David Lee "Tex" Hill

42

David Lee "Tex" Hill : biography

July 13, 1915 – October 11, 2007

He ended his military career in the Air Force Reserves, retiring as a Brigadier General. He holds the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross with three Oak Leaf Clusters, Presidential Unit Citation with Oak Leaf Cluster, Chinese Order of the Cloud and Banner 4th, 5th and 6th grades, 2-Star Wing Decorations, Chinese Victory Medal, Legion of Merit, and British Distinguished Flying Cross.

Early life

He was born in Kwangju, Korea, the son of Presbyterian missionaries, but raised in Texas. "Tex" graduated from San Antonio Academy, San Antonio, Texas, in 1928 and from McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1934. Tex then attended Texas A&M for two years before transferring to Austin College, from which he graduated in 1938. He was also a founding member of the Phi Sigma Alpha fraternity in 1932.

Later life

He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1968. In 1999, Hill was inducted into the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame located at the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston, Texas.

In 2002, he was conveyed an honorary lifetime member of the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary (Civil Air Patrol) with a squadron of the CAP named in his honor—the Tex Hill Composite Squadron, of San Marcos, TX (SWR-TX-435). This squadron went on to become the third largest in the nation and in 2003 became the most decorated squadron in the nation receiving the Texas Squadron of Merit, Texas Emergency Services Squadron of the Year, Regional (SW Region of the USA) Squadron of Distinction, and National Squadron of Distinction.

Hill died at the age of ninety-two on October 11, 2007 in Terrell Hills, Texas, of congestive heart failure. More than 2,000 people attended his funeral. He was buried at nearby Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.

On November 2, 2007, the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg observed "Tex" Hill Day with speeches, patriotic music, and friends’ memories of the fallen hero.

On November 2, 2008, the Air Force Heritage Flight at the Lackland Air Show in San Antonio was dedicated to Hill. It consisted of an F-22, an F-15E, an F-16C, and a P-40 like the one Hill flew with the AVG.

The NEISD Board of Trustees voted unanimously to name Middle School 14 after World War II fighter pilot and combat ace David Lee "Tex" Hill at its regular meeting Monday, June 17, 2013.