80 years after his death when he was killed on a flight mission in World War II, the body of Sebastopol native and US Army Sergeant Yuen Hop was finally returned home Friday night, after his remains were recently identified at a German cemetery.
On December 30, 1944, 20-year-old US Army Sergeant Yuen Hop’s plane was shot down and he was killed while on a mission over to Bingen, Germany. Most of his crew were captured and taken prisoners of war, but Hop was one of three airmen who did not survive, and their remains were declared unrecoverable.
But there was a breakthrough in the case this summer over the course of a war crimes investigation, and it was discovered that Hop’s remains had been buried at a German cemetery. And KTVU reports that on Friday night, Hop’s body was returned to the US, with his casket landing at SFO in advance of a proper funeral and burial this week.
There is video of the ceremony welcoming him back online. “It is with great honor that MIA/POW Staff Sgt. Yuen Hop has been returned to the United States,” the SF Police Department said in a release. “His only living sister, [91-year-old] Margery Wong of San Francisco, along with her family, will welcome him back to the S.F. Bay Area in January 2025.”
The breakthrough in identifying where Hop has been buried came in 2013, when documents discovered in a war-crime investigation determined Hop had in fact survived being shot down, but was likely killed by German SS officers and buried at a cemetery in the German town of Kamp-Bornhofen. This past June, this particular body was identified as Hop’s.
Per KTVU, Hop has posthumously been awarded “the Purple Heart, Air Medal with one Bronze Leaf Cluster, Prisoner of War Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with two Bronze Service Stars, World War II Victory Medal, U.S. Army Air Forces Aerial Gunner Badge Wings, Marksman Badge with Carbine and Pistol Bars, and an Honorable Service Lapel Button-WWII.”
There will finally be a proper funeral for US Army Staff Sergeant Yuen Hop this Friday, February 7, at 11:00 am at Duggan's Serra Mortuary in Daly City. He will then be laid to his final resting place at Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno. Hop is also commemorated on the Wall of the Missing at Lorraine American Cemetery in St. Avold, France, where a rosette will be added next to his name to show that he’s been accounted for.
Image: San Francisco Police via Vimeo
