This Military Service Page was created/owned by
LTC Richard Barzelogna
to remember
Hager, Montgomery, T/5.
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Contact Info
Home Town Mount Gay, West Virginia
Last Address Mount Gay, West Virginia
Date of Passing May 22, 1950
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Tech 5 Montgomery Hager's last known employment was as a taxi driver in Logan County, West Virginia. He was found murdered in his residence on May 22, 1950.
Other Comments:
Montgomery Hager was born in Boone County, West Virginia on January 7, 1910, and was the son of Frederic H. Hager and Virginia ("Jennie") Plumley Hager. His siblings included William M. "Coonie" Hager (a WWI veteran), Everett I. Hager, Walter "Dub" Hager (a WWII US Army veteran who fought in the Pacific Theater), Liza Hager and Lora L. Hager Fillinger.
Tech 5 Hager served with the 1278th Engineer Combat Battalion, deployed to Painswick Park, England on 12/27/1943. He then deployed to Normandy, France following the D-Day Invasion on 06/26/1944. On 01/23/1945, his unit was redesignated the 5th Engineer Combat Battalion, and he was credited with the Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe Campaigns of World War II. His unit spent their World War II service clearing mine fields, fording rivers, clearing obstacles and fighting as infantry. On 11/25/1945, Tech 5 Hager returned with his battalion for a tickertape parade in New York, and was disactivated and discharged from the US Army on 11/26/1945. He was awarded the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with 3 Bronze Service Stars and the WWII Victory Medal.
He was briefly married to Arenatta Fillinger but had no children. His last known employment was taxi driver in Logan County, West Virginia. He was found on his couch murdered with a single knife wound on May 22, 1950.
WWII - European Theater of Operations/Central Europe Campaign (1945)
From Month/Year
March / 1945
To Month/Year
May / 1945
Description (Central Europe Campaign 22 March to 11 May 1945) Following the Battle of the Bulge the Allies had pushed through to the Rhine. On 22 March 1945 they began their assault across the river, and by I April the Ruhr was encircled. Armored columns raced across Germany and into Austria and Czechoslovakia. On 25 April, the day American and Russian forces met on the Elbe, strategic bombing operations came to an end. Germany surrendered on 7 May 1945 and operations officially came to an end the following day, although sporadic actions continued on the European front until 11 May.
