Returning to Australia, HOUSTON
departed 15 February with a small convoy to reinforce the garrison on Timor.
Before the day was out, the group was forced to beat off numerous air attacks,
and next morning the Japanese attacked in full force. During this defensive
action, HOUSTON distinguished herself by driving off nearly the entire raid
without damage to her transports.
Receiving word that the major Japanese invasion force was approaching Java
protected by a formidable surface unit, Admiral Doorman resolutely determined to
meet and seek to destroy the main convoy. Sailing 26 February with HOUSTON, HMAS
PERTH, HNMS DE RUYTER, HMS EXETER, HNMS JAVA and 10 destroyers, he met the
Japanese support force under Admiral Takagi consisting of 4 cruisers and 13
destroyers. In the Battle of the Java Sea which followed, Doorman's forces
fought valiantly, but were doomed by lack of air cover and communication
difficulties. The ships met for the first time in the late afternoon, and as
Japanese destroyers laid smoke the cruisers of both fleets opened fire. After
one ineffective torpedo attack the Japanese light cruisers and destroyers
launched a second at 1700, this attack sinking KORTENAER. EXETER and destroyer
ELECTRA were hit by gunfire, ELECTRA fatally, and at 1730 Admiral Doorman turned
south toward the Java coast, not wishing to be diverted from his main purpose,
the destruction of the convoy itself. With dogged fighting spirit he dodged
another torpedo attack and followed the coastline, during which time JUPITER was
sunk, either by mine or internal explosion. Then ENCOUNTER was detached to pick
up survivors from KORTENAER, and the American destroyers, their torpedoes
expended, were ordered back to Surabaya. Now with no destroyer protection,
Doorman's four remaining ships turned north again in a last gallant attempt to
stop the invasion of Java.
At 2300 the same night, the cruisers again encountered the Japanese surface
group. On parallel courses the opposing units opened fire, and the Japanese
launched a devastating torpedo attack 30 minutes later. DE RUYTER and JAVA,
caught in a spread of 12 torpedoes, exploded and sank, carrying their captains
and Admiral Doorman down with them.
Before losing contact with PERTH and HOUSTON, Doorman had ordered them to
retire. This was accomplished, but the next day the two ships steamed boldly
into Banten Bay, hoping to damage the Japanese invasion forces there. The
cruisers were almost torpedoed as they approached the bay, but evaded the nine
torpedoes launched by destroyed FUBUKI. The cruisers then sank one transport and
forced three others to beach. A destroyer squadron blocked Sunda Strait, their
means of retreat, and on the other hand large cruisers MOGAMI and MIKUMA stood
dangerously near. The result was foreordained, but HOUSTON and PERTH fought
valiantly. PERTH came under fire at 2336 and in an hour had been sunk from
gunfire and torpedo hits. HOUSTON then fought alone, her guns blazing at the
enemy all around her, a champion at bay. Soon after midnight she took a torpedo
and began to lose headway. During this time HOUSTON's gunners scored hits on
three different destroyers and sank a minesweeper, but suffered three more
torpedo explosions in quick succession. Captain Rooks was killed by a bursting
shell at 0030 and as the ship came to a stop. Japanese destroyers swarmed over
her machine gunning the decks. A few minutes later the gallant HOUSTON, her name
written imperishably in the records of heroism, rolled over and sank, her ensign
still flying.
HOUSTON's fate was not known by the world for almost 9 months, and the full
story of her courageous fight was not fully told until after the war was over
and her survivors were liberated from prison camps. Captain Rooks received
posthumously the Medal of Honor for this extraordinary heroism. In addition to
two battle stars, HOUSTON was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.
Perhaps I will
tell some stories about Soldiers and Sailors for the next couple days.
Tuesday July 2 , 2002
....Lets see, what happened today... hmmmm ...
nothing, nothing happened today...
Well, not exactly nothing, "B" took fireworks to
school... yesterday they made an announcement that anyone caught at school with
fireworks would be expelled... now, was that stupid or what... they have a
school full of summer school kids who would do anything to get out of school,
"B" in particular, (apologies to Scott Adams) "B" staple a live skunk to his
forehead if someone told him it would get him kicked out of school. Well it
didn't work, we talked to the school and he still has to go to school, he just
has to sit on the planter out front for the whole session. He is genuinely
pissed about it too.
