Hebron, IL.
Date of Birth: 26 June, 1922
Date of Death: 12 February, 1951
Branch of Service: United States Army
Rank: Sergeant First Class
Unit: Company B, 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division
Place of Death: Suan Bean Prisoner of War Camp, Korea. Remains were never recovered.
Photo not Available
Today, Hoengseong in South Korea is a quietly peaceful and rural part of the Charyeong Mountains in the northern center of the country. A lifetime ago, it was the site of brutal fighting over three days ending in a defeat of United Nations forces. One-month prior, allied forces had retreated from Seoul and the two sides sought tactical advantage in this next clash, which could shift momentum and decide the outcome of the Korean War. Over three days, the Battle of Hoengsong went poorly, and an initial organized withdrawal turned into chaos with many small units attempting their own routes past hostile roadblocks and chokepoints in front of and behind them.
A platoon sergeant with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, Sergeant First Class John Harold Kilroy was acting as either the company light weapons NCO or a heavy weapons leader at this time. The battalion engaged the enemy and maintained an organized front as best as they could but ultimately several were captured amid this running battle. John became a Prisoner of War on February 12th, 1951. He and other POWs were taken to Suan Bean Camp in North Korea. A survivor of the camp told US investigators that he perished at the camp a few months later in May. Three years later after exhaustive efforts to locate him, on January 18th, 1954, the Department of the Army officially presumed that John was dead. His remains have not been recovered.
John H. Kilroy of southeast Hebron was born in 1922 to Mr. and Mrs. Harry L. Kilroy. He served four years in the US Army during WW2, came home and worked the family farm, then re-enlisted in 1948. He was married with a 3-year-old son at home. Kilroy’s name and life are memorialized in Honolulu etched forever into stone on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Beside him are Robert Kilpatrick of Florida and Chan Kim of Hawaii.
By Austin May
2nd Infantry Regiment
North Korea War Veterans Memorial
Washington, District of Columbia, U.S.A.
Also
Honolulu Memorial
Courts of the Missing
Honolulu, Honolulu County, Hawaii
To visit the cemetery, click on his Headstone
