Redd, Robert Frank PVT
548527

Sept - 26 - 45

Captain Charles B. McVay
U.S.S. Indianapolis
c/o F.P.O. San Francisco, Calif.

Dear Sir,

I am writing to you to find out if you know what happened to my son Pvt Robert F. Redd, U.S.M.C.R. He was your orderly and also had a broken foot you should remember him.
We had a message from the war department that he was missing, but no details.
One boy wrote that he managed to get off the ship but the cast was too heavy and after two days he went down. And another boy wrote that he did not think he got off the ship. Why was he allowed to go out on the ship when he was crippled?
If you can give me any information at all I will appreciate it.

Yours very truly
Mrs W. R. Redd
Jessup
Maryland

Pers-8249-LK REDD, Robert F. 548 527, Pvt. USMCR

October 31, 1945

My dear Mrs. Redd,

Your letter of September 26th concerning your son, Private Robert F. Redd, United States Marine Corps Reserve, has just reached me here in the Bureau of Naval Personnel where I have been on temporary duty since my return from Guam the middle of last month.

I regret that I can add nothing to my letter of September 27th which I trust reached you after your letter to me was written.

It is difficult I know for you to understand why we can not furnish more information. However, when it is realized the ship sank in the middle of the night in a very short time and that no records whatsoever were saved that may explain our difficulty in piecing together a coherent story.

May I again express my heartfelt sympathy.

Very sincerely,

CHAS, B. MCVAY, III
Captain, U. S. Navy

Mrs. William R. Redd
Montivedeo Road
Jessup, Maryland