USS Houston

Rather than retell the history of the WWII-era ships named after the city, I wanted to share some items from the ships' history.

First, there were two ships named Houston during WWII. One, a heavy cruiser, was sunk during the Battle of the Java Sea on Feb. 28, 1942. Of the original crew of 1,061, 368 survived. For its efforts, the ship was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation, a copy of which is available at my Web site in a PDF file.

A second USS Houston, a light cruiser, soon followed. This ship also saw considerable action in the Pacific, as seen by the picture below. Long after the war ended, she was scrapped.