Over the course of his career at North Texas University, Prof Ronald Marcello recorded hundreds of interviews with WW II veterans. Dozens of those were of Texans who had served with the 2/131 of the TXNG and were associated with the Thai-Burma Railway. I have had the good fortune to have read most if not all of those transcripts.
Marcello had a set format for these interviews and worked from notes so that he could provide prompts to these men as he interviewed them in their advanced age. For that reason, those transcripts are fairly repetitive as the men relate anecdotes from the various portions of their saga.
One of those interviews, however, revealed a story of the unique way the lines of history cross and intertwine as well as a unique account of a unique man.
Hospital Corpsman Griff Douglas was USS HOUSTON survivor that Marcello interviewed in 1978. But how that came to be is a bit convoluted. Born in Waco TX in 1923, he had joined the TXNG and had attended the Louisiana Maneuvers as a member of the 132nd FA Bn – a sister unit of the 131st. He relates that he had lied about his age to enlist and was discovered and discharged. In DEC 1940, he joined a cousin and enlisted in the US NAVY. After Corpsman school he was assigned to the transport ship USS CHAUMONT (AP-5) which was in the convoy that included the SS REPUBLIC carrying the 2/131. In early 1942, he was transferred from the CHAUMONT to the HOUSTON while both were berthed in Australia. This was apparently an effort to bring the HOUSTON up to its wartime crew numbers.
He goes on to vividly describe the 4 FEB 42 bombing of the aft turret and his role in treating the wounded. He also relates how during the Java Sea encounter, a British destroyer intercepted a torpedo that was headed HOUSTON’s way and was sunk with all hands. While in Batavia after that battle, he describes how the HMAS PERTH’s gunners open fire on LT(jg) WINSLOW’s plane as he returned to the HOUSTON from a recon mission. He managed to veer off and land without damage.
Although he admits to not being an eye witness, he relates perhaps the most unique of the survivor stories, that of Gunny Sgt Walter Standish. He was the senior enlisted man among the USMC detachment. In all official records, he is simply listed as KIA in the sinking on 1 MAR. But Douglas relates a different story.
It appears as if Standish was the only crewman to reach shore and not be taken as a POW. He is described as stopping long enough to dry and clean his .45 as best he could, then racing off into the jungle “to kill Japs”. He was never seen again and his body was never recovered. Were it not for Douglas’ memory of these events we would likely know nothing of his dedication to duty. Standish would simply be recorded among the MIA/KIA in the sinking.
Standish-profilebe sure to view the second page of this profile
Douglas also relates a unique aspect of the bombing of the transport carrying the Tharp Party to Burma. He says that there were a fair number of Japanese housed in wooden cabins on the deck. He contends that they were all killed by shrapnel from the near miss. I have seen no other similar anecdote elsewhere.