USS Indianapolis CA-35
Arno John Telford - Lost At Sea

Name: Arno John Telford
Rank / Rating: RT3-Radio Technician Third Class
Service #: 870 19 62
DOB: Apr 30, 1924
From: Marshal, MN
Parents: Oscar and Frieda Zimmerman Telford
Went Aboard: Nov 02, 1944
Age When Ship Went Down: 21 years, 3 months, 0 days
Spouse:
Children:
Grandchildren:
Bio Submitted By: Patricia Stephens (Revised)
Bio Last Updated: Sep 25, 2026

Radio Technician Third Class Telford was born April 30, 1924 in Marshal, Minnesota. As a teenager he was very involved with short wave radios and related equipment. He graduated from high school and immediately entered the US Navy on June 17, 1943.

He completed Boot Training at Camp Scott in Farragut, Idaho. He also attended Radio Technician School at Michigan City, Indiana, Oklahoma A&M College at Stillwater, Oklahoma and took a course in secondary radio at Treasure Island, California. Arno received orders to report aboard the famed USS Indianapolis CA-35, the flag ship of Admiral Raymond Spruance, Commander of the Fifth Fleet. Arno was assigned to the Flag Allowance. Indianapolis sailed for the Pacific Theatre on November 2, 1944. Arno was on board for the campaigns at Iwo Jima and Okinawa and one carrier raid on Tokyo. When the ship was damaged off Okinawa by a kamikaze attack on March 31, 1945, Admiral Spruance transferred his flag to USS New Mexico BB-40. Arno, along with his fellow members of the flag allowance, transferred with the Admiral. The realities of war had been made too real after the kamikaze attack that killed 9 Indy crew members. Arno now found himself on board New Mexico which had been damaged in Jan 1945 by a kamikaze attack during the invasion of Luzon. The plane hit the bridge killing the commanding officer and 29 crew members. He wondered what the odds were that his new ship would suffer a second attack. Pretty low, he likely thought. He was wrong. When Arno went aboard New Mexico she was still engaged in the invasion of Okinawa. Her fire support continued off and on until May 11th. She was approaching her berth in Hagushi anchorage on May 12th when two kamikaze planes made her their target. The first plane made a dive and was strafing the ship on its approach. The ship's guns trained on their target and a shell from one of the 5" guns burst beneath the plane and forced it off target. The plane did minimal damage with the strafing before plunging into the sea. The second plane took advantage of the distraction of the first plane and dove on the ship before she could train her guns in its direction. A direct hit was made "on the gun deck on the starboard 20mm tub and smashed into the forward stack. A.A. ammunition fell through the hole created by the plane and tumbled down into the boilers causing a massive explosion...". 54 crew members were killed, 3 missing and more than 100 wounded. New Mexico remained at Hagushi, off Okinawa, until May 28th when she departed for Leyte for repairs. On June 1, 1945, before departure, Arno was transferred off the ship. He had lived through Hell the past six weeks having the two ships he served in hit by enemy suicide planes. He feared he was walking on eggshells and his luck would run out. Arno was granted a 30-day rehabilitative leave and he returned home to visit his family. However, after only six days at home he received a telegram to report for duty on board Indianapolis. With only a few days notice, the ship had been selected for a top-secret mission and all crew members were to report on board immediately. Indy would deliver component parts of the first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan - an act that is heralded as one of several that ended WWII. Like all the other crew members and officers, even Captain McVay, Arno knew only that this was a secret mission. He would never know the critical importance of the cargo Indy transported to Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands. Indy left Tinian after delivering the cargo and sailed to Apra Harbor, Guam, headquarters of Admiral Spruance's Fifth Fleet. Surely, Arno thought, this would be the end of his time on board. As he watched other members of the flag allowance disembarked Indy, he was ordered to remain on board for Indy's trip to Leyte in the central Philippines. Other members of the flag allowance on board with Arno were LCDR Cedric Foster Coleman, commander of the flag allowance, Robert Craig Barker, Jr. RT1c, Ray Gunther Wenzel RT3c, and two new members who had arrived in Guam from basic training in the US and Signalman School at Pearl Harbor and were waiting to come aboard - Pat Leon Adams, S2c (SM) and William Hearn Bradley, S2c (SM). Arno, LCDR Coleman, Wenzel, Barker, Adams and Bradley were lost at sea two days after leaving Guam when Indianapolis was sunk by two torpedoes from Japanese submarine I-58. All six names are inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing in the Manila American Cemetery, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig, Philippines. All were awarded the Purple Heart, posthumously. The family member who is the guardian of Arno’s Purple Heart will find his name engraved on the back side. Arno, you are not forgotten.