Seventy-five years after a Galesburg soldier was reported missing in action during the Korean War, his remains are coming home to be buried.
In July 1950, U.S. Army Cpl. Paul Eugene Hoots was 25 years old and was assigned to K Company, 3rd Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He went missing in action after his unit engaged the North Korean People's Army in the vicinity of Ch’onan, South Korea, on July 7. There was no evidence he was a prisoner of war, and his unit reported Hoots missing in action on July 8, 1950.
In October 1950, remains were recovered by the American Graves Registration Service Group near Suwon, South Korea, according to a release from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. When the remains could not be associated with an unaccounted-for soldier, they were designated “Unknown X-16 Taejon” and they were buried at the temporary United Nations Military Cemetery Taejon.
Starting in December 1950, all identification efforts were moved to Kokura, Japan. Because Unknown X-16 Taejon could not be positively associated with a Korean War loss, the remains were then transferred to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu on Feb. 8, 1956.
The Galesburg soldier’s remains rested there for more than 62 years. In 2018, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency proposed a plan to disinter 652 Korean War “unknowns” from the Punchbowl. The following year, Unknown X-16 Taejon was disinterred from the Punchbowl. The remains were then sent to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency’s laboratory for analysis.
DPAA scientists used dental and anthropological analysis, chest radiograph comparison, and circumstantial evidence to identify Unknown X-16 Taejon as Hoots. In addition, the Armed Forces Medical Examiner used mitochondrial DNA analysis to help with the identification.
Hoots’ name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are still missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Hoots' family recently received their full briefing from the Defense Department on his identification.
His remains will be buried in Galesburg this month.
Hoots was born in Galesburg in 1925. He attended Silas Willard Elementary School and graduated from Galesburg High School in 1944. He then attended Coyne Electrical School in Chicago for one year, and worked for Burlington Railroad Freight House before joining the Army.
For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving their country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil.
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