Wednesday July 3 , 2002
....We bought the Bucking Fuick back from the
Insurance Company, $300.00, with the intention of giving it to Christy's folks,
they have no car at the moment and have to depend on Christy's sister Karen to
get around. Registration is due on the 14th and it needs a SMOG Test. We tried
to get it SMOGed at T&J, I dropped the car off with Jeff after taking the kids
to school and Christy picked me up, we drove to Palmdale for Autumn's therapy
(monthly evaluation), that went OK, but when we got back Jeff said he couldn't
test the car. We have to take it to a "SMOG Test Only" site now.
Apparently folks were working scams at SMOG stations and charging folks to
repair emission systems that weren't broke.. no we have to go to certified SMOG
TEST ONLY sites and get checked, the joke is, these sites can't repair problems,
just like Jeff's SMOG station can't do tests... but he can repair... it's crazy,
after you fail SMOG at a test site you have to go to a Repair Site and get
it fixed, once it's fixed you have to go back to a certified Test Site to get
your car okayed. California... Love it or Leave It!!!
The Buick really hopped (Christy assures me that it
was 'hopping' before the accident) around at about 70mph so I
took it in to Affordable to get the tires balanced... yuch, they were bald, I
had to buy two new ones... it sure is expensive to give a car away.
When I got home today I looked at
my E-mail and read that Kathy (Ruby) Rhymer died last Sunday evening.
A bit of history...
When I reported to my first job in
ESS I was told to report to Kathy Ruby...I had no idea who she was. When I
walked into the SCC I asked; "Where I can find Kathy Ruby", Some one pointed
vaguely to the other side of the room. I needn't have asked,
Kathy's desk was at the far end of the room facing all the other desks, like
Ebenezer looking down on a bunch of Bob Cratchet's. She was no Scrooge though,
she was more like C B DeMille, or the Ringmaster at a three ring circus. She ran
the place like it was a living thing that needed to be coaxed and prodded
constantly... I found out later it was fun to work for her there but when I
walked in that first day, it was like being a loose bolt rattling around in an
engine that was being rebuilt while it was running. I walked over and introduced myself, she said; "Hi, I'm pretty busy
right now, go sit with Dave (Michels), have him tell you everything he knows
about ESS, come back here when he's done, that should take about 20 minutes," No
smile, No wink... everyone in the room cracked up.
More History...
One of my Best friends in the 70's
was Rod(ney) Cossart, His father Ken (Ken died in 1997) lived down the street
from me in El Monte, Rod worked for Pacific Bell too but I met him through his
father. Rod had been to ESS School and had a run in with one of the
instructors... When I told him I was going into ESS he told me "It's pretty
nice, but watch out for two people, Naze Brue (The instructor)and Tom Hillman , they are
(you can guess the word)". Now the weird part is that Rod is Kathy's baby
brother.
At noon she sent me to Van Nuys to
work for Naze Brue... Naze lived up to his billing and I got away from him as
soon as I could... Incidentally, when I got promoted to management they sent me
to work for Tom Hillman, he lived up to Rod's evaluation also, (An interesting
asside) When I reported to work in Pasadena my desk there
was in the room next to Naze Brue... I found that he was really a pretty nice
guy to hang out with, he was just a prick to work for.
Kathy ran the show there in Sherman Oaks
for a while and ended up marrying Mike Rhymer, Mike is a nice fella, He struck
me as one of those people who (if you have the authority) tell what you want to
do, show him where point 'A' is and where point 'Z' should be and then get the
hell out of the way. They moved to San Francisco, I
think, ultimately to Folsom in the Sacramento area, she and Mike had a child (a
girl I think) ... I had lost touch with them for about twenty years. I was never
even an insignificant part of their lives but they were memorable players in
mine. It diminishes my world to know that she isn't out there using her sense of
justice and humor to keep the engine running.
Another memory, this from Tony
My first experience with Kathy
was about the same... As I'm sure you remember... she worked at the far end of
the SCC 'barricaded' behind a 2 foot pile of paper and we worked at the other...
I was given to Vicky Meisenheimer (who I initially treated like crap before
coming to ESS... a lesson learned...) when Kathy yells from 75 feet away...
"Hey Natoli, do you wanna work
overtime on Saturday?"
