Project 888
Name: Jose Antonio SAENZ
Rank / Rating: SC3-Ship's Cook Third ClassService #: 842 28 24 DOB: Jun 13, 1925 From: Edinburg, TX Parents: Went Aboard: Dec 21, 1943 Age When Ship Went Down: 20 years, 1 months, 17 days Spouse: Children: Grandchildren: Bio Submitted By: Marilyn Northcutt Henry and Carl Fahnestock |
 SAENZ, Jose A |
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The Monitor newspaper, McAllen, TX, June 2002, published an article entitled 'An Old Memory’: Closure comes late for family of Texas sailor killed serving on USS Indianapolis.
For members of Jose Antonio Saenz’s surviving family, many of whom never had the opportunity to even know him, new action from the U.S. Navy is providing a semblance of closure.
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 Saenz, an Edinburg, Texas, sailor who was lost at sea 77 years ago after serving on the ill-fated USS Indianapolis, has now been reclassified as buried at sea.
Rose Gutierrez recalls her mother and her grandmother refusing to talk about her late uncle because the memories of the lost sailor were too difficult for his family to bear.
"She said, 'We don’t want to disappoint you all, but we really don’t want to speak about him because he was lost at sea,’” Gutierrez recalled her mother telling her. “We didn’t know if he was alive or dead. Mama and grandma didn’t like to bring him up.”
Saenz was a cook on USS Indianapolis when two Japanese torpedoes hit and sank the ship on July 30, 1945. Navy records estimate that some 300 sailors went down with the ship. Approximately 800 sailors abandoned ship but, in the end, only 316 survived.
At the age of 20, the Edinburg native left behind his wife, parents, and five siblings. Unfortunately, none of them lived to get the closure they sought.
“It was just an old memory,” Gutierrez said. “It was bad. It was a memory to them that he left, and they were hoping for him to come back, and he didn’t. They were heartbroken.”
“He was unaccounted for so long,” Edward Salinas, Saenz’s great-nephew, said. “There’s really not a whole lot that I know about him. There’s not really anyone around anymore who knows about him except for my tia (Gutierrez). She was his niece.”
A news release from the Navy revealed that there were several men who were recovered and buried at sea by responding ships. Many of those men were misclassified as “missing in action” or “unaccounted for” due to administrative errors.
Gutierrez said that the news about the Navy’s updated status for Saenz came as a surprise for the family.
“I said, 'Wow, they remembered,’” Gutierrez said. “We were really happy because we never knew if they had found him. Back in the day, I can remember that there were a few of them that were found that were still alive. We didn’t know about my Uncle Tony. I mean, he was gone, and we didn’t know.”
“There is a big closure,” she continued. “I wish my mom would’ve been alive, his brothers, my grandmother to find out that they did find him. They would’ve been happy to know that their son and brother were found.”
By FRANCISCO E. JIMENEZ
THE MONITOR - June 5, 2022
(c)2022 The Monitor (McAllen, Texas)
Photo courtesy of Survivor Clarence Hupka (original photo believed to be taken by Alfred Sedivi)
The following information documents the details related to Jose Antonio Saenz having been "Buried at Sea" along with 12 other crew members:
Jose Antonio Saenz, SC3-Ship's Cook Third Class was one of 879 crew members of USS Indianapolis (CA-35) who “Lost Their Lives At Sea” as a direct casualty of the July 30, 1945 sinking of USS Indianapolis.
Seventy-six years after the ship’s sinking (in 2021), a thorough investigation of available historic records culminated in the identification of thirteen (13) sailors on that fateful last voyage whose names were subsequently placed on an “Accounted For” list.
Jose Antonio Saenz was one of these thirteen (13) sailors who was “Buried At Sea”.
The Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation researchers “poured through dozens of books and articles published on the sinking of USS Indianapolis, analyzed all of the seven recovery ship’s Deck Logs, War Diaries, and commanding officer’s After Action Reports. In addition, Foundation investigators obtained the 'Individual Deceased Personnel Files’ and other documents from the National Archives to determine possible biometric matches to unknown sailors recovered at the sinking site.”(1)
While each of these 13 sailors “Lost Their Lives At Sea”, they were each “Buried at Sea”.
The 13 men who by clear and convincing evidence gathered at the time of the Rescue and Recovery process resulted in their being “Buried at Sea” are
George Stanley Abbott, S1- Seaman First Class
Eugene Clifford Batson, S2- Seaman Second Class
William Alexander Haynes, S1- Seaman First Class
Albert Raymond Kelly, S2- Seaman Second Class
Albert Davis Lundgren, S1- Seaman First Class
Ollie McHone, F1- Fireman First Class
George David Payne, S2- Seaman Second Class
Alvin Wilder Rahn, SK3- Storekeeper Third Class
Jose Antonio Saenz, SC3- Ship’s Cook Third Class
Joseph Mason Strain, S2- Seaman Second Class
Angelo Anthony Sudano, SSML3- Ship’s Service Man (Laundryman) Third Class
Floyd Ralph Wolfe, GM3- Gunner’s Mate Third Class
Charles Byrd Sparks, COX- Coxswain
Burial at Sea
Jose was one of the eight crew members picked up and identified by USS French Monday August 6, 1945.
His official Burial at Sea Ceremony was performed by the Commanding Officer, LCDE Reginald C. Robbins at 1835 hours. Jose was reverently placed in a sea bag, weighted with two 5" shells and "committed to the deep".
Source Credits:
(1) The CHIEF RICK STONE And FAMILY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION, USS Indianapolis Burial at Sea Project, ChiefRickStone.com, 2025
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