Hager, Montgomery, T/5

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.

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.