when she was little. At 17, Bobby enlisted in the Navy. His two brothers joined the Army, and all three fought in WWII. Bobby was the only one not to come home. The family knows that Bobby made it into the water because he was the 8th sailor to be pulled from the ocean but was buried at sea. When military personnel came to tell Bobby's parents that their son was missing in action, his sister Paula had to interpret the news for them through sign language. Bobby's mother was a member of the Golden Star Mother's Club, mothers who lost sons in service to their country. Before her passing in the 1970s, Bobby's mother attended many of the Survivor's reunions, walking around with a photograph of Bobby and a notepad, asking people if they knew her son. Burial at Sea Robert was one of the twenty-eight crew members whose body was recovered and identified by USS Helm between Saturday August 4, 1945 to Monday August 6, 1945. It not being possible to bring Robert aboard for the official Burial at Sea Ceremony he was reverently placed in a sea bag, weighted with two 5" shells and "committed to the deep" by his fellow seamen.