Houston Dominick Duhon was born on 19 July 1923 in Rayne, Acadia Parish, Louisiana. When he was a boy his family moved to New Iberia, Iberia Parish, Louisiana.

His parents, Philip Duhan and Viola Landry were born and married in Louisiana. Houston had two brothers and five sisters. The family was Cajun, part of a tight-knit, French-speaking community in bayou Louisiana who descended from French settlers exiled from Acadia.

When Houston was inducted into the Army in February 1943, he was single with a grammar school education. After basic training, he was assigned to Battery C, 397th Anti-Aircraft (Automatic Weapons) Battalion based at Fort Sheridan, north of Chicago In August 1943 Houston received a commendation honoring him for saving another soldier from drowning during training.

The 397th Anti Aircraft battalion was sent to Great Britain in early 1944 to train for the expected invasion of Europe. In the US the Battalion trained on 40mm guns. In Great Britain they switched to .5”, water-cooled machine guns. For the planned invasion, the 397th would act in support of the 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions.

On June 6, 1944, Pfc. Duhon was on an LCT off Omaha Beach with other members of the 397th and two of their .5” machine guns. Pfc. Houston D. Duhon was shot while disembarking the LCT. One of his comrades dragged him to shore, where he died.

Pfc. Duhon was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart. He is buried at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in France.

In 2004 on the 60th anniversary of D-Day, the CODOFIL (Council for the Development of French in Louisiana) held a ceremony at the Normandy Cemetery honoring Pfc. Duhon as the only Cajun who died on D-Day. The same week the Louisiana Legislature passed a resolution remembering Pfc. Duhon’s service.

References:

Citation - Chicago Tribune, 21 Aug 1943, p 4

Memorial - Daily Advertiser (Lafayette, LA), 4 Jun 2004, p 4

Herbert, Nelwyn. Iberia Parish, 2012, p 117

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Iberia_Parish/W1mpBjT1C5QC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22houston+d+duhon%22&pg=PA117&printsec=frontcover

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56644108/houston-dominick-duhon

http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/397th-aaa-bn.72017/

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

Houston D Duhon