Mercer Co. veteran’s remains returning from North Korea
His remains will be reunited with his family more than 70 years after his death.
PRINCETON, W.Va. (WVVA) -A local family have received an update on the remains of a family member lost in action during the Korean War.
Corporal Ray Kirby Lilly was a Matoaka, Mercer County native who joined the Army in 1950, before being taken prisoner in the battle of Unsan in North Korea. He was presumed dead the following year from malnutrition.
A couple weeks ago, the family of Corporal Lilly were informed that the Army had identified his remains with a one hundred percent DNA match and would be returning them to his family. Phillip Hamm, nephew of Cpl. Lilly, says this update is “tremendous” and a huge relief for Lilly’s two surviving sisters, who lost their brother to the horrors of war.
“He was so young, you know, to have went through that, and... it was unexpected to him. They actually started the war while he was still in basic training, and, according to his letters, they shortened his training in order to send him to Korea, and it was fast. He was in Korea before he had time to really think about it,” says Hamm.
Hamm says it will still be months before the Army is able to send all of the remains home. However, he says they plan on burying him alongside his family, reuniting them below the soil of the area he loved.
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