Remembering LTjg Ted A. Hilger, USN (Japanese Language Officer) KIA, WWII

LTJG Ted Adair Hilger was from Sherman, Texas and the son of John Fredrick Hilger and Emma Dye. He graduated from U.S. Naval Academy in 1935 and completed one year of Japanese Language training 1940-1941.

LTJG Hilger was killed when the USS PILLSBURY (DD 227) was sunk by a superior Japanese surface force in a night action on March 2, 1942, 200 miles east of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. He was 29 years old.

On 13 January, 1942, the Pillsbury and the Boise joined a convoy that had just left Kupang Bay on Timor, arriving at Saleh Bay, Sumbawa later on the same day.

Her next role was to screen the Marblehead ( along with Pope, John D. Ford and Parrott) as she investigated a report of Japanese ships off Kema on Celebes. By the time the Americans arrived the Japanese had left, so they returned to Kupang Bay, arriving on 18 January.