U.S. Army Sergeant Willie Dennis Hill was a member of Company G, 2nd Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division.
He was seriously wounded by the enemy in Korea on 30 July 1950 and returned to duty on 28 August 1950.
In late November 1950, elements of the 8th Army encountered massive numbers of Chinese fighters and Sergeant (then a Corporal) Hill's unit was overrun and encircled. Sergeant Hill was listed as Missing In Action on 27 November 1950 as a result of combat action between the Chinese People's Volunteer Forces (CPVF) and the United Nations Command (UNC) forces in the vicinity of Anju, North Korea.
No information concerning the capture and death of Sergeant Willie Dennis Hill was received from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (D.P.R.K.) after the Korean War Armistice in July 1953. He was presumed dead on 31 December 1953. His name is listed on the Honor Roll at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC and it is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial in Hawaii.
Available evidence suggests that Sergeant Willie Dennis Hill died in Kujang County, P'yongan Province, North Korea, on or about 27 November 1950 from injuries inflicted by Chinese forces. He was 20 years old. His remains were not recovered by U.S. personnel at that time.
On 7 and 8 July 1998, a joint US/Korean People's Army (KPA) recovery team excavated an area identified by a North Korean resident as the possible burial site of a wounded Black American soldier from the Korean War. The recovery area identified by the witness coincided with positions occupied by E and G Companies. Sergeant Willie Dennis Hill was identified after DNA material obtained from remains found at the site were matched with DNA materials provided by surviving members of Sergeant Willie Dennis Hill's family.
Corporal Willie Dennis Hill was posthumously promoted to the rank of Sergeant. He was awarded the Purple Heart, the Combat Infantryman's Badge, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.
In 2011 and 2012 the United States Department of Defense's Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) contacted Sergeant Hill's family members and notified them of the recovery of Sergeant Hill's remains. A funeral was planned.
Sergeant Hill's family met his remains at the Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina. A motorcade from Charlotte, North Carolina to Newton, North Carolina followed. The Patriots motorcycle groups were absolutely marvelous!!!
On January 21, 2012 U.S. Army Sergeant Willie Dennis Hill was laid to rest in the burial plot that his deceased father, mother, and brother had left for him.
My wife, Vivian Page, was two years old when her father, Sergeant Willie Dennis Hill, became Missing In Action in combat in North Korea.