Hugh Robert McKibbin, Sr. – Captain, United States Navy

From a contemporary press report:

Hugh Robert McKibbin, 87, a retired Navy captain and aviator, died of prostate cancer April 11, 1999 in Arlington Hospital. He lived in Arlington, Virginia..

Captain McKibbin, a 1933 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, was stationed in Hawaii when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, bringing this country into World War II. At the time of the attack, he was on a mail run to California.

He went on to spend World War II and most of his later career largely in the Far East. During the war, his flying missions included transporting dignitaries and dropping supplies to American forces behind enemy lines. Captain McKibbin, a native of Beaverton, Michigan, attended flight school at Pensacola, Florida. Before the war, he also had served aboard the battleship Oklahoma as a line officer.

During the Korean War, Captain McKibbin commanded a supply ship. His career included service with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and helping to establish what became the Naval Postgraduate School.

After retiring from active duty in 1963, he invested in the stock market, rooted for the Washington Redskins football team and gardened.

Captain McKibbin was a member of the Association of Graduates of the Naval Academy and had attended services at the post chapel at Fort Myer.

Survivors include his wife, the former Eleanor Flanagan, whom he married in 1937 and who lives in Arlington; a daughter, Marilyn Sigler of Houston; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. A son, an Army officer, Hugh Robert McKibbin Jr., was killed in action in Vietnam in 1968.

McKIBBIN, HUGH R. (Age 88)
Captain, US Navy (Retired)

On Sunday, April 11, 1999, of Arlington, VA, beloved husband of Eleanor V. McKibbin; loving father of Marilyn Carole Sigler and the late Hugh R. McKibbin, Jr. and Lynn Sharon Moran; father-in-law of Col. James M. Sigler, USA (ret.). Funeral service, Fort Myer Old Post Chapel on Friday, April 30 at 11 a.m. Interment with full military honors Arlington National Cemetery.

NOTE: His son, Hugh Robert McKibbin, Jr., First Lieutenant, United States Army, was killed in action in Vietnam and Father and Son lie at rest with one another.

McKibbin, Hugh Robert

• Born 12 April 1911
• Died 11 April 1999
• US Navy, Captain
• Residence: Arlington,  Virginia
• Section 3, Grave 1691 RH
• Buried 30 April 1999

Michael Robert Patterson

Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.

Reviewed by: Michael Howard