World War II navigator was laid to rest

Twenty-five years ago this week, a World War II navigator with a local connection was finally laid to rest.

The May 30, 1998, edition of The Commercial Review featured a story about Gerald Russell Hill Jr., who was buried in Arlington National Cemetery 54 years after he died in military service. He was the son of former Portland residents Russell and Effie Hill.

Hill, who was 23 at the time of his death, was listed as missing in action after the B-24 bomber he was a passenger in crashed on Feb. 29, 1944. His body, and those of the other nine on the plane, were considered unrecoverable.

But early in 1998 an Army Recovery Team visited the crash site in New Guinea. It successfully recovered remains, which were sent to the Army Forensic Laboratory in Hawaii and identified.

“My country had not forgotten my brother and his fellow crew members who died in war long again,” his brother Jim wrote in a piece that appeared in an Illinois newspaper.

Hill’s parents were born and raised in Portland and are buried in Antioch Cemetery. Local relatives in 1998 included aunt Opal Zerkel, Clarence and Herschel “Bill” Robbins” and several cousins.

“The first week of March 1944 was a devastating one for my family living in Maywood, Illinois,” Jim Hill said. “We all retained hope that the telegram was a lie. However, it was not to be. On April 1 of 1944, the final fateful telegram arrived.”

Gerald Russell Hill Jr. had joined the U.S. Army Air Corps as an aviation cadet in 1942 and became a second lieutenant in June 1943.

His squadron flew 29 missions against the Japanese out of Port Moresby and Nadzab, New Guinea.

The B-24 bomber crashed in the jungle near Nadzab Army