USS HOUSTON CA 30
The galloping Ghost of the Java Coast
Albert Emery McGarvey
USN
Fc2
Albert McGarvey was born in 1919 in Springfield, IL. to Stella Marie Gunn and Albert Leo McGarvey. His mother passed away in 1923 from a beating by her husband. She was pregnant, miscarried and bled to death. His father put him in an orphanage...he was four years old. His maternal Grandmother, Viola Gunn Anson (Hess) took him in and raised him. He took her last name, Anson. He lived in Springfield until 1936 when he left Feitshans' High School to visit his father in Detroit, MI. Here he took the name of McGarvey again.
After
staying in Detroit for only four months he left for Waltham, MA where his
maternal Aunt and her husband, Alma and John Baiter were living. There he also
had 3 cousins...more family than he had ever known. In Waltham, he became
friends with Alice Christie and her family. Alice was my mother, Miriam Deneault's best friend and she introduced them. This was
1938.
In 1939, Dad was at The Great Lakes Naval Training Station going through Basic. Paul Papish was in the same graduating class and would be on the same ship the USS Houston ca-30.
Dad stayed attached to the Houston as Fire Controlman and boxed in competitions aboard ship in the welter weight class. At 5' 7" and 150 lbs .he was small but mighty. Three years into his tour the Houston was sunk Feb28/Marl 1942 by a Japanese armada in the Sunda Straits. He along with 367 out of 1167 of his shipmates who survived became POWs of the Japanese for 3 %2 years. Though starved and beaten they were forced into slave labor to build the "Death Railway" from Thailand up through Burma constantly being moved and watching comrades die.
Funeral
Masses were said in Waltham, MA, and his name listed on the rolls of KIA. No
one knew what had happened to the Houston or her men. My Mother's Dad refused
to believe that Dad was gone and "knew" he would come home. Dad's
only male cousin had been killed in a training mission in 1944 and it was a
devastating blow to the family to have lost 2 young men. In August 1945 the war
was over and he was liberated. He weighed 87 lbs and suffered from dysentery,
malaria and nearly the loss of both feet from tropical disease. He considered
himself one of the lucky ones.
Having
been sent home via India, he and Mom were married December 5, 1945. Within 3
I/2 years there would be three children...2 girls, Sharron
and Patricia and a boy, Robert. This was a wonderful surprise because upon
release from prison camp military Drs had said he would never be able to father
children.
Dad
received less than $3000. in back pay , reenlisted,
fought in the Korean War and went to 
We ended up in
Long Beach CA. in 1961 after his retirement from the Navy
in 1959. He was a CWO4. Things weren't so easy after retirement from the
Military... even with 20 years ser
His health hadn't always been great. In his mid 40's he had bypass surgery when both femoral arteries had blockages. Then in August of 1973 he started having TIA's (mini strokes) and by April, 1974 he was confined to a wheel chair, paralyzed on his left side...he was only 54 years old. Although his body and speech were impaired, his intelligence, memory and sense of humor were intact. His Vascular Surgeon said that he had the body of an 80 year old.
Things were pretty rough while Dad was ill...the VA had him classified as 20% disabled for a tennis elbow. Fight as they might, the VA wouldn't change his classification. Otto Schwarz and Max Offerle were contacted to provide some help and insight. Their suggestion was to bring Dad to Texas where someone at the VA cared. The Dr's, however, wouldn't let Dad travel. What a shameful way for the government to treat a man who gave up his youth in a Japanese prison camp in the defense of his country!
. He "lived" this way for 8 years until his heart gave out on 30 March 1982. After years of putting her health on hold to care for my Dad, my Mother died 8 months later of Cancer.
Things we remember...
Many cartons of milk and loaves of bread in the freezer...
rationed T-P but always had lots of food on the table...
lots of rice, it's what kept him alive...
being told to eat what's on our plate "because some child was starving in China"
never badmouthed the Japs, wanted to get on with his life...had to forgive and forget...
Shore Duty was quality time...
Road trips...2 lane roads with the windows down and 3 kids in the back seat...Burma Shave signs...Rte 66...The Painted Desert...The
Redwoods...Yosemite...Carlsbad Caverns...Niagara Falls...The Grand
Canyon...
Fish faces...imitations of Woody Wood Pecker and Jerry Lewis...
3 little kids kneeling in front of him at night saying our prayers... fighting over the
middle spot to be the one to put his or her little clasped hands between his...
He voted Republican...drove Fords...loved to cook and work with his
hands...wrote poems to Mom
He loved his family to death...
What we never knew...
Anything about those 3 '/2 years...