Joshua was the only child of parents Edward Walton Nix (1867-1925) and Willie Irene Collier (1886-1930) who married 27 Mar 1905 in Memphis, Shelby, TN. Edward had previously been married to Evelyn Flora Caldwell on 30 Aug 1889 in Mobile, AL. They were the parents of one child, Flora Belle Nix Cronier. Edward and Evelyn were divorced shortly after Flora was born. Edward and several of his brothers were life-long employees of the railroad so they tended to move often. Joshua was born in Fort Worth, Tarrant, Texas (see Foreword, "A Blue Sea of Blood", by Donald M. Kehn, Jr., 2008.). He was raised in Memphis. Edward and Irene divorced several years prior to his death 25 Mar 1925 in Montgomery, Alabama. Irene died 08 Dec 1930 in Memphis, TN shortly after Joshua's graduation from the Naval Academy.

J.J. Nix received a Congressional appointment from Tennessee and entered the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD on 2 July 1926. Nix completed his study at the Naval Academy standing 304 out of a class of 405. His classmates had this to say about him in the Lucky Bag yearbook of 1930:

J.J.'s first claim to fame came in Plebe year when he starred on the Sixth Company swimming team. Spring and the cruise were fine rest periods and he came back after leave to aid in making '30 the class football champions. He played a regular guard. Class lacrosse next claimed his attention and though that was not won by '30 in Youngster year, it was not J. J.'s fault. He held down a defense position in fine style. A trick knee prevented him from performing in class football second class year but did not keep him off the varsity water polo squad.

Academics were not so easy on J.J. It was a hard struggle for him at times, owing to his desire to mix more than enough pleasure with his work. His passion for Cosmo and Saturday Evening Post during the first three months of each term generally caused him trouble in the later stages. To him the word "literature" meant "mystery stories" and he read all on which he could lay hands.

Women have gone wild over J. J.'s lisp but it was the bane of a Plebe's existence to hear someone say, "Whath the dethert, mithter?"

Extra-Curricular Activities - Class Football 3, Class Numerals; Water Polo 2, Varsity Numerals; 2 P.O.

Nix graduated on 05 Jun 1930 and accepted a commission as an Ensign, United States Navy. Later that same day, now Ensign Nix sprinted for the Naval Academy chapel where he wed Ella Vannah Washington. She was a descendant of John and Anne Pope Washington whose great grandson was General and President George Washington.*

During 1934, he completed a course in torpedo instruction. In March 1935, he received orders to report for duty on board the light cruiser USS Omaha (CL-4). Several years on Omaha then he transferred on 01 July 1937. Fortunately he departed the ship before Omaha grounded on a reef at Castle Island, Bahamas on 19 July. On 11 Oct 1937, the Commanding Officer was found guilty at a General Court Martial of negligence "resulting in the stranding of the vessel." Ltjg Nix reported for duty on 12 Aug 1937 to the Naval Academy (Ord.) as an instructor.

He was promoted Lieutenant (Lt) on 30 Jun 1938. Detached from the Naval Academy and transferred to the Asiatic Fleet destroyer tender USS Black Hawk (AD-9) on 09 July 1939. In Oct 1940, Nix was assigned to the Asiatic Fleet's aging flush-deck destroyer, USS Edsall (DD-219) as the Executive Officer (XO). A year later on 13 Oct 1941 he became Edsall's Commanding Officer (CO). While he was listed as missing in action and not presumed dead, his name continued to rise toward promotion. By 1944 Nix was close to the top of the Lt seniority list. He was carried in the Officer Register of 1945 as a Lieutenant only a few "Signal Numbers" short of the promotion "zone" to Lieutenant Commander (Lcdr). After Nix was declared presumed dead 25 Nov 1945, he was no longer carried in the Officer Registries, and he was no longer eligible for promotion to LCDR. He was not posthumously promoted to Lcdr.

The threat of hostilities between the United States and Japan grew closer to the boiling point as the year 1941 moved into the fall. The new Asiatic Fleet CINC, Admiral Thomas C. Hart, determined it was time to send all of the families of his sailors home. There was push-back from the resentful spouses who initially declined to leave their husbands. It was only a threat to indefinitely restrict their spouses to their ships without leave that finally convinced the families; it was time to comply with orders and return to the continental United States (CONUS). Admiral Hart's directive probably saved many family members from internment by the Japanese or worse. For many of the married sailors, including Lt Nix, it was the last time they would ever see their families.

Ordered to comply with Adm. Hart’s “defensive deployment” well south of Manila, units of the Asiatic Fleet including destroyer tender USS Blackhawk (AD-9), USS Edsall (DD-219) and other ships of Destroyer Division (DesDiv) 57, got underway on 25 Nov 1941, and arrived on the morning of 29 Nov 1941 in Balikpapan, a major oil port on the eastern coast of Borneo.

