HERBERT E. BORTON, SMCB 1ST C, MISSING SINCE SINKING OF USS INDIANAPOLIS
Ship Was Torpedoed After Delivering Atomic Bomb at Guam. Borton Husband of
Former Local School Teacher
Word has been received that Herb Borton is missing since the sinking
of the Indianapolis. The Indianapolis was torpedoed in the Philippine sea
450 miles off Leyte on July 30 on a solo passage from Guam where it
delivered Atomic bombs.
Herb was the husband of Agnes Rotschy Borton, a teacher in the White
Salmon school for the past two or three years and spent his furloughs here
on several occasions the last in May of this year. His parents reside at
Walla Walla.
The Enterprise, White Salmon, WA., September 21, 1945, page 1
WAR DEPARTMENT TELEGRAM TELLS WIFE THAT HERBERT BARTON LOST HIS LIFE WHEN U.S.S. INDIANAPOLIS WAS TORPEDOED
A telegram from the war department just received by Agnes Borton says: “A
careful review of all facts available relating to the disappearance of your
husband, Herbert Elton Borton, Ship’s Cook Butcher second class USNR, previously
reported missing, leads to the conclusion that there is no hope for his survival
and that he lost his life as a result of enemy action on July 30, 1945, while in
the service of his country.”
Herb was on the USS Indianapolis when it was torpedoed
and sunk in the Philippine waters. The Indianapolis went down in less than 15
minutes with a 100 per cent casualty list. The ship had been carrying atomic
bombs to Guam, was on a high-speed run and unescorted. It was five days before
anyone found the few for survivors that were picked up.
Herb had served on the USS Indianapolis since Pearl
Harbor. He had been at the front all through the war and had been in
practically every major sea engagement in the Pacific since the war with Japan
started.
He is survived by his father and mother, who reside in
Walla Walla, Washington; two sisters, Margaret Borton, of Walla Walla, and Mrs.
Ed Drury, of Bend, Oregon, and his wife, Agnes Borton, who teaches in the White
Salmon grade school.