USN 2nd Class Musician Sidney Franklin Myers was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on February 21, 1905, the son of Cicero G. Myers (1867-1921) and Minnie Arter (1870-1975). His father supported the family as a house carpenter for most of his life.
But in the midst of the Great Depression, Sidney enlisted in the US Navy on June 27, 1927 and was sent to the Navy's Musician School in Hampton Roads, Virginia. He graduated from the school on June 29, 1928 and four years later was stationed in Pensacola, Florida where he may have married Miss Elizabeth McClellan. Three years later, he is in San Francisco aboard the heavy cruiser USS Louisville. In August 1936, the ship crossed the equator where Sidney was initiated into King Neptune's court, which is a time-honored tradition of the Navy. Prior to ever crossing the equator a sailor is known as a "pollywog" but afterwards he becomes a "shellback." From 1936 to 1940, he would serve on several other cruisers including the USS Chester who escorted President Franklin Roosevelt on a goodwill visit to South America. By 1938, he had reenlisted for four more years and would transfer to the USS Indianapolis followed by the USS Augusta.
His last duty station was November 11, 1940 aboard the cruiser USS Houston who was the flagship of the "Hawaiian Detachment." After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Houston found itself confronting the Japanese invasion fleet en route to land at Java. On March 1, 1942, the cruisers Perth and Houston sailed into Banten Bay in hopes of destroying the enemy invasion forces there. They sank one transport and forced three others to run aground. But the two ships were outnumbered and outgunned and their fate was already sealed. The Perth went down first from gunfire and torpedoes. This left Houston all alone and received a torpedo hit at midnight. Damaged but still fighting, she hit three enemy destroyers and sunk a minesweeper before receiving three more torpedo hits while a shell burst killed its captain.
Now dead in the water, the Japanese destroyers moved in for the kill as their machine gunners swept their decks even as the Houston sank out of sight. Of its crew of 1,061, only 368 survived. But the fate of the Houston would remain unknown until their story was told by its crew after their liberation from the POW camps. But Sidney's body was never recovered however there is a memorial to his memory in the Dawson Cemetery in Pulaski County, Arkansas. In the meantime, a telegram was received by Elizabeth in Pensacola, but she was told there would be no funeral for her beloved.
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