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Claude Raymond Huffman

Claude Raymond Huffman

September 8, 2026

headshot photo of Claude Raymond Huffman

Rank: Lieutenant
Branch: Navy
UT Major/Affiliation: College of Medicine, 1936
Hometown: Knoxville, TN

  • April 6, 1911 – Oct. 5, 1943
  • From Knoxville, TN
  • Attended Knoxville High School
  • College of Medicine 1936
  • Entered Service in 1942
  • Lieutenant – Navy
  • Medical Corps officer.  Died from shrapnel wounds received on 1 Oct when USS Saufley came under attack off the coast of Kolombangara, New Georgia Island, Solomon Islands.
  • Buried at Honolulu Memorial in Honolulu, Hawaii

Claude Raymond Huffman (April 6, 1911 – Oct. 5, 1943) was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was a graduate of Knoxville High School and graduated from the University of Tennessee’s College of Medicine in 1936. He worked as a physician in Knoxville until he enlisted his medical expertise for the war effort in 1942. He served as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy’s Medical Corps stationed in the Pacific. He was assigned to the USS Saufley, a destroyer in the South Pacific tasked with hunting down Japanese vessels. The USS Saufley was on a mission targeting Japanese transport barges around the island of New Georgia on October 1, 1943, when it came under attack by enemy aircraft. It survived the attack, but a bomb had penetrated the hull of the ship and wounded thirteen men on board. One of these crew members, Lt. Huffman, was severely injured and was sent to US Naval Hospital #7 on Guadalcanal, but died from his wounds a few days later, on October 5, 1943. He is buried at Honolulu Memorial Cemetery in Honolulu, Hawaii.

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Huffman registration card
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Huffman obituary
Huffman gravemarker

Tennesseans and War

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