By Randall Yip, AsAmNews Executive Editor
For decades Margery Wong wrote the military every year asking if they had any new information on her big brother.
Staff Sergeant Yuen Hop served as a tail gunner on a flying fortress, a B-17 during World War II for the army. German troops shot down his aircraft on December 16, 1944. He along with seven troops on the plane ejected, but his whereabouts remained unknown for nearly eight decades.
That perseverance representative of the love Margery had for brother finally paid off.
Investigators with the military tracked Hop’s body to a burial ground at a former POW camp in Germany.
Today, Friday, February 7, together with the Army, she finally gave her brother a proper burial with full military honors at Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, just outside San Francisco.
“We’re very thankful that they kept on looking for information so that they can bring him home,” his little sister Margery said to AsAmNews during a phone interview.
Today, three men in full military dress fired a 9-gun salute in honor of Yuen.
Then another in ceremonial dress played taps as family, friends and veterans looked on at the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, south of San Francisco.
“It doesn’t happen in our community very often,” said Ed Gor, the national director of the Chinese American World War II Veteran’s Recognition Project.
He flew out from Houston to help honor Yuen.
“Just a little story every now and then that lets you know that Chinese have served in military,” Gor said to AsAmNews during a virtual interview. “Really makes me happy to see that people want to do this now.”
Yuen’s story is one of heroism. Not only did he die serving his country, but he also risked his own life saving the life of a colleague in a burning plane to make sure he ejected safely.
His nephew Ronald Hop told the story during his eulogy.
After gunfire hit the B-17, flames erupted and quickly spread. The men began to evacuate.
“The radio operator remembers calling Uncle Yuen urging him to help Corporal Franklin Leonard, the tail gunner, evacuate. At that time, Leonard announced that he was hit. Uncle Yuen scrambled to the corporal with his first aid kit, helped Leonard out of the tail section and get his parachute on so they could bail out of the rear,” Ronald said, recapping information obtained from Army records.
The Army believes Yuen was captured by the Germans and then executed. Researchers working with local authorities in Bingen, Germany found documents in the archives indicating his body had been dumped in a local cemetery.
Crews excavated the site and identified Yuen using DNA obtained from his sister Margery.
“It is bittersweet that almost 80 years after his death, the next two and a half generations know what happened to Uncle Yuen. If my grandparents had learned of his fate, they would be proud to know that their son Yuen exhibited a fair amount of bravery when he helped Franklin later escape the burning aircraft,” said Ronald. “They would be comforted that his death was not in vain, as his 14 missions contributed to the victory, one of the greatest battles of American history.”
Four of Yuen’s brothers and two of his sisters did not live to learn Yuen’s story. Margery, now 93, is the only surviving member of his immediate family.
“I’m very proud of him,” she said.
AsAmNews is published by the non-profit, Asian American Media Inc.
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