Posted on 09/05/2008 7:42:20 PM PDT by SandRat
SIERRA VISTA — Fon B. Huffman, the last survivor from the international Panay Incident of 1937, died Thursday, his family announced.
Huffman, born in 1913, celebrated his 95th birthday on Aug. 19. He died peacefully in his sleep at noon in Hacienda Rehabilitation and Care Center. His daughter, Nancy Ferguson, was by his side.
The Iowa farm boy who joined the Navy at age 16 was a 24-year-old sailor aboard the USS Panay when it was attacked near Nanking, China, on Dec. 12, 1937, by Imperial Japanese warplanes. In those days, the American gunboat, part of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, patrolled the lawless Yangtze River inland to protect American interests, such as the embassy, under a treaty with the Chinese.
Huffman received a 1-inch shrapnel wound in his right shoulder in that attack but did not immediately report his injury and would not receive his Purple Heart Medal until 1993. Also during the attack, he gave his life jacket to a U.S. newsman from Universal, who had captured newsreel of the attack.
Huffman also was the last survivor of the Yangtze River Patrol, which comprised other U.S. Navy vessels besides the Panay.
He was one of the last remaining survivors of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, which was hardly prepared to stand in the way of the Japanese navy as it conquered territories in the Pacific Ocean early in World War II.
“Most of the those guys went away when MacArthur left the Philippines,” said Huffman’s son-in-law, Steve Ferguson.
During World War II, Huffman was a “tin can man” — that’s what they called the sailors aboard thin-hulled destroyers — serving in the Atlantic Ocean and later in the Pacific. He was in Bermuda on Dec. 7, 1941.
In the late 1940s, Huffman participated in U.S. nuclear tests in the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. He retired in 1949 with the rating of chief boiler man.
The Herald/Review interviewed Huffman for a story published Dec. 30.
Ferguson said Huffman will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery next to his wife of 61 years, Lillian.
Upon learning of the passing of Fon Huffman, many sailors will be wishing this traditional Navy sentiment to him: Fair winds and following seas, Fon.
herald/review City Editor Ted Morris can be reached at 515-4614 or by e-mail at cityeditor@svherald.com.
RIP.
I saw "The Sand Pebbles" in 1968. If I remember correctly, it was set in the 1920's, just before Chiang Kai-shek (who is mentioned in the film) rose to prominence.
From my readings about the Panay was this.
Chenault (Flyiing Tigers commander) managed to secure a relatively entact Zero fighter. He had it loaded on the Panay so that it could be transported to the sea for transfer to an ocean vessel. Chenault wanted the Zero to get to the US so it could be examined. At this time, most US aviation experts were unaware of the Zero’s amazing flying characteristics.
Japanese spies found out about the Zero being on the Panay. Obviously the Japanese military did not want their fighter being examiined by US experts and so decided to sink the Panay.
That’s real interesting..my dad was an aviation Machinist mate who was in the crew swinging wrenches on a captured Zero and Tony in San Diego very early in the war.
Re Sand Pebbles history - thanks. I didn’t remember the dialog details, but I did know the Japanese weren’t involved in the film’s incidents, so it had to be earlier than the Panay.
The problem with that story is that the Panay was sunk in 1937, while the Zero fighter was not developed until 1940.
Flight of the Phoenix (the original with Stewart, Attenborough, Kreuger, Borgnine, not the terrible remake of a few years ago)
Set in 1926.
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