Ships
- USS Turkey (AM-13) Lieutenant (junior grade), 26 October 1944 – 6 June 1945
Robert Albert Botsford, a lieutenant (junior grade) in the Naval Reserve, commanded Turkey from 26 October 1944 to 6 June 1945, by NavSource's list.
Birth, home, and family were not found.
No academy class and no earlier ship are on the NavSource line. He relieved Lieutenant Richard Johnston Melchor.
The day after he took command, 27 October 1944, Turkey helped the torpedoed cruiser Houston into Ulithi. Houston had been hit off Formosa by an aircraft torpedo. While Turkey was towing YOG-21 alongside the carrier Essex, her foremast caught in an antenna brace on the flight deck and broke in three places. On 21 November she went to the tanker Mississinewa, struck by a Japanese manned torpedo, and helped fight the fire. The oiler rolled over and sank about three hours later. The ship's history calls that the war's first kaiten loss. After a short overhaul at Ulithi in December, Turkey helped fuel fleet carriers there in January 1945, with a drydocking from 9 to 13 January. In early February she took part in preparations for the Iwo Jima landings, then went by Kossol Roads to San Pedro Bay off Leyte. She worked at Ulithi in March, April, and May. On 7 May she sailed for Leyte as retriever for a tow convoy and reached San Pedro Bay on 13 May. NavSource relieves Botsford on 6 June 1945, the day before the ship's history starts ten days of upkeep alongside the repair ship Prometheus. That upkeep falls to his relief.
No later command or date of death was found.