Upon commencement of hostilities between Japan and the United States on 08 Dec 1941 in the Far East Time Zone, Edsall was at sea with other units of DESDIV 57 enroute to Batavia (Djakarta) when they received the war notice. They were rerouted to Singapore to provide anti-submarine (ASW) protection for the new British battleship, HMS Prince of Wales and the older battle cruiser HMS Repulse, known collectively as Force Z. Both ships were sunk by Japanese bombers on 10 Dec 1941 before DesDiv 57 units could rendezvous with Force Z. The US destroyers conducted search and rescue operations for the crew of the two British War ships, but none were found. It was learned later that several British ships have already retrieved the survivors of the sinking. DesDiv 57 remained in Singapore until 14 Dec when they were ordered to Surabaja, Java.

Over the next month, Edsall helped provide convoy escort and ASW protection to various allied shipping. As Edsall and her sister ship, USS Alden (DD-211), were escorting the oiler Trinity to Darwin, Australia on Tuesday, 20 Jan 1942 Alden detected an enemy submarine. The destroyers promptly began an aggressive, yet unsuccessful initial search. The ships broke off the search and proceeded to Darwin arriving later that morning. Later that afternoon the two destroyers were ordered back to sea to attack enemy submarines off Port Darwin. Edsall and Alden joined three Australian navy corvettes who had located a submarine. The HMAS Deloraine began attacking the contact and was joined by Edsall. It was soon evident from an emerging oil slick that the two ships had sunk the IJN submarine I-124 in late afternoon on the 20th. Several days later navy divers from USS Holland (AS-3) confirmed the sinking of I-124. Edsall had participated in the first detection, attack, and destruction of a full-sized IJN submarine sunk (at least in part) by U.S. surface forces in WWII. Contrary to the belief of some no code books or any important written information was recovered from the wreck of I-124. No divers ever penetrated the hull of the submarine in 1942.

On 3 February, Edsall and other American units of the American-British-Dutch-Australian Force (ABDA) moved up to Tjilatjap, Java in order to be closer to the combat theater and refueling facilities. She continued her service as a patrol vessel off southern Java. On 26 February, she steamed from Tjilatjap with her sister ship USS Whipple (DD-217) to rendezvous with the converted seaplane tender USS Langley (AV-3) carrying P-40E fighters, 33 USAAF pilots and 12 USAAF crew chiefs for the defense of Java. On 27 February, the Langley, along with Edsall and Whipple, came under attack by sixteen (16) Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" bombers of the Japanese 21st and 23rd Naval Air Flotillas and escorted by fifteen (15) A6M Reisen fighters. The attack fatally damaged Langley. She had to be abandoned and later scuttled by Whipple. Edsall rescued 177 survivors; Whipple, 308.

On 28 February, the two destroyers rendezvoused with the fuel replenishment ship USS Pecos (AO-6) off Flying Fish Cove, Christmas Island some 250 miles southwest of Tjilatjap. A sudden attack by land based Japanese bombers forced Edsall and the other ships to head for the open sea. They headed directly south into the Indian Ocean for the rest of 28 February in high winds and heavy seas. Early in the pre-dawn hours of 1 March, Whipple and Edsall transferred all the Langley survivors to Pecos except 31 (there were 33 but two, Lts Dix and Ackerman, were seriously injured in the Langley attack and transferred to Pecos.) Army Air Force pilots and one USAAF injured crew chief, Sgt John W. Mabry.

There were now close to 700 personnel on board the ship. Whipple then set off for Cocos Islands as protection for the tanker Belita sent to meet her there. The Pecos, carrying the large number of survivors was ordered to Australia. Edsall had retained 31 USAAF pilots from Langley needed to assemble and fly an additional 27 P-40E fighters shipped to Tjilatjap aboard the transport Sea Witch. Edsall was instructed to return these "fighter crews" to Tjilatjap. At 0830, she reversed course and headed back to the northeast for Java.

At noon that day, planes from Japanese aircraft carrier Soryu attacked Pecos and struck again an hour later. Finally, in mid-afternoon, third and fourth strikes from aircraft carriers Hiryu and Akagi fatally wounded the Pecos. While under attack, Pecos radioed for help. After Pecos sank, Whipple returned to the scene intentionally arriving after dark. She eventually rescued 232 survivors. Two of those survivors were USAAF Lts Dix and Ackerman. The whereabouts of Sgt Mabry was unknown. Many other survivors, although visible to crewmembers on board Whipple, had to be abandoned at sea because Whipple made sonar contact with what was believed to be several Japanese submarines. It was just too dangerous for her to remain in the area.

