[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 44 (Tuesday, March 13, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E306-E307]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           ANNIVERSARY OF THE SINKING OF THE USS ``HOUSTON''

                                  _____
                                 

                            HON. GENE GREEN

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 13, 2018

  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring your 
attention to a memorial ceremony for the men who served aboard the USS 
Houston (CA-30) held this month in Sam Houston Park in my hometown of 
Houston. Descendants of the sailors and Marines of the ``Flagship'' of 
the U.S. Asiatic Fleet that was sunk by Imperial Japanese Naval forces 
on March 1, 1942 which honored their bravery and determination.
  Seventy-six years ago, the American heavy cruiser USS Houston (CA-30) 
and Australian light cruiser HMAS Perth, outnumbered and outgunned by 
an Imperial Japanese Navy Battle Fleet, fought to the last in the Sunda 
Strait between Sumatra and Java. Both went down with their captains 
aboard and their guns still firing. Nearly 1,000 Allied servicemen 
perished. It marked the end of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet and the naval 
forces of the American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command.
  As the crews abandoned the sinking ships, Japanese sailors machine-
gunned the decks and the men in the oil-soaked sea. Only 368 sailors 
and Marines, including four Chinese stewards and mess attendants from 
the Houston, made it to shore where they were taken as POWs of Japan. 
Some were held in a POW camp on Java, eight officers were sent to Japan 
to corporate POW camps, and others to the infamous Changi Prison in 
Singapore. Most, 220 of the survivors were shipped to Burma to be slave 
laborers constructing the Thai-Burma Death Railway.

[[Page E307]]

  For the next three and one-half years, the surviving men of the 
Houston and Perth suffered together through humiliation, degradation, 
physical and mental torture, starvation and horrible tropical diseases. 
Only 291 men from the Houston's complement of 1008, and 214 of the 
Perth's complement of 681, returned home after the War. This shared 
history speaks to the American spirit and grit as well as to our 
enduring alliance with Australia.
  Back in Houston, Texas, news of the destruction of the warship hit 
the city hard. The result was a mass recruiting drive for volunteers to 
replace the lost crew. On Memorial Day 1942, a crowd of nearly 200,000 
witnessed 1,000 ``Houston Volunteers'' inducted into the Navy. An 
accompanying bond drive raised over $85 million, enough to pay for a 
new cruiser and an aircraft carrier, the USS San Jacinto.
  According to a 1949 Houston Chronicle article commemorating the 
event, word of the ship's fate ``aroused a fever pitch of patriotism'' 
in the city. ``Her loss made the war something more of a personal 
conflict to more than half a million people,'' the article reads. 
``Official news of her destruction . . . slapped the city squarely 
between the eyes, and set off a series of events that stands unequaled 
in the nation.''
  So this week, we pause to remember the brave men of the USS Houston 
(CA-30) who inspired their country and who gave so much to fight 
tyranny in the Pacific. They who ``Still Stand Watch Over Sunda 
Strait'' represent our enduring commmitment to liberty. And I thank the 
American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society and the 
USS Houston CA-30 Survivors' Association and Next Generations for 
ensuring that the sacrifice and lessons of this greatest generation is 
remembered and honored.

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