IBFL Salutes Commander George S. Rentz

The ship was nicknamed "the Galloping Ghost of the Java Coast"

The U.S. Navy confirmed last week that a wreck found on the bottom of the Java Sea is the USS Houston, a cruiser sunk by the Japanese on February 28, 1942. Of the crew of 1,000 sailors and marines, only 368 survived the Houston's sinking and of that number, 77 would eventually die as prisoners of war by the brutal enslavement by the Japanese, which later became the basis for the historial fiction movie, "The Bridge on the River Kwai."

In Business For Life wants to salute a unique character in this story -- Commander George S. Rentz, a Navy chaplain assigned to the USS Houston. As the USS Houston sank in the Java Sea, stood stood life--not for his, but for his men. Listen to PBS's Robert Siegel interview historian and author Jim Hornfischer, author of "Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston, FDR's Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of her Survivors."  This is a very worthy 6 minute listen.