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Casualty Info
Home Town Ft. Worth, TX and Memphis, TN.
Last Address Lost at sea. 1 March 1942: Indian Ocean. That morning, Lt Joshua J. Nix's EDSALL completed transferring LANGLEY's survivors to PECOS, then headed towards Tjilatjap. The Heavy cruiser Chikuma sunk the Edsall with 6" gunfire.
Best Moment In memory of the officers and crew of the Edsall, their Captain *LCdr. Joshua James Nix was born in 1908 in Fort Worth, Texas, raised in Memphis, Tennessee, and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1930. Captain Nix was awarded the Legion of Merit and the crew a battle star for their participation in the sinking of the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine "Sensuikan I-124" in shallow water on January 20, 1942. This action was referred to as "first blood" drawn by the U.S. Navy upon the Imperial Navy following attack on Pearl Harbor. The recovered codebooks were instrumental in breaking Japanese Naval and Merchant codes that led to the Ambush of the Japanese fleet off of Midway Island later in the summer of 1942.
Worst Moment Unfortunately the Edsall was sunk by the Battleships Hiei and Kirishima, Heavy Cruisers Tone and Chikuma and 28 Dive bombers from the Akagi, Hiryu, Soryu and Kaga in a two hour running engagement South of Java, March 1, 1942.
Chain of Command USS Edsall (DD 219) Destroyer
Lt.Cdr. Joshua James Nix, USN 1941 to 1 Mar 1942 (lost at sea)
Note: Lieutenant Joshua James Nix may have been posthumously awarded the rank of Lieutenant commander and the Purple Heart.
Other Memories USS Edsall (DD-219), named for Seaman Norman Eckley Edsall (1873-1899), was a Clemson-class destroyer of the United States Navy.
