David Hughes Papers, 1943-1995 | WUA University Archives

David Ferrar Hughes was of son of Arthur, professor of physics and department chair from 1923 to 1952, and Jessie Hughes. Hughes served as literary editor of Eliot and graduated from Washington University in 1942, majoring in physics and math.

After joining the Navy during World War II, Hughes kept what he called a personal log during his flight training at naval air stations in Pensacola and Jacksonville, Florida, and in San Diego, California, from April 18, 1943, to April 10, 1944. He ended his log on April 10, 1944, as he headed out to serve in the Dive Bombing Squadron Twenty on the Essex and the Lexington, and sent it to his close friend, Jack Huntein.

On January 16, 1945, on a long-range search mission accompanied by two Navy fighters, the flight was attacked by six Zeros off the coast of Hainan Island. Hughes and one of the fighters were shot down; the other fighter badly damaged. One fighter pilot was picked up by a submarine. Hughes was reported Missing In Action – a year later Presumed Dead. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Navy Cross “for extraordinary heroism…in action again units of the Japanese Fleet during the Battle for Leyte Gulf in the Philippines, October 25, 1944.”