Community Honors Hill
Veteran's service makes him top citizen
By SHANNON CRABTREE scrabtree@leader-news.com

El Campo Leader-News Publisher Chris Barbee, right, presents D.D. Hill with the plaque honoring him as the 2007 El Campo Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture Citizen of the Year. Hill, a Pearl Harbor veteran, taught agriculture classes at El Campo High School for decades. He was instrumental in the creation of the Special Friends program aimed at keeping at-risk students in school and is a long-time Mason serving his community in many ways. L-N Photo by Shannon Crabtree

A Pearl Harbor survivor, D.