USS HOSTON CA 30
"The Galloping Ghost of the Java Coast"

Bryl G. Bowman

Bryl Gay Bowman was born in June 1922 on a farm in Scotland County Missouri near the town of Rutledge. He was the third child of Bryl L. & Lena E.(nee Bradley) Bowman, having one older brother, one older sister and one younger sister. He enlisted for naval service at Los Angeles California on 28 February 1941 and was given service #3824074. He was first assigned to the USS Chester and sailed aboard her from the mainland to Pearl Harbor where he was transferred to the USS Henderson on 20 August 1941. Departed from Pearl Harbor to Guam and then on to Manila where he was assigned his permanent duty station aboard the USS Houston on 14 September 1941, where he served until his death on 1 March 1942.

Submitted by Randy Clark:

Attached is the photo of Bryl G. Bowman. I am a friend of this sailor's niece, the photo belongs to her. She tells me this is the only photo she has of her uncle. The photo was in really poor condition and I helped her to have it digitally restored. The restored version is what you have here. There is a date of 23 May 1941 with the photo; this would have been when he was assigned to the USS Chester. I have also been helping his niece to research some info on his military service. Here is the info that we have:

This is basically all the info that we currently have, if you have any questions feel free to contact me at either email address. I think you would be interested to know that his niece is trying to have a memorial marker placed for her uncle. She tells me that, for reasons she does not understand, his parents never had a marker or memorial service for him. She believes this a wrong that she would like to put right. I couldn't agree more and will try to help her all I can to make it happen.

Here is a link to Bryl G Bowman's Find A Grave memorial page, which I recently took management of. I have not yet written up a biography for him.

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSvcid=172279&GRid=56754531&