Rear-Admiral William A. Glassford, Jr., former commander of the Yangtze River Patrol in China, has been appointed on December 8th, 1941 to take command of the Task Force Five - the fighting unit of the US Asiatic Fleet, with USS heavy cruiser Houston as his flagship. He later set up his headquarters in Soerabaja in order to work with the Royal Dutch Navy in facilitating cooperation between the two naval forces. During the campaign he was promoted to Vice-Admiral and put in charge of "United States Naval Forces in the Southwest Pacific". He was evacuated from Java Island in March 1942.
