Return to Pointer View home page August 27, 2004

Class of 1950 Soldier's remains identified

By Spc. Eric S. Bartelt
Features Editor

The fog of war casts a shadow on humanity when its cruelty takes a young man in the prime of his life. The cruelty is death, but what can make it more horrific is leaving family and friends to wonder what happened to their loved one.

Fifty-four years after his death, 1st Lt. Edmund J. “Teddy” Lilly III will come home to his family to receive a proper burial at Cross Creek Cemetery in Fayetteville, N.C., Oct. 21 and end a half century worth of mystery.

Lilly, a 1950 U.S. Military Academy graduate, shortly after graduation married Alma Russ Hodes and five weeks later left for Korea .

As a member of the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, Lilly fought in one of the bloodiest battles of the Korean War, the battle of the Pusan Perimeter.

It was there where he died Sept. 3, 1950, at age 22 and unknowingly to his family they would spend the next 54 years believing he was buried at the National Cemetery in Hawaii before his remains would be found at Hill 209 near Pusan , South Korea in 2003.

“We thought he was in Hawaii (buried in an area for unknown Soldiers) because they never found his body,” said Tori Lilly MacMillan, Lilly’s younger sister from Fayetteville . “My father (Col. Edmund J. Lilly Jr.) did everything he could to find him.”

In a project that started in Sept. 2002, remains of the dead from the Pusan Perimeter battle were excavated while Lilly’s skeletal remains were sent to Seoul in May 2003 and the work began in finding his true identity.

The Joint Pacific Central Identification Lab in Hawaii made a breakthrough using DNA blood samples from Lilly’s sisters to correctly identify him.

The notification of his remains was told to the family June 24, 2004, and that brought much joy to a death shrouded in mystery.

“This is fantastic, unbelievable, we never dreamed this would happen,” MacMillan said.

Although his death took place nearly 54 years ago, his memory lives on within his family and even through family members that weren’t yet born when he died.

Lilly’s sister, Tori, displays his Purple Heart and Silver Star -- awarded posthumously -- next to his father’s awards. She also has a graduation portrait of Teddy from West Point that hangs on the wall.

“All of our children, except for one, haven’t met their uncle, but he’s always been there,” MacMillan said. “We always talk about him, so his memory lives on -- we’re really proud of him.”

Decades passed as about 1,000 unknown servicemen are buried in Hawaii . In all, 8,100 servicemen are still considered missing in action from the Korean War.

With these truths, it is an amazing thought that Lilly will finally rest in peace due to today’s technology.

“How wonderful of the government and military to keep looking for these men,” said Betty Ann Lilly Barrett, Lilly’s older sister who calls Daphne, Ala. home. “We are thrilled to have him back because it was very hard for my mother and daddy -- they never got over it.

“I’m just sorry that my parents never got to see this happen,” Barrett added.

A skilled pianist and poet, the 6’2”, blond, blue-eyed Lilly attended West Point and was commissioned as an officer despite the first-hand knowledge of what sacrifices could be like in the military.

His father, Col. Lilly, was a prisoner of war for 3 1/2 years at the hands of the Japanese during World War II and survived the Bataan Death March as well as serving in World War I.

“Duty, Honor, Country meant so much to us since we were Army brats and our dad had an alternate appointment to West Point (1915) before he went to the University of North Carolina and was commissioned as an officer,” MacMillan said. “He wanted to be in the Army to make a difference.”

The family has a lineage of men who have served and received Purple Hearts, Silver Stars and a Distinguished Flying Cross for actions in WWII, Korean and the Vietnam War. Presently, MacMillan’s oldest son, Sgt. 1st Class Ralph A. Koch, is serving  with the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq .

War has affected their lives like many families, maybe more so, but it’s the closure of a fallen hero of many years ago that shines the light for better days ahead.

To this day, Barrett, who also has a graduation portrait of Lilly hanging up in her home, still wears a West Point cuff link that Teddy gave her before his graduation from the academy.

“To me, he’s not dead, I think of him as being on TDY,” Barrett said. “He will always live on; he’s a vital figure in my family’s lives.”