WILLFORD M. HYMAN, LCDR, USN
Willford Hyman '24
Lucky Bag
From the 1924 Lucky Bag:
WILLFORD MILTON HYMAN
San Pedro, California
"Buster"
OF course, we all honor and listen to the men who have been through the mill and have that most valuable "practical experience" so necessary for success. Now, "Bill" ran a lathe or drill or something for a while, which made him an "I fix it." Even know he mends old watches and umbrellas——yes, and just loves to do it. He fixed a sword for a fencing instructor and got such a good grease that they put him on the training table for one week.
That old quotation that some achieve greatness, etc., is true. Take "Bill," for example. He has had to dig for all he ever got, but all he does is sleep, so how else could he get it except by his own efforts? However, sleeping has not hurt his class standing or kept him from making the Rifle team and an rNt. Nor does it keep him from making friends all over the regiment, and all of us will hate to see him leave at graduation.
Rifle Squad (4, 3); rNt (2, 1); Black N.
WILLFORD MILTON HYMAN
San Pedro, California
"Buster"
OF course, we all honor and listen to the men who have been through the mill and have that most valuable "practical experience" so necessary for success. Now, "Bill" ran a lathe or drill or something for a while, which made him an "I fix it." Even know he mends old watches and umbrellas——yes, and just loves to do it. He fixed a sword for a fencing instructor and got such a good grease that they put him on the training table for one week.
That old quotation that some achieve greatness, etc., is true. Take "Bill," for example. He has had to dig for all he ever got, but all he does is sleep, so how else could he get it except by his own efforts? However, sleeping has not hurt his class standing or kept him from making the Rifle team and an rNt. Nor does it keep him from making friends all over the regiment, and all of us will hate to see him leave at graduation.
Rifle Squad (4, 3); rNt (2, 1); Black N.
Loss
Willford was lost when USS Sims (DD 409) was sunk by Japanese dive bombers on May 7, 1942 in the Battle of the Coral Sea.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
In 1917, Willford graduated from San Pedro high school at the age of 16. He played the lion in the senior play “The Lion and the Mouse.” After graduation, he worked as a machinist in the Navy shipyard.
He passed the first examination for the Naval Academy and placed fourth in 1917. At the next examination, he hoped to win the final appointment by Congressman Osborne. However, he did not enter the Naval Academy until 1920.
He married Rose Shepherd on June 24, 1937, in Charlottesville, Virginia. In the 1940 census, Willford was divorced living with his mother in Los Angeles.
Later stationed in Norfolk, he visited Miss Edwige Brechon of 2 Nestle Avenue, Fulton, New York, in January, 1941. Her father immigrated from Switzerland in 1903 to work in the Nestle candy factory there. Willford and Edwige married on December 2, 1941, in Boston, Massachusetts.
Besides the Navy Cross, he also held the second Nicaraguan campaign medal and the American defense service medal (fleet clasp.)
A four-foot replica of the USS Hyman, named for Willford, is on display at the Memorial Park in New Castle, Indiana. She lost twelve men during a Japanese kamikaze attack on April 6, 1945.
His father Charles G. was a railroad fireman and a carpenter. Willford’s mother Winifred divorced Charles sometime after 1917 and remarried in 1920. His sister was Mrs. W. H. Todd.
From Wikipedia:
Born in Pueblo, Colorado, Hyman graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1924. He first served in battleship USS New Mexico (BB-40), and in the years before World War II, was assigned to many ships and a variety of shore stations, including the Office of Naval Operations. He assumed command of destroyer USS Sims (DD-409) 6 October 1941. After convoy escort duty in the Atlantic, Sims moved to the Pacific in early 1942.
His third wife, Edwige, was listed as next of kin. He was married to his first wife, Eva, in 1935; she died in early 1936. He was then married in 1937 to Rose. He married Edwige in December 1941.
Willard is listed at the Battle of the Coral Sea Memorial Park in Australia and has a memory marker in New York.
From Hall of Valor:
The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to Lieutenant Willford Milton Hyman (NSN: 0-58619), United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism and distinguished service in the line of his profession as Commanding Officer of the Destroyer U.S.S. SIMS (DD-409), during operations in the Coral Sea on 7 May 1942. Lieutenant Hyman skillfully warded off the first raid of a hostile aircraft attack on his vessel and the ship which it was escorting, and, in the second raid, when the Sims lay dead and crippled in the water, he kept her guns blazing away until the last Japanese plane had disappeared. Then he coolly directed salvage and repair operations until the bridge of the sinking vessel was completely awash and he went down into the sea. The conduct of Lieutenant Hyman throughout this action reflects great credit upon himself, and was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
General Orders: Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin No. 313 (April 1943)
Service: Navy
Division: U.S.S. Sims (DD-409)
Namesake
USS Hyman (DD 732) was named for Willford.
The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.
The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.
The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.
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