US, Australia and Indonesia Remember USS Houston and HMAS Perth

October 15, 2014

Sailors and Military Sealift Command (MSC) civilian mariners assigned to the submarine tender USS Frank Cable (AS 40), along with naval officers from Australia and Indonesia, paid their respects to the crews of USS Houston (CA 30) and HMAS Perth (D 29) during a wreath laying ceremony Oct. 14, at the site of the sunken ships.

In the early morning of March 1, 1942, the cruisers Houston and Perth were sunk by the Japanese Imperial Navy during the Battle of Sunda Strait. During the battle, 696 U.S. Sailors aboard Houston and 375 Australian Sailors aboard Perth, including the captains of both ships, lost their lives.

Indonesian Navy Chief of Naval Staff, Adm. Marsetio, authorized Indonesian Navy vessels and senior officers to participate in the wreath laying ceremony.

During the ceremony, the crew of Frank Cable manned the rails in their dress white uniforms as salutes were rendered and wreaths were lowered from the aft quarterdeck into the water above the wreckage of each ship.

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Press Release, October 15, 2014; Image: US Navy

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