 Ray Vernon Castiaux, Seaman
Second Class, eighteen-year old son of Mrs.
Amanda Mauley, 407 West Main Street, has been
reported missing in action as of July 30.Mrs. Mauley received a
telegram on Monday, August 13, from Vice-Admiral
Randall Jacobs, who stated Castiaux was missing
in the service of his country. He said that Mrs.
Manley would be furnished details as they were
received. He requested that she withhold the name
of her son’s ship until news of it should
appear in the newspapers.
Tuesday night,
after the surrender of the Japanese was official,
the radio and press released the story of the
U.S.S. Indianapolis, Castiaux’s ship, which
suffered 100 percent casualties when it was hit
following a quick run to Guam from San Francisco
with essential material for the atomic bomb.
Everyone aboard the vessel was listed as killed,
missing or wounded.
Seaman Castiaux
had only been in the Navy five months, entering
when he was still seventeen, before he had
completed his course of studies at CTHS. After
boot training at Great Lakes and a short period
of training at Shoemaker, California, he left the
states, supposedly for the Pacific. His mother
does not know how long he had been out at sea
when he was reported missing, but it was only a
matter of weeks, she believes. She last heard
from him in a letter dated July 16, the day the
Indianapolis is reported to have left the coast.
Castiaux has one
sister, Marjorie, living with her mother.
Note: Memorialized
on the Missing in Action Tablets at Manila
American Cemetery - Manila, Philippines
|
Ray
Castiaux, S2C
