• June 3, 1909 – Jan. 26, 1945
• Born in Richmond, Virginia and lived in Charleston, West Virginia
• College of Dentistry – 1945
• Captain – Army
  • Dental Corps – 12th Medical Battalion in the Philippine Scouts
• 12th Medical Bn, Philippine Scouts. Held as POW from May, 1942 until his death. Died from wounds received from previous bombings from the US attack on the Oryoku Maru while aboard the Brazil Maru.
• Memorialized at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in Manila, Philippines

John Gilbert Hudgins (June 3, 1909 – Jan. 26, 1945) was born in Richmond, Virginia and lived most of his life in Charleston, West Virginia. He attended the University of Tennessee’s College of Dentistry before enlisting in the United States Army with his medical knowledge before the start of the war in 1941. He was commissioned as a medical officer and served as a captain in the Army’s Dental Corps stationed in the Philippines with the Philippine Scouts before Pearl Harbor and the invasion by the Japanese Imperial Army in December 1941. Captain Hudgins fought in the defense of the Philippines alongside the Philippine Scouts and was taken prisoner. He survived the Bataan Death March and prisoner of war camps there until the Japanese attempted to transfer he and most of the other American prisoners at the start of 1945. He was originally on the Oryoku Maru transport ship in December 1944 in route to Formosa when it was accidently attacked by American planes, damaged, and forced to return to the Philippines. Captain Hudgins was wounded in the attack, but survived to be resent on board the Enoura Maru to Formosa and then the Brazil Maru to Japan in January 1945. Captain Hudgins died during this final voyage to Japan on January 26, 1945 from the wounds he received from the earlier attack and from severe dehydration. He was buried at sea, but is memorialized at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in Manila, Philippines.

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