Having been in ESS for less than
a week... not knowing my ass from a hole in the ground... and already having
personal commitments for Saturday... I wanted to refuse... but wanted to also
show enthusiasm for my NEW job... but then again just what was it that I could
do on an overtime basis in ESS? I ran this by Vicky really quickly and she
suggested I just yell back "NO"... So that's what I did...
The next sound I hear
blared across that 20,000 feet of office space and 75 workers of all sexes and
shapes... Kathy roared back without hesitation... and without one other worker
lifting their head... she said, "Ya got a BAD @!$%!#@ attitude, Natoli!"
HA! I was devastated!!! What a
sense of humor... I loved her...
"Let us therefore
animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world that a Freeman,
contending for liberty on his own ground, is superior to any slavish mercenary
on earth."
George Washington, 1732-99
General Orders, Headquarters in New York, 2 July 1776
Thursday FOURTH
OF JULY
, 2002
Acton Fourth of July Parade at 0900
We left here just before 0800, we got to the
freeway and saw that we couldn't get any further down Crown Valley Road, I
called Christy and told her to go down to Red Rover Mine Road and try getting
down there the back way... it turned out to be a shrewd move, we parked in front
of the school and had a real good seat for the parade. It was a terrific parade
this year, not sure why... it just was... lots of flags, cheering happy people,
pretty nice..
Fun and games at the Community Center at 1100
Well, No games, and the fun cost money...the kids
were excited to get there and were primed to have a good time... it took them
about 15 minutes decide to go home, everything cost money, the pony rides,
the food even the jumpers... Apparently someone decided this was a good
opportunity to coerce some money out of the community...
Picnic Thousand Trails at 1400
We met a Bonnie and a few friends at Thousand
Trails, we had a nice picnic, someone barfed in the pool, no one seemed to give
a damn. The picture is of Autumn going for a walk 'on her own' (mike was about
10 feet from her)
Listen to 'Capitol Steps' on NPR at 1900
It was hilarious, If you like parody and satire
you need to find out when and where you can hear 'The Capitol Steps'. They
do a half hour show twice a year on NPR...
Fireworks at 2100
We went to Christy's church and watched the
Palmdale fireworks, spectacular as usual, Palmdale does a fine job, thousands of
people and lots of noise. Nobody got hurt...
Friday July 5 , 2002
A man said to the
universe; “Sir, I exist!"
However, replied
the universe, “The fact has not created in me a Sense of obligation.”
Stephen Crane
Autumn woke up with an wicked fever, I think she
may have had a seizure too, poor baby was a weak s a kitten, Christy took her to
Kaiser... she has Strep Throat... she'll be on antibiotics for a while..
I listened to Saundra Tsing Loh on NPR talking
about Van Nuys, where people go to give up.
Grandma and Grandpa made it up to get the Buick,
had lunch and left. They rented a 'Four Runner' to get up here.
If the gods listened to the
prayers of men, all humankind would quickly perish since they constantly pray
for many evils to befall one another.
-Epicurus, philosopher (c. 341-270 BCE)
Saturday July 6 , 2002
....We went to see 'Men in Black II' it was the
same as MIB1 and that is the problem with it, it didn't evolve from the first
episode, as a matter of fact it sort of went backwards, it the MIB are supposed
to be cool and smart and in control, they made all of the other MIB out to
bumbling idiots. except for the leads. It is really hard to do a sequel, you can
do a continuation of a story and get away with it sometimes but even that is
tricky... I'm afraid MIB II will be on video pretty soon.
Autumn is still sick, she was pretty wasted
today... she seems a little better this evening but still weak... Christy took
Cindy to school with sore throat, fever and chills...We got home from the movie
about 1900 and Christy had been gone for half an hour, it is now almost 2100...
I can't get through on her cell phone so I don't know the extent of her problems
yet.
I bought some new software to do OCR... I am not
impressed.
Sunday July 7 , 2002
Cindy is really sick, I can't recall that she has
ever been really sick before, at least not recently. She was being pretty
melodramatic about the whole affair this morning but I sent her back to bed and
when she woke up about 1300 she seemed to feel a lot better...
Mokie came down with it too, I took her into the Dr
and he peeked into her mouth and said "Yuck, Strep" she has all the
symptoms except a fever...
June
