211723 James J. Ryan United States Navy USS Houston from:Mount Laurel, NJ During World War II, James Ryan served for three years in the Navy, including aboard the USS Houston, a light cruiser commissioned in 1943.
He was on the ship in the South Pacific in 1944 when it was torpedoed. Survivors wound up in the water for several hours before they were rescued. Mr. Ryan and those who were not wounded floated in life jackets or hung on to the life rafts where they had put the injured sailors.
But the crippled USS Houston did not sink. It was towed to a nearby port, and Mr. Ryan rejoined the ship a couple of weeks later, eventually helping to nurse it back through the Panama Canal and to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where it was repaired.
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