An Iowan’s 15 year search for a long-lost World War II memorial with his uncle’s name on it has ended and the plaque is now hanging in a Michigan museum.
Jeff Ortiz of Ames grew up in Detroit. His dad, a World War II veteran, never really talked about his brother who died after the USS Indianapolis was hit by a Japanese torpedo and sunk in the Pacific on July 30, 1945. Ortiz has pieced the story together himself. “I have a very strong feeling that anybody that has been killed in the line of duty for our country, that their stories should not be forgotten,” Ortiz said during an interview with Radio Iowa.
Orlando Robert Ortiz, who the family called Bobby, enlisted in the Navy when he was 18. He was 20 when the USS Indianapolis was hit. “I was lucky enough to meet two of the survivors — there’s still one alive — and they both concurred that because of his position he probably had like a day shift kind of a job and it was so hot that night that anybody that didn’t have to be in the ship was probably sleeping on deck, so he probably went into the water,” Ortiz said. “That’s about the best I have for what happened to my uncle.”…