USS HOUSTON CA 30

“The galloping Ghost of the Java Coast”

Albert Elmo Kennedy

My brother Albert Elmo Kennedy was a survivor of the USS Houston.

Elmo was born in East Prairie, MO on July 15, 1921. The family moved to Edna, Texas in 1937 and he graduated from high school in 1939. He joined the Navy in Houston, Texas in December 1939. Elmo grew up on a farm and played football for the Edna Cowboys during high school so he was in good physical shape when he joined the navy. After getting his naval training in San Diego, he was assigned to the USS Pennsylvania in 1940 and later the same year transferred to the USS Houston.

I will just tell a few things that he told me about his experience as a Prisoner of War. After the Houston was sunk, he was in the water for around ten and a half hours and finally picked up by a Japanese landing barge and taken to the beach of a nearby island. At this point he had removed his pants and shoes and only had on shorts. This is all he had for several months. They were taken to a jail at Serang, Java and then to Bicycle Camp at Batavia, Java, and from there to a series of POW camps. While he was in Bicycle Camp, a group of prisoners from the 131^st Field Artillery were brought into camp. Among them was a young man from Edna, Texas who gave him a pair of shoes and socks and a blanket. This was a big help. From what I have been told, the worst experience for the Houston survivors that were with his group was the work they were forced to do on the Burma-Thailand railway in 1942 and 1943. Along with Asian prisoners, they were used as slave labor to build a rail link through the densest jungle in Asia. They lost a lot of men and conditions were terrible. Elmo was at 100 Kilo camp during part of this time. This was a bad time for him. Losing friends, practically no food, and very hard work. Luckily Elmo survived. He was liberated in Saigon in Sept. 1945.

When the USS Houston was sunk, my parents received a telegram saying that Elmo was “missing in action”. This is all we knew until we received a card in the mail from Elmo in late December 1944 saying that he was a prisoner of the Japanese. It is hard to describe how happy we were. My mother’s first words were “Thank you God, thank you God”. My parents had not given up hope that he was alive. My mother had contacted the War Department from time to time, trying to get information on Elmo and the Houston crew. She always got a response but they knew nothing more than that he was “Missing In Action”. We received another card in March 1945 from Thailand. On Sept. 12, 1945, we received a telegram saying that he had been liberated from a Japanese prison camp. On Sept. 24 we met him at the train station at Sikeston, MO. I remember him as looking very thin, deeply tanned and somewhat yellowish. Elmo has told me that the yellowish color was attributable to the anti-malarial medicine that the doctors had given him. It was wonderful having him back.

After completing his enlistment with the Navy, and with help from the G.I. Bill, he attended the University of Missouri and earned a degree in Chemical Engineering. His first job was with Air Reduction Co. in Houston, then later with Air Products in Arlington, TX. In 1970 he started his own business, Kennedy Welding Supply, in Arlington, and was actively involved in the business until he sold it in 1995.

Elmo will be 88 years old this year and with help is still living in his home in Arlington. He has said that after a few terrible years as a POW, life has been good. He and his wife Ilene had 2 sons - Steve Kennedy of Ft. Davis, TX and Russell “Rusty” Kennedy of Mansfield, TX. Elmo and Ilene were married for almost sixty years. Ilene passed away in 2006. Elmo always enjoyed attending the POW reunions and did so as long as health permitted. He has missed the last few.

Betty Kennedy Sewell