The remains of a Galesburg soldier who went missing in action in South Korea 75 years ago are now buried in his hometown.
U.S. Army Cpl. Paul Eugene Hoots was 25 years old and assigned to K Company, 3rd Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry, when 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, 1950.
Hoots grew up in Galesburg with four sisters who have all passed away.
So when the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified Hoots’ remains using mitochondrial DNA and anthropological analysis late last year, that news was delivered to his nieces and nephews – and to their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
“My mom did tell us how much her grandma, which was his mom, how hard it was on her. And just that he was missing,” said Joyce Flynn, who is Hoots’ great-niece.
Hoots’ family came from as close as Canton and as far as Seattle to pay their respects to a man that very few of them ever met.
“So your memories probably have come to you from what grandma said or grandpa or your mother or aunt. But I want you to cherish those memories,” Pastor Gordon Barrick told the family at Hoots’ services at Hinchliff Pearson West Funeral Home in Galesburg.
Hoots was born in Galesburg in 1925 and graduated from high school there. He went to electrical school in Chicago and then worked for the railroad back in Galesburg before joining the Army in 1948.
He was 25 when his unit reported him missing on July 8, 1950.
“My mom would talk about him being missing and not really knowing what happened there,” said Travis Canaday, Hoots’ great-nephew.
The family has more answers now. They know that in October 1950, human remains were recovered by the American Graves Registration Service Group near Suwon, South Korea. When those remains could not be associated with an unaccounted-for soldier, they were buried at the temporary United Nations Military Cemetery in Taejon and designated Unknown X-16 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 Galesburg soldier’s remains were then transferred to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu on Feb. 8, 1956.
The 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.
Then, in late 2024, Hoots’ family got the news – Unknown X-16 Taejon was Hoots.
“It was very interesting. They went through the whole process, talked about everything that they did and checked to verify him,” Canaday said.
A couple days before the funeral, Hoots’ remains were escorted from the St. Louis airport to Galesburg by Rolling Thunder, an advocacy group that seeks full accountability for prisoners of war and those missing in action. There were people staged along the route to pay their respects to Hoots.
“It was amazing watching all the people. There were people from alongside the street. There were people at the rest stops, people in the overpasses, all showing their respect. It was very nice,” Canaday said.
There would be one more procession for Cpl. Paul Eugene Hoots. This one was through the streets of his hometown, with the route lined with flags for the occasion.
State Rep. Dan Swanson, an Army veteran, was among the crowd watching as the hearse left the funeral home for Hoots’ final journey. He said the first thing you learn after entering any branch of the military is to never leave anyone behind.
“And to think that no one who was here would have ever had contact with this man, but we see then coming in and lining the streets, the different motorcycle groups, the different Legions, AmVets, all these organizations who never knew this name until today, but we're all here to honor and respect his service to our great country,” Swanson said.
That procession led Hoots’ remains from the funeral home to Linwood Cemetery, where residents lined the streets to welcome him home.
Cpl. Hoots was buried with full military honors and laid to rest next to his parents.
For the descendants of his sisters, that brings some peace after all these years.
“Oh, it's wonderful. We've got closure,” said Flynn. “Anybody that's still waiting should keep up hope.”
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