George S. Rentz
July 25th, 1882
George Snavely Rentz was born on July 25th, 1882 in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. He attended Pennsylvania College, graduating in 1903 and subsequently attended Princeton Theological Seminary from where he was ordained in 1909. He spent the next few years as a Presbyterian minister in New York and Pennsylvania. As with many men of his generation, it was war that changed his life.
When America entered World War I, he was appointed acting chaplain with the rank of junior lieutenant, assigned to the 11th Marine Regiment in France until 1919. By 1924 he been promoted to the rank of commander and as chaplain, her served at the Marine Barracks at Port Royal, South Carolina and the Naval Air Stations at Pensacola and San Diego. At sea, her served aboard USS Florida, USS Wright, USS West Virgina and USS Augusta.
In 1940 he transferred from Augusta to USS Houston when the latter became the flagship of the Asiatic Fleet. His amiable manner and easy-going approach to the men soon made him a crew favorite.
At the Battle of Makassar Strait on February 4th, 1942, Rentz circulated among the crew of the anti-aircraft batteries, keeping up morale, eschewing his own safety. Houston suffered extensive damage and lost 48 men.
Less than a month later, at the Battle of Sunda Strait, Houston and the Australian light cruiser, HMAS Perth came under attack by a larger Japanese force. The destroyer Fubuki fired nine torpedoes, which the two cruisers managed to avoid. They returned fire, sinking a transport, but their escape was cut off by two heavy cruisers, Mogami and Mikuma. Perth tried to force its way past the heavy cruisers, was hit by four torpedoes and sank on March 1st at around 00:25AM.
Houston, meanwhile, short on ammunition, had managed to sink a minesweeper before it, too, was hit by a torpedo and began to lose headway. Three more torpedoes hit her in quick order. At around 00:30, the Captain, Albert H. Brooks was killed by an explosion and the ship was dead in the water.
Moving in, the Japanese ships machined gunned the decks and the men in the water. Within a few minutes, Houston rolled over and sank.
It was nine months until Houston’s fate became apparent to the outside world and it wasn’t until after the war and the liberation of survivors from Japanese prison camps, that the story of her sinking, and the fate of George Rentz, was told.
Of the 1,061 men on board, 368 survived. Captured by the Japanese, they were forced to work on the infamous Burma Railway and suffered terrible treatment and disease in the camps. Another 77 died before they could be liberated.
On May 30th, 1942, 1,000 new recruits were raised, known as the Houston Volunteers, to replace those lost on the Houston. A light cruiser, the Vicksburg, was renamed Houston in honor of the lost ship. One of the volunteers was 16-year-old Robert E. Bradley, who was too young to enlist, but was nonetheless still allowed to participate because his older brother Leonard was lost when Houston went down. He was sworn in on the train three days later when he turned 17by Lt. Cmdr. Simon L. Shade, the same officer who had sworn in his older brother two years before.
Captain Brooks was awarded the Medal of Honor.
George Rentz entered the water with his crewmen on the morning of March 1st, 1942. He found a measure of safety by clinging to a partially destroyed aircraft float, along with dozens of other men. Rentz realised that the float couldn’t hold them all and was starting to sink. Several times he attempted to relinquish his lifejacket to younger crew members, telling them:
"You men are young, I have lived the major part of my life and I am willing to go."
Nobody would let him. Each time he tried to hand over the lifejacket and leave the safety of the pontoon, his shipmates dragged him back. Eventually, he managed to persuade a young seaman, Walter L. Beeson, to take the lifejacket:
”He told me his heart was failing. He told me he wouldn’t last much longer”.
Rentz said a brief prayer and thrust the lifejacket at Beeson, who refused to put it on. And then, when nobody was looking, Rentz kicked away from the pontoon and disappeared. He was 59 years old.
”No one realized what had happened.” recalled Private Jim Gee. “It's just one of those things that one minute he's there, and the next minute... he wasn't."
With Rentz gone, Beeson put on the lifejacket.
Walter Leeroy Beeson was liberated from a Japanese prison camp on August 16th, 1945. He returned home, married and had one daughter and two grandchildren. He died on April 21, 1998, at the age of 77 and is buried in his hometown of Brookhaven.
Chaplain Geroge Rentz had less than one year to serve before retiring. For his actions, he was posthumously awarded the United States Navy’s second highest award for valor, the Navy Cross. He was the only Navy chaplain to be so honored during World War II.
The USS Rentz (FFG-46), named in his honor, was launched on July 16th, 1983.