Posted by XXXXXX on May 1, 2008:

Rufus J. Hyman NO. 16725 CLASS OF 1948 DIED DECEMBER 31, 1953, IN KOREA AGED 27 YEARS As a small boy on family picnics at Shiloh battlefield in Tennessee, Rufus Johnston Hyman became enamored of the military record of his distant relative, General Albert Sydney Johnston. He resolved to become an officer in the United States Army. In 1944 he went to West Point avid for military training and eagerly receptive of the standards of personal integrity and honor and loyalty to his government which permeate the training at the Military Academy. When graduated in 1948, these were the firm standards of all his behavior. Lieutenant Hyman's brief combat career was in Korea, where he went with the 24th Division. His last letter to his family described the retreat from Taegu. Although he lost contact with his superior officers, he was proud to have brought his men safely to Pusan in good health, under discipline, and with good morale. He was in the front line again in a few days and was first reported wounded in action near the village of Kaesong on July 30, 1950. Later he was reported as missing in action on that date. On December 31, 1953, his family received notice that he must be presumed to be dead. If he is dead, he died in the full, brave tide of loyalty to his comrades and service to his country, forever free from the cynicism of life's later disillusion. If he has survived, he is sustained by his own love of life, by his confidence in the persistent loyalty of his government to him, and by the hope that he will return eventually to his folks who love him. —O. H. Hyman

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