Ships
- USS Houston (CL-81) Captain from 30 July 1945 · Relieved on 21 June 1946
Howard Emery Orem had Houston (CL-81) from July 1945 until June 1946, the rebuilt ship's first year after the war. NavSource dates that command from 30 July 1945 to 21 June 1946.
The Navy Department Library biography says he was born on 4 November 1900 in Corning, California, the son of Horatio Orem and Agnes Elizabeth Lewis Orem. Uboat.net gives the same birth, and his death on 21 June 1995 at Williamsburg, Virginia.
He entered the Naval Academy in 1918 from the Second District of Oregon, and was graduated and commissioned ensign on 3 June 1922, with the class of 1922. He served in Idaho, briefly in Newport News, then on the Asiatic Station in Tracy and William B. Preston. He was in Tennessee, took passage east in the Army transport Chateau Thierry, served in Lawrence, and studied mechanical engineering at the Postgraduate School and at Columbia University, where he received a Master of Science. The library biography then follows him into Maryland.
Before Houston (CL-81) he was executive officer of Wichita. A letter of commendation covers February to November 1942. A Bronze Star citation, quoted in the library biography, covers his work as senior officer on a cruiser-division staff with British forces and then as executive officer of a cruiser at Casablanca on 8 November 1942. A Legion of Merit covers duty with a task force at Guadalcanal, Rennell Island, and in the Aleutians from 11 December 1942 to 20 June 1943. From April 1943 he was aide and flag secretary to the Commander in Chief, United States Fleet. A Gold Star in lieu of a second Legion of Merit covers 15 October 1943 to 18 June 1945. He took command of Houston in July 1945 and was relieved in June 1946. The ship had been rebuilding at New York after the Formosa torpedoes. DANFS has her leave New York on 11 October 1945 and sail for Europe on 16 April 1946.
He attended the National War College, served on the Pacific Fleet staff as assistant chief of staff for logistics, and then in the International Affairs Division of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, becoming its director in August 1949. He commanded Amphibious Group Four, then Naval Forces, Germany, from 5 June 1952 to April 1954, and was assistant chief of naval operations for plans and policy. He served on the Joint Strategic Survey Committee until he was relieved pending retirement on 1 May 1957. He was advanced to vice admiral on the basis of combat awards. The library biography says he and his wife had one son, Lieutenant Charles A. Orem, Naval Academy class of 1950. Uboat.net dates his death to 21 June 1995 at Williamsburg.