Lieutenant Commander (USN) Robert Adrian Marks (February 18, 1917 – March 7, 1998) was the U.S. Navy pilot who rescued 56 crewmen of the USS Indianapolis after it was sunk by Japanese torpedoes.
He married Elta Roll in 1941, and soon joined the Navy prior to the United States' entry into World War II.
After delivering components for the atomic bombs that were eventually used against Japan, to the island of Tinian the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis was steaming, unescorted, to Leyte for training of new crew members in advance of the planned attack on the Japanese home islands, when it was hit by two torpedoes shortly after midnight on 30 July 1945.
Some 900 survivors, many in only life jackets and without other flotation, faced fatigue, dehydration under the daylight sun and hypothermia at night, salt-water poisoning, and shark attacks.
[3] After nightfall, the destroyer escort USS Cecil J. Doyle (DE 368), the first of seven rescue ships, used its search light as a beacon and instilled hope in those still in the water.
Marks was awarded the Air Medal for his actions, and it was pinned on him by Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, CINCPAC.