Korean war soldier’s remains to be buried in Coffeyville Saturday

COFFEYVILLE, Kan. – The remains of a Soldier killed during the Korean War will be interred at Restlawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Coffeyville, Kansas, June 26. The funeral for Army Pvt. 1st Class Bill F. Hobbs will be held at Ford Wulf Bruns Funeral Home, Coffeyville, preceding the interment.

A native of South Coffeyville, Oklahoma, Hobbs was a member of Heavy Mortar Company, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, when he was reported missing in action Nov. 30, 1950, when his unit was attacked by enemy forces near the Chosin Reservoir, North Korea. Following the battle, his remains could not be recovered. He was just 20 years old.

Almost seventy years later, Hobbs’ remains were turned over by North Korea on July 27, 2018. He was accounted for by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency on April 20, 2020, after his remains were identified using circumstantial evidence and anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis.

Hobbs’ name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, along with the others who are still missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.