USS HOUSTON (CA-30) Launched in 1929, this
heavy Cruiser displaced 9,300 tons, and had a crew of 1,061.
She sailed from Hawaii to Manila on the eve of war, where she
became the flagship of Admiral Thomas C. Hart, Commander Asiatic
Fleet. On the night of the Pearl Harbor attack, she
departed from Panay Island, destination Australia. After
participating in battles at Makassar Strait and the Java Sea,
she was sunk at Sunda Strait with 368 survivors. Her fate was
unknown for almost nine months, and the details were discovered
only after the end of the war when Houston's crew were released
from their POW camps. Her Captain received a posthumous Medal of
Honor, and her Chaplain a posthumous Navy Cross, the only Navy
Chaplain so honored during WWII. Houston had passed through the
Panama Canal in 1930, and its home port thereafter had been at
Mare Islane, on the West Coast of California. This photo was
probably taken during a visit to Panama.
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