HOUSTON,TX. (AP) - Survivors of the World War II sinking of the USS Houston will gather in Texas this weekend to remember their fallen comrades.

Thursday was the 70th anniversary of the sinking off Java by the Japanese fleet.

The Houston Chronicle reports the ship carried 1,068 crewmen, but less than 300 survived the sinking and being prisoners of war.

Howard Brooks was an electrician's mate on the USS Houston during World War II. Brooks leaped from the burning warship and made it to a raft. He was captured by the Japanese and spent more than three years as a POW.

The 92-year-old veteran from Mount Laurel, N.J., plans to attend the reunion in Houston. Brooks says it's been a "very quick 70 years" since the sinking.

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