Name: Edwin Mason CROUCH
Rank / Rating: CAPT-Captain
Service #: 57010
DOB: Feb 02, 1900
From: Alexandria, VA
Parents: Ernest and Harriet Crouch
Went Aboard: Jul 27, 1945
Age When Ship Went Down: 45 years, 5 months, 28 days
Spouse: Jean Wallace English Crouch
Children:
Grandchildren:
Bio Submitted By: Carl Fahnestock (Admin)
Date Posted: Jul 30, 2025

NOTE: On the ship’s Final Cruise, Captain Edwin Mason Crouch was not “officially” serving a role as a USS Indianapolis (CA-35) Crew Member. He boarded the ship July 27, 1945 at Guam as a “passenger” at the invitation of his friend, Captain Charles B. McVay, Jr. He was however traveling to an “official” U.S. Navy assignment to report for temporary additional duty at Advanced Headquarters, Commander-in-Chief Pacific. (1) Nevertheless, he was “officially” included in the count of 888 Navy and Marine Corps casualties who were Lost At Sea while on board Indianapolis in 1945..

Captain Edwin Mason Crouch was born on his grandfather Mason Crouch’s farm in Nebraska on February 2, 1900. After his early years in Rawhide, Wyoming and his pre-High School years in Lusk, Wyoming, he completed the last two years of his High School education (2016-2018) in Deadwood, South Dakota. It was from Deadwood that Edwin left to take the Naval Academy examinations in April, 1917. Once accepted into the academy, he enlisted in the Navy and missed his Deadwood High School graduation in June. He married Jean Wallace English and they lived in multiple locations throughout his U.S. Navy career (including San Bernardino, CA, Queens, NY, Long Beach, CA, Manila and San Francisco). Edwin had two sisters: Alice Crouch Hull and Sara Nicholls and one brother, Dan who served in the Army. Edwin graduated from the United States Naval Academy in the Class of 1921. As a 1921 graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Robert was listed and presented in the 1921 version of “LUCKY BAG” (the United States Naval Academy Yearbook). (2) View the “Additional Photos” section below to see his personal photo and information that was published in the “LUCKY BAG”. As a United States Naval Academy graduate who was on board Indianapolis on that fateful last voyage, Edwin Mason Crouch joined eight other naval academy graduates who also lost their lives as a result of the July 30, 1945 sinking of the ship. The full list of Annapolis graduates who were Lost at Sea includes: Robert Burton Billings, Ensign Edwin Mason Crouch, Captain Joseph Ambrose Flynn, Commander Robert Huntley Hurst, Lieutenant Johns Hopkins Janney, Commander Stanley Walter Lipski, Commander Harold Clifton Moynelo, Jr., Ensign Michael R. Pessolano, Lieutenant James Douglas Spencer, Lieutenant View the “Additional Photos” section below to see pictures and brief information on those nine officers. (3)