Name: Arno John TELFORD
Rank / Rating: RT3-Radio Technician Third Class
Service #: 870 19 62
DOB: Apr 30, 1924
From: Marshal, Minnesota
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)
Date Posted:

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 was assigned to USS Indianapolis and sailed for the Pacific Theatre on November 2, 1944. Arno was on board for the Iwo Jima and Okinawa campaigns and one carrier raid on Tokyo. Indianapolis was the flag ship of Admiral Raymond Spruance, Commander, Fifth Fleet. When the ship was damaged by a kamikaze attack on March 31, 1945, Spruance transferred his flag to USS New Mexico BB-40. Arno, along with other members of the flag allowance, transferred with the Admiral. When New Mexico was damaged by a Japanese kamikaze plane, Arno was given a 30-day leave. However, after six days at home he was called back to duty on board Indianapolis and served on the ship's final voyage. Indy was chosen for its speed and availability to 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 crewmembers and officers, even Captain McVay, Arno knew only that this was a top secret mission. Arno would never know the critical importance of the cargo Indy transported to Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands. Indy left Tinian after delivering the cargo and sailed to Apra Harbor, Guam, headquarters of the Commander of the 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 were waiting to come aboard - Pat Leon Adams, S2c 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.