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WWI
USS Houston 1933,
USS Sperry 1946

Written by a member of the Marine guard, aboard the USS Houston, in January 1933. Written on the ship’s letterhead. From the letter……..I am sorry I was unable to send you some nice present, but I was on the rocks this year, I didn’t even have the price of a ham sandwich this Xmas. Oh, yes my birthday is in January. I will be twenty three. It won’t be long until I’ll be back only twenty months. I am certainly going on leave this time too, to see my little red headed sweetheart again before some one runs away with her for keeps……..I just got a letter that mother wasn’t expected to live and here I am out here in the orients, and can’t get back. What a break……..

The USS Houston, and the HMS Perth, engaged in a battle against Japanese naval forces, facing overwhelming odds. Both ships were sunk. The Houston was sunk on March 1, 1942. There were over 1,000 mean aboard her when she went down, and only  368 survived. The survivors became prisoners of war, and were forced to endure hard labor. Captain Rooks, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.  

US Navy Ships Other Periods

USS Cavalier
USS Charles S. Sperry
USS Houston
USS LST 767
USS Macon
USS W.A. Mann
USS Maryland
USS McDermut
USS Oklahoma
USS Pennsylvania
USS Perkins
USS Ranger
USS Richmond
USS Wyoming

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Written by a sailor aboard the USS Charles S. Sperry, in April 1946, shortly after WWII. From the letter…..Here is what happened: The other day I saw Mr. Field here on the Sperry. He was going to try to get me a discharge on May 21. As I was supposed to get , had I been discharged from the Bristol on schedule…….I shall spend the first week in Boston looking over the sites of that city. My address there will be the YMCA on 316 Huntington Avenue Boston 20, Massachusetts…….. Next Monday I intend to go to see the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the following day I am going to go to Harvard for a look around……When I return from leave May 21 I will have about a week to stay here on the Sperry before I can get transferred to the discharge center at Boston…….As for clothes, I am set up swell in blues. I had a pair of dress blues cleaned and pressed in San Pedro when the Bristol was there and today I just got my other suit back from the cleaners so my blues are in fine shape……..

Captain Albert H. Rooks, USN, Commanding Officer, of USS Houston. Receive the Medal of Honor for his heroism. 

Photo: Courtesy of Otto Schwartz

USS Houston (CA-30) about 1930
USS Charles S. Sperry (DD-697) 1944