Thomas Virgil Huston (1924 - 1944)

Born 13 Dec 1924 in Modesto, Stanislaus, California, United States

Ancestors

Died 14 Dec 1944 at age 20 in Palawan, Palawan, Philippines

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Biography

Pvt Thomas Huston was a Prisoner of War during World War II.

Thomas Huston was the youngest child of Lawrence Huston and Dora Cordelia Talbot. He was good-natured and cheerful, much loved by his older Huston siblings and idolized by his younger Fogal half-sisters.

Driven by patriotism, Tommy left school and lied about his age to enlist in the Coast Artillery Guard, Army, in September 1941. He was only 16 years old and likely provoked by the news of German firing on the USS Greer.

He enlisted and trained at Camp Callan in California before deploying to the Philippines in combat against Japanese forces. He was captured and taken as a PoW in the summer of 1942, held at PW Camp #10 - Batanges, Luzon, Philippines.

Tommy remained a PoW for 2 years. During this time, POWs at Camp #10 were forced into labor, clearing an area near the Philippine Constabulary barracks, building a concrete runway, and then digging bomb shelters as Allied troops advanced.

Tommy was one of 139 prisoners brutally executed by Japanese troops, attempting to cover their tracks as they retreated from Allied forces. These 139 men were herded into ditches and set on fire in a gasoline explosion, or shot or bayonneted during attempted escapes. Only 11 survived.

Like the majority of the Palawan Massacre victims, Tommy's remains were not discovered until 1945, at which point they were transferred to a mass burial at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in Missouri.

Sources

• Birth date: 13 Dec 1924 Birth place: Stanislaus, California. California Birth Index, 1905-1995. Ancestry.com
• United States Federal Census. Year: 1930; Census Place: Modesto, Stanislaus, California; Roll: 223; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 19; Image: 945.0.
• Huston, Tom. U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946.
• Huston, Tom. World War II Prisoners of War, 1941-1946.
• Huston, Tom V. U.S. Rosters of World War II Dead, 1939-1945.
• http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=HUS&GSpartial=1&GSbyrel=all&GSst=26&GScntry=4&GSsr=2121&GRid=19042732&
• United States Federal Census. Year: 1940; Census Place: Modesto, Stanislaus, California; Roll: m-t0627-00352; Page: 15A; Enumeration District: 50-27.