Second of two sons to lose their lives in the Pacific during WW2;

BM1C Roland Edwards went Missing on July 30, 1945 when USS Indianapolis was sunk in the Philippine Sea, he was 20 years old…

Born in Hidalgo County, New Mexico to George & Ada Edwards on February 6, 1925, Roland James Edwards had six siblings.
The family was living in Lindsay, California when he enlisted in the Navy on February 21, 1942 right after his seventeenth birthday.

Roland was listed as being married to Mildred Ann Edwards who was living in Lindsay.
He served on the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis CA-35 and was onboard when she was severely damaged by a kamikaze off of the Philippines on March 31, 1945.

After repairs, USS Indianapolis sailed from San Francisco on July 16, 1945, within hours of the successful Trinity nuclear test in New Mexico carrying nuclear components for the “Little Boy” atomic bomb.
These components were delivered to Tinian on July 26th, afterwards USS Indianapolis stopped briefly at Guam before departing for Leyte, Philippines on July 28th.

In the early morning hours of July 30th, the Japanese Submarine I-58 torpedoed and sank USS Indianapolis.
Out of the 1,195 crew, only 316 were still alive when they were finally rescued five day later.

Boatswain’s Mate First Class Roland Edwards was not among the survivors and is Memorialized with the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines.
He is also memorialized on the USS Indianapolis National Memorial in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Older brother Coxswain George Harvey Edwards was Killed in Action on USS New Orleans during the Battle of Tassafaronga on November 30, 1942. He was 20 years old and is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii – Section A 962.

Both Edwards brothers had given their lives in the Pacific at only twenty years old….