description: Bill Weissinger was a young seaman, second class, on board the USS Houston when it went down in the Battle of the Java Sea at Sunda Strait on March 1, 1942. He was among 365 survivors but reunited with only a few of his fellow crewmen in the Java Sea waters and on the island of Java. After a futile search for the Dutch army on the island, he and other shipmates walked into an area occupied by the Japanese army. Thus began years of imprisonment and endless, torturous work on the Japanese's Death Railway in Burma. Weissinger tells a¬–story of survival and courage displayed by the gallant men who, despite starvation, disease, and brutal punishment, cut through the jungles to build a railway for their captors. The author wrote of his POW exper­ience for his grandchildren. After his death in 1988, his wife Eunell pre­pared the manuscript for publication so that more could appreciate the courage of those men. Author Bio William Jacob "Bill" Weissinger, Jr., a native of Mooreville, Texas, grew up in Waco, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi. He joined the navy in January of 1940 and was later assigned to the USS Houston (CA-30), the favorite flagship of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Houston was sunk by the Japanese on March 1, 1942, and Bill spent the next 42 months of his life in a number of Japanese prison camps. After the war, the author worked in the construction business in various cities. Perhaps the most notable work sites of his career were the under­ground missile installations surrounding Abilene, Texas, and the 52-story Shell One Plaza building in downtown Houston. In July 1978 Bill was forced to retire from the construction business due to health problems. The next ten years were spent in an intense program of self-education, pursuing his hobbies of music and reading, and corresponding with former shipmates and fellow prisoners of war, including several Australians. He wrote the original manuscript for this book before he died in 1988, and his wife
language: English
title: Attention, Fool: A Crewman of the U.S.S. Houston Survives Its Sinking and Japanese Death Camps in Burma
titlecomplete: Attention, Fool: A Crewman of the U.S.S. Houston Survives Its Sinking and Japanese Death Camps in Burma
ratings_count: 4
publisher: Eakin Press