INDIANA MAGAZINE of HISTORY Volume LI JUNE,1955 Number 2
INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Volume LI JUNE,1955 Number 2 Hoosier Senior Naval Officers in World War I1 John B. Heffermn* Indiana furnished an exceptional number of senior of- ficers to the United States Navy in World War 11, and her sons were in the very forefront of the nation’s battles, as casualty lists and other records testify. The official sum- mary of casualties of World War I1 for the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, covering officers and men, shows for Indiana 1,467 killed or died of wounds resulting from combat, 32 others died in prison camps, 2,050 wounded, and 94 released prisoners of war. There were in the Navy from Indiana 9,412 officers (of this number, probably about 6 per- cent or 555 were officers of the Regular Navy, about 10 per- cent or 894 were temporary officers promoted from enlisted grades of the Regular Navy, and about 85 percent or 7,963 were Reserve officers) and 93,219 enlisted men, or a total of 102,631. In the Marine Corps a total of 15,360 officers and men were from Indiana, while the Coast Guard had 229 offic- ers and 3,556 enlisted men, for a total of 3,785 Hoosiers. Thus, the overall Indiana total for Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard was 121,776. By way of comparison, there were about 258,870 Hoosiers in the Army.l There is nothing remarkable about the totals and Indiana’s representation in the Navy was not exceptional in quantity; but it was extraordinary in quality.
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