{"id":32710,"date":"2018-07-20T18:04:31","date_gmt":"2018-07-20T18:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/07\/20\/why-did-this-family-honor-a-fallen-sailor-with-hbo-and-x-box\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:37:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:37:42","slug":"why-did-this-family-honor-a-fallen-sailor-with-hbo-and-x-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2018\/07\/20\/why-did-this-family-honor-a-fallen-sailor-with-hbo-and-x-box\/","title":{"rendered":"How one family honored their fallen Fitzgerald sailor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Editor\u2019s note: This story is part of a series looking at the effects of the Fitzgerald and McCain collisions on sailors, families of the fallen and Big Navy. To read more, <\/b>go here.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before he died aboard the destroyer Fitzgerald<\/a> last year, Tan Huynh was a proud gaming geek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way his family remembers him, when he wasn\u2019t busy working as a Navy sonar technician, the 25-year-old chose to throw down on his trusty Xbox console.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While struggling with the grief of losing him, they decided that Huynh\u2019s final resting place should pay homage to his love of gaming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They had an Xbox controller inscribed on his tombstone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wanted his tombstone to be a reflection of him,\u201d said his little sister, Mary Huynh. \u201cWe wanted it to be distinct and have his first love on it, which was gaming. He was a major gaming geek.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Huynh also loved Game of Thrones<\/a>, so his family placed a quote from the HBO show on the grave: \u201cNever forget who you are,\u201d the Tyrion Lannister line reads. \u201cFor surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Navy probe into the Fitz\u2019s June 17, 2017 collision with the commercial cargo vessel ACX Crystal in the Philippine Sea determined that the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer was sailing too fast in waters jammed with shipping traffic. The report documented numerous missteps by radar operators, navigators and the warship\u2019s leadership team that led to the lethal accident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also revealed numerous acts of heroism by crew members who kept the destroyer afloat but were unable to save Huynh, Xavier Martin, Gary Rehm, Carlos Sibayan, Dakota Rigsby, Noe Hernandez and Shingo Douglass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n \"banner\n <\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n


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Huynh was the only victim who was born in Vietnam. He and his family came to the United States when he was a child and he grew into a quiet man, his sister Mary recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYet at the same time, his soul ached to explore and adventure,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tan Huynh was one of seven sailors to die aboard the destroyer Fitzgerald on June 17, 2017. (Photo courtesy Mary Huynh)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Huynh joined the Navy in 2015 partly to honor their mother and he never stopped loving his niece Lylah and the rest of his family, she said. He drowned one day after his 25th birthday, the last time his relatives spoke to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTan was shy, yet when united with someone who had a distinctive personality like himself, there would be a bomb of witty and sarcastic jokes ready to detonate,\u201d his sister said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She now wishes she\u2019d talked more with her brother about his Navy service and a military life he grew to love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe time he spent while he was enlisted was when we saw he was the happiest,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


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