Without a doubt, the party in Heaven must be remarkable. Last week Corporal Hill would have turned 94 years old — and instead, his family celebrated that after more than 75 years of waiting, they were finally able to lay him to rest with full military honors.
**GEORGE THOMAS HILL**
On July 9, 2025, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified the remains of U.S. Army Cpl. George Thomas Hill, missing from the Korean War.
Hill entered the Army from California and was a member of B Company, 3rd Engineer Combat Battalion, 24th Infantry Division. On Aug. 11, 1950, he took part in a B Company reconnaissance patrol across the Naktong River to investigate North Korean forces near Chang-dong, South Korea. The patrol crossed to the west bank of the Naktong, completed their reconnaissance, and was engaged by an enemy force of unknown strength. As they crossed the Naktong again to return from the mission, the patrol was still taking heavy fire — only five of the 20-person patrol ultimately made it back to friendly positions. Hill was among those who did not return.
He was never reported as a prisoner of war, and subsequent searches of the battlefield failed to recover his remains. With no evidence of his continued survival, the Army issued a presumptive finding of death as of Dec. 31, 1953.
In July 2018, the DPAA proposed a plan to disinter 652 Korean War Unknowns — sets of remains recovered after the war but unidentified at the time — from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. As part of Phase Three of that plan, in July 2021 DPAA personnel disinterred two Unknowns recovered from the Naktong Bulge area of the Pusan Perimeter in 1951 and sent them to a DPAA laboratory for analysis. There, it was determined that portions of each set belonged to one individual — who, based on forensic analysis and the totality of circumstantial evidence, was identified as Hill.
His mother and his family were strong in their faith, just as Corporal Hill was. So it must be remarkable that they're together again today. And what a blessing that the family still here on earth were able to celebrate this closure — so long overdue.