Ships
- USS Parrott (DD-218) Captain, 12 January 1942 to 15 February 1944
John Nelson Hughes was born on 28 November 1909 in Columbia, Missouri. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in the class of 1931 and stayed in the Navy for a full career, retiring as a rear admiral. He died on 22 October 1989 in Rockville, Maryland, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
On 12 January 1942 he took command of the destroyer Parrott, relieving Edward Nelson Parker. The ship was with the Asiatic Fleet in the Netherlands East Indies as Japanese forces pushed south. The command is carried at the rank of lieutenant commander and ran through 15 February 1944. On 1 November 1942, while he was still in Parrott, he received the temporary rank of commander.
On 24 January 1942 Parrott was in Destroyer Division 59 at Balikpapan, in column with John D. Ford, Pope, and Paul Jones. She came through that night afloat and was not sunk. The transports lost in the anchorage are not credited to her. A 2026 Naval History newsletter calls Hughes her executive officer that night. The dated command gives him the ship from 12 January 1942.
He kept Parrott with the mixed Allied striking force through the rest of the Java campaign. In mid-February the destroyer joined an attempt to intercept a Japanese movement toward the east coast of Sumatra, rode out repeated air attacks on 15 February without damage, and fueled at Surabaya. On the night of 19–20 February she went into Badoeng Strait, off Bali, against a stronger Japanese force. Lit up and under heavy fire, she answered with guns and torpedoes. Her fire damaged enemy ships and checked their shooting. In the shoal water along Bali she touched bottom, worked herself free, and withdrew with the rest of the force. For his leadership that night as commanding officer he received the Navy Cross. The Netherlands marked the same action with the Bronze Cross, later replaced by the Bronze Lion.
Short of torpedoes after Badoeng Strait, Parrott escorted the steamer Seawitch to Tjilatjap and then left for Fremantle, missing the Battle of the Java Sea. She brought the tender Black Hawk into Pearl Harbor on 15 June 1942 and spent the later part of that summer in overhaul at the Mare Island Navy Yard. Hughes remained in command until 15 February 1944, when Edward Falka Rye relieved him.
In the Korean War he served as a captain in command of Mine Squadron 1. The Legion of Merit recognized that duty from 10 to 31 October 1950. He closed his service as a rear admiral.