Join Texas Commandery NOUS members and the USS HOUSTON Survivors and Next Generations Association at the USS HOUSTON and HMAS PERTH Day of Remembrance event on Saturday, March 7, at 1330 at the USS HOUSTON monument.  The event will mark the 78th Anniversary of the loss of the heavy cruiser USS HOUSTON (CA-30) and the light cruiser HMAS PERTH (D-29) during the March 1, 1942 Battle of Sunda Strait.

Representatives of the City of Houston, the Naval Order of the U.S., Britain, Australia, and the Netherlands—countries whose warships fought alongside the USS HOUSTON during WWII—are scheduled to speak at the service, which will also include a wreath-laying ceremony, the playing of “Taps,” a rifle salute, and music provided by the Community Band of Southeast Texas.  

The USS HOUSTON Monument incorporates the brass ship’s bell recovered from the wreck and placed atop a granite pedestal. It is the scene of an annual memorial for the sailors who died as a result of the USS HOUSTON sinking in the Sunda Strait, March 1, 1942, by a vastly superior Imperial Japanese Navy.  Of the 1,068 men on board, 700 died, and the survivors were used as labor on the Burma Railroad. The names of the ship's crew are written on the monument’s pedestal.

The USS HOUSTON monument is located in the Sam Houston Historical Park located where Allen Parkway merges with west edge of downtown Houston.  Best address is in the park behind the Houston Heritage Society at 1100 Bagby. 

The monument’s existence is a result of a major Texas NOUS fund raising and building effort.  It was dedicated on Veteran’s Day, November 11, 1995.