Electrician's Mate 1class William Archie Music Jr. was born on October 21, 1920 in Shreveport, LA, the son of William Archie Sr. (1897-1966) and Annie Beatrice Phelps (1895-1971). His father supported his family working on farms and such during the Great Depression in the Ferry Pass community. Archie would finish one year of high school and eventually enlist in the US Navy on December 12, 1939. He was sent to Norfolk, VA for two months of basic training before being deployed to the Panama Canal Zone then Iceland, and then Greenland aboard the seagoing tug, USS Cherokee (AT-66).
When the time came for the invasion of North Africa, she was the only tugboat to accompany the invasion fleet across the Atlantic to French Morocco. As the landings commenced on November 8, 1942, she stayed offshore assisting the fleet with two destroyers that had been torpedoed by enemy planes. That night, Archie and five others of his demolition team sailed 1.7 miles upriver to cut the cables of a submarine net that was stretched across the river. This mission would allow the destroyer USS Dallas (DD-99) to sail up the Sebou River and land Army raiders to attack a strategic airport. To accomplish their mission, the team had to battle a treacherous surf with gigantic breakers while constantly under fire from a nearby French fort. After cutting the cables, they fought their way back through the surf until they were out of range of enemy fire. The mission was successfully accomplished with great courage thus earning him and his teammates the nation's second highest medal, the Navy Cross.
But, there was a price to pay for his heroism. Injured during the mission, Archie fell ill and never recovered. He was sent home to recover and finally discharged from the service on January 15, 1944. He would pass away at the Biloxi Veteran's Hospital on January 2, 1945. He was buried in the Jordan Cemetery in Gonzalez, Florida where he was joined by his family at a later time. In the meantime, his three US Navy brothers would continue the fight without him, two of which fought in Korea as well.
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