AKA Rudolph "Duff" Gordon Johnson
On 7 December 1941, during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the USS Oklahoma was torpedoed and capsized. Chief Petty Officer Duff Gordon was one of five previously unknown sailors identified from the remains exhumed from graves in Hawaii in 2015.
Almost seventy-five years after the attack, on March 30, 2016, a Military Funeral service was held at the O'Connell Family Funeral Home, and his burial with full military honors followed at the Willow River Cemetery at Hudson.
Duff Gordon was actually born Rudolph Johnson, one of eight children born to Olaus and Koroline Hendriette (Hanson) Johnson. It is believed that Gordon was his middle name and that Duff was a childhood nickname. It is not known why he entered military service as Duff Gordon at the age of 27, but he has been memorialized in Hawaii on two memorial plaques as Duff Gordon.
From the Dec. 25, 1941 edition of the Star-Observer: "Duffy Gordon Johnson, a former resident of Hudson, but in recent years a seaman in the U.S. Navy, is reported missing in action following the Japanese attack on the Hawaiian Islands. Dan Johnson of Pittsburgh, a brother of the missing man, relayed the Naval Department’s message regarding his brother to City Clerk W. R. Foss."
Duff registered for the draft in 1917 as Duff Gordon from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After serving in World War I, he retired from the Navy. He lived with his wife Peggy in San Diego, California and was working in the Navy shipyards when he was called back to the Navy in 1940. He was stationed on the USS Oklahoma, based in Pearl Harbor.
On 7 December 1941, during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the USS Oklahoma was torpedoed and capsized. Chief Petty Officer Duff Gordon was one of five previously unknown sailors identified from the remains exhumed from graves in Hawaii in 2015.
Almost seventy-five years after the attack, on March 30, 2016, a Military Funeral service was held at the O'Connell Family Funeral Home, and his burial with full military honors followed at the Willow River Cemetery at Hudson.
Duff Gordon was actually born Rudolph Johnson, one of eight children born to Olaus and Koroline Hendriette (Hanson) Johnson. It is believed that Gordon was his middle name and that Duff was a childhood nickname. It is not known why he entered military service as Duff Gordon at the age of 27, but he has been memorialized in Hawaii on two memorial plaques as Duff Gordon.
From the Dec. 25, 1941 edition of the Star-Observer: "Duffy Gordon Johnson, a former resident of Hudson, but in recent years a seaman in the U.S. Navy, is reported missing in action following the Japanese attack on the Hawaiian Islands. Dan Johnson of Pittsburgh, a brother of the missing man, relayed the Naval Department’s message regarding his brother to City Clerk W. R. Foss."
Duff registered for the draft in 1917 as Duff Gordon from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After serving in World War I, he retired from the Navy. He lived with his wife Peggy in San Diego, California and was working in the Navy shipyards when he was called back to the Navy in 1940. He was stationed on the USS Oklahoma, based in Pearl Harbor.
AKA Rudolph "Duff" Gordon Johnson
On 7 December 1941, during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the USS Oklahoma was torpedoed and capsized. Chief Petty Officer Duff Gordon was one of five previously unknown sailors identified from the remains exhumed from graves in Hawaii in 2015.
Almost seventy-five years after the attack, on March 30, 2016, a Military Funeral service was held at the O'Connell Family Funeral Home, and his burial with full military honors followed at the Willow River Cemetery at Hudson.
Duff Gordon was actually born Rudolph Johnson, one of eight children born to Olaus and Koroline Hendriette (Hanson) Johnson. It is believed that Gordon was his middle name and that Duff was a childhood nickname. It is not known why he entered military service as Duff Gordon at the age of 27, but he has been memorialized in Hawaii on two memorial plaques as Duff Gordon.
From the Dec. 25, 1941 edition of the Star-Observer: "Duffy Gordon Johnson, a former resident of Hudson, but in recent years a seaman in the U.S. Navy, is reported missing in action following the Japanese attack on the Hawaiian Islands. Dan Johnson of Pittsburgh, a brother of the missing man, relayed the Naval Department’s message regarding his brother to City Clerk W. R. Foss."
Duff registered for the draft in 1917 as Duff Gordon from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After serving in World War I, he retired from the Navy. He lived with his wife Peggy in San Diego, California and was working in the Navy shipyards when he was called back to the Navy in 1940. He was stationed on the USS Oklahoma, based in Pearl Harbor.
On 7 December 1941, during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the USS Oklahoma was torpedoed and capsized. Chief Petty Officer Duff Gordon was one of five previously unknown sailors identified from the remains exhumed from graves in Hawaii in 2015.
Almost seventy-five years after the attack, on March 30, 2016, a Military Funeral service was held at the O'Connell Family Funeral Home, and his burial with full military honors followed at the Willow River Cemetery at Hudson.
Duff Gordon was actually born Rudolph Johnson, one of eight children born to Olaus and Koroline Hendriette (Hanson) Johnson. It is believed that Gordon was his middle name and that Duff was a childhood nickname. It is not known why he entered military service as Duff Gordon at the age of 27, but he has been memorialized in Hawaii on two memorial plaques as Duff Gordon.
From the Dec. 25, 1941 edition of the Star-Observer: "Duffy Gordon Johnson, a former resident of Hudson, but in recent years a seaman in the U.S. Navy, is reported missing in action following the Japanese attack on the Hawaiian Islands. Dan Johnson of Pittsburgh, a brother of the missing man, relayed the Naval Department’s message regarding his brother to City Clerk W. R. Foss."
Duff registered for the draft in 1917 as Duff Gordon from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After serving in World War I, he retired from the Navy. He lived with his wife Peggy in San Diego, California and was working in the Navy shipyards when he was called back to the Navy in 1940. He was stationed on the USS Oklahoma, based in Pearl Harbor.
Inscription
CPO US Navy
World War I & II
Purple Heart KIA
USS Oklahoma — Pearl Harbor
Family Members
Other Records
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
