The fate of ‘Uncle Angelo’ disclosed
Niles sailor served on USS Indianapolis during World War II
Trending
NILES -- Almost 77 years after the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, the status of Navy SSML3 Angelo Anthony Sudano of Niles officially has been changed from "unaccounted for" to "buried at sea."
While the Navy Casualty Office announced the change several days ago, Sudano's family has known his fate for some time -- though not quite as long as one would expect.
"I think the Navy -- they just now officially caught up," said Joanne Sudano Robbins, Angelo Sudano's niece.
The USS Indianapolis sank on July 30, 1945, after being struck by two Japanese torpedoes. Only 316 of the ship's 1,195 sailors survived -- some 300 men went down with the ship while another 900 were set adrift.
Before being sunk, the Indianapolis had completed a secret mission to deliver atomic bomb components to another ship -- a mission that is credited with contributing directly to the end of World War II, according to the Navy Casualty Office.
Robbins said her father, the late Joseph Sudano, who also served in World War II, told her that a survivor of the Indianapolis had come to visit their mother, Pauline, and told the family that Angelo had been in the boiler room and went down with the ship.
"We think that he did that so she wouldn't worry," Robbins said. "Because there were so many -- I'm sure you know -- vivid stories about the bodies in the ocean with the sharks."
Robbins said she's glad her grandmother Pauline never had to have that image in her mind. She died before the family found out what really became of Angelo Sudano.
The family attended the memorial for the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the ship in 1995, when Angelo Sudano still was considered missing at sea.
About three years later, logbooks of ships that came to the Indianapolis' rescue were declassified, Robbins and her husband, John, said. A courier from a museum notified them that Angelo Sudano had been recovered by another ship and then buried at sea. The Sudano family, at last, knew what happened to "Uncle Angelo."
Now, more than 20 years later, the official records reflect the same, just in time for Memorial Day.
Robbins said her father told stories about how his brother Angelo was a "comedian" and made everyone laugh. For the longest time, when he talked about his brother, Joseph Sudano said he imagined that Angelo was living on an island somewhere, Robbins said.
"They had hoped that for years because they didn't know what happened to him. I guess they knew, but not officially, so for many years it was just always on his mind," Robbins said.
Angelo Sudano lives on in family legend -- and his was a big family, with 11 children. Two of Angelo Sudano's sisters, Mary Jane and Pauline, and a brother, Louis, survive, according to Robbins.
Navy Casualty last week also officially changed the status of 12 other sailors from the USS Indianapolis from "unaccounted for" to "buried at sea," including another Ohioan, Seaman 2nd Class Albert Raymond Kelly of Cleveland. The changes come after efforts by the USS Indianapolis Burial at Sea Project through the Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation.
In a news release from the Navy Office of Community Outreach, Stone said, "One of my favorite quotes is 'Poor is the nation that has no heroes but shameful is the nation who, having heroes, forgets them.' Our foundation will never forget the heroes of the USS Indianapolis and are proud of our role in helping 13 families learn that the Navy went to great lengths to honor them soon after their deaths."