Former St. Wendelin Priest Inducted Into Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame
November 15, 1998

PIX#1 Hall of Famer Fr. John E. Duffy was a priest and Latin teacher at St. Wendelin in 1928-30 and a recent inductee into the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame.

PIX#2 Head "Wrangler" Fr. John Duffy (seated center) with the SWHS students he organized into the "Wranglers' Club," a group for debaters and oratorical speakers.

On October 8, 1941, following their attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, armed forces of the Empire of Japan fanned out across the South Pacific and Southeast Asia.

One of the targets that fell under Japanese assault was the Philippine Islands. One man who participated in the defense of the islands was former St. Wendelin priest Fr. John E. Duffy.

For four months, American and Filipino forces, led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, conducted a heroic but doomed resistance. Hemmed in by the Japanese, running low on ammunition and afflicted by malaria and hunger, the American and Filipino forces retreated grudgingly down the Bataan Peninsula.

Finally, out of strength, most of the American/Filipino troops surrendered on April 8, 1942. Those 70,000 starving soldiers were made to march under the tropical sun from the south of Bataan to the railway line at San Fernando, 60 miles away.

That march would become one of the war's most infamous chapters - the Bataan Death March.

Some 16,000 men died cruel deaths on the way. Fr. Duffy was one of the survivors.

On Nov. 5 Fr. Duffy and 27 other veterans were inducted into the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame in ceremonies at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Columbus.

The Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame was established by order of Gov. George Voinovich in 1992 to honor veterans not only for their military service, but for their contributions to society after the military. The Hall includes such notables as Rutherford B. Hayes, Bob Feller, Neil Armstrong and John Glenn.

Fr. Duffy was born June 26, 1899 in Lafayette, Ind. He attended Notre Dame and Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Cincinnati. He was ordained June 2, 1928. He was commissioned an Army chaplain in 1932 and served in the Philippines, Ft. Devers, Mass., and aboard a transport ship before returning to the Philippines in 1940.

When the Japanese attacked Clark Field on the Philippine island of Luzon Dec. 8, 1941, Fr. Duffy spent all day and night administering absolution to every wounded soldier and civilian brought to the hospital. He also buried 99 dead.

On Dec. 18, he was appointed head chaplain for the forces in northern Luzon. On New Year's Day 1942, he was wounded in fighting near Pilar.

On the second day of Bataan Death March, Fr. Duffy was bayoneted by a guard. Prisoners too weak to continue or who were thought to have disobeyed an order was routinely bayoneted and otherwise tortured and brutalized by the Japanese.

A week later, Fr. Duffy was bayoneted a second time and left for dead. He crawled off the road and lay submerged in a fish pond. He kept only enough of his head out of water so he could breathe. He stayed there for four days until rescued by Filipino guerrillas along with eight other Americans.

When five of his comrades died, the Filipinos buried them in an earthen dike. Still weak from his ordeal, Fr. Duffy crawled to the graves to perform funeral rites.

He helped the guerrillas until January 1943 when he was recaptured and sent to "trial" before the Japanese Kemptai (thought police). Water was forced into his stomach through his mouth and rectum. Then he was stomped on by his captors and beaten into unconsciousness. No sentence was ever handed down.

From there he was imprisoned in a succession of prisons, work camps and POW hospitals.

Wherever he was, he tended to the sick and dying, heard confessions and prayed with his fellow prisoners.

On Dec. 13, 1944, Fr. Duffy was put aboard the prison ship Oryoku Maru bound for Japan.

The next day he was wounded in the arm when the ship was strafed by U.S. fighters. On Dec. 15, the ship was bombed and he was wounded again, this time in the neck. The POWs fled the sinking ship and swam for shore. In spite of his wounds, Fr. Duffy came to the aid of a fellow prisoner who couldn't swim.

In January 1945, he endured injuries to his hand and leg when a second prison ship was bombed. Nonetheless, he ministered to the wounded and dying, cleared debris and stacked bodies.

After nearly four years, the war finally came to an end for Fr. Duffy when the Russian army liberated the Mukden prison camp in Manchuria where he was held in August 1945.

Fr. Duffy was assigned to St. Wendelin from 1928-30 and taught Latin at the high school. He was a gifted public speaker and organized the school's first debate team which finished second in the Diocesan oratorical contest.

He also organized the "Wranglers' Club" for debaters and oratorical speakers.

Fr. Duffy's nomination for the Veterans Hall of Fame was prepared by Todd Runion and Fostorian Joe Gehring who both work with the Seneca County Veterans Commission. Fr. Duffy made a deep impression on Joe back in 1929.

"I had pneumonia and they didn't think I was going to make it. Fr. Duffy came and gave me last rites. I was in the room right there," said Joe, pointing from his kitchen table. "That's how I remember him."

Joe also recalled that Fr. Duffy was a friend of Babe Ruth and one day the Babe was to come to Fostoria when the Yankees were in Cleveland and swat a few baseballs for local kids. Unfortunately, the Indians' game went extra innings and Ruth's visit was canceled.

Joe, a WWII vet and Purple Heart recipient, accepted the Hall of Fame plaque on behalf of Fr. Duffy who passed away in 1958.

After the war, Fr. Duffy traveled throughout the U.S. visiting the families, mothers and widows of the men who did not return from history's deadliest conflict.

In 1947, he was appointed pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes in New London. He was a past commander of New London's American Legion Post 292. Representatives of that post attended the induction ceremonies.

Post 292 established a scholarship in Fr. Duffy's name recognizing academic excellence and citizenship. The scholarship has been presented annually for 30 years. Fr. Duffy also served as national chaplain of the American Legion and state chaplain for the Ohio Department of the American Legion.

Fr. Duffy's decorations include the Legion of Merit, Purple Heart with five Oak Leaf Clusters, American Defense Service Medal with Foreign Service Clasp, American Campaign Medal, Distinguished Service Badge with two Oak Leaf Clusters, World War II Victory Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with two Bronze Battle Stars and the Philippine Defense Ribbon.

While with the Philippine guerrillas, Fr. Duffy retrieved an American flag that had been captured by the Japanese. When he was recaptured, he hid the flag by wrapping it around his body beneath his underwear.

He smuggled the flag to another chaplain who was liberated shortly thereafter. On July 4, 1945, while Fr. Duffy was still held prisoner, that flag flew over Independence Day ceremonies in his parents' home of Elmira, NY.

The red in the American flag symbolizes the blood that has been shed to preserve our nation's liberty for over 200 years. Fr. John E. Duffy, St. Wendelin priest, witnessed much bloodshed and suffered much for the ideal of liberty. Yet he never failed to put the cause of the nation and the needs of others before himself.

On Veterans' Day, we do well to remember him.