Edsall may have heard Pecos’s call for help or she may have been complying with orders to reverse course and steam toward Australia. For whatever the reason, Edsall reversed course and was never heard from again. The US Navy Department simply said Edsall was lost due to enemy action.

Lt Nix was listed as missing in action on 01 Mar 1942. The US Navy Department declared all Edsall crewmembers “presumed dead” on 25 Nov 1945. This finding of presumptive death date was fixed in order to take care of settlements and claims. At that point, no one suspected that survivors from Edsall were among many victims of war crimes on Celebes.

After WWII ended, an Allied War Crimes Tribunal was convened in Java. During the course of the Tribunal's investigations, an eyewitness to Japanese executions was discovered and interviewed. He testified that he witnessed the execution by the Japanese of a number of POWs in 1942. He led investigators to the Japanese Execution Grounds mass grave, Kendari II, Celebes, N.E.I. **Five sets of remains in a group of about 10 were later identified from ID tags as USS Edsall crewmen. The other five were unknown but were possibly US Army Air force personnel on board Edsall from the Langley. A sixth set of remains were found in another burying ground on Celebes. They were identified by an ID tag as those of Fireman Second Class (F2) Loren Stanford Myers, a crewman from the Edsall.

All of these remains were disinterred and reburied in the US Military Cemetery, Barrackpore, India on 12 Nov 1946. After three years, their remains were disinterred again and reburied in a mass grave at the National cemetery at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, MO on 20 Dec 1949. The remains of F2 Myers were reinterred according to immediate family wishes in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, HI on 31 Mar 1950. With the discovery of these remains, their presumed date of death was amended to 02 Mar 1942.

Because no known survivors lived to tell the story, the details surrounding the sinking of Edsall remained largely a mystery for more than a half century. Finally, after historians compiled bits and pieces of information from various allied sources over the years, Japanese records and eyewitnesses on the Chikuma recently became available. The new information points to a short but epic battle involving the aging Edsall and one of the world's strongest naval forces of its day.

After Edsall reversed her course on 01 Mar 1942 and steamed away from Java, she stumbled upon Admiral Nagumo's battle force, Kido Butai that had been prowling the Indian Ocean in search of enemy shipping. Unfortunately, Edsall was spotted first. She was misidentified as a light cruiser of the Marblehead class. IJN battleships Hiei and Kirishima and heavy cruisers Tone and Chikuma were detached from the battle force to attack Edsall with surface gunfire.

The old four-stacker began evasive maneuvers frustrating the Japanese for the next hour and half. However, because of the damage done previously to one of her propeller shafts, Edsall was unable to make top speed or maneuver fully. At one point, Edsall turned and launched her torpedoes narrowly missing Chikuma. The Japanese fired some 1400 rounds resulting in only one or two direct hits. The frustrated Admiral Nagumo called upon his carriers to finish off the Edsall. She was attacked by dive-bombers from two Japanese carriers (Kaga, Soryu,) and possibly a third (Hiryu) before succumbing to this devastating attack. The Edsall went down at 1900 hours, 01 Mar 1942, 430 miles south of Java.

Japanese eyewitnesses confirm that at least eight Edsall crewman from a large number of survivors were fished out of the water and brought on board the Chikuma. The rest of the survivors were left to their fate in the water. Chikuma and the rest of the battle force arrived at Staring Bay anchorage, Celebes on 11 Mar 1942. Three dozen POWs, 8 or more from the Edsall and the remainder from a Dutch ship, were turned over to the Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces based at Kendari where they were executed on 24 Mar 1942 near Kendari II airfield.

Lt Nix was (posthumously) awarded the Legion of Merit medal on 25 Nov 1944, Purple Heart, American Campaign Medal, American Defense Service Medal with fleet clasp, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with Fleet Clasp and 2 battle stars, the World War II Victory Medal, US Army Presidential Unit Citation, Philippine Presidential Unit Citation, and Philippine Defense Medal with clasp. He is likely eligible for the Combat Action Ribbon (retroactively).

* Glenn, Justine Matthews. The Washingtons. A Family History: Notable member of the presidential branch. Savas Publishing. 2014. Vol II. Google online books.

**U.S. National Cemetery Interment Control Forms, 1928-1962 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012, F1c Donald F. Watters, USN, died 2 Mar 1942 overseas. Remains returned from overseas WWII. Group burial with MM1 Horace W. Andrus, MM2 J.R. Cameron, F1c Sydney Griffith Amory, and MM3c Larry Vandiver at Jefferson Barracks. MO on 20 Dec 1949. MHOH: 317477

Bio #267 composed by Gerry Lawton (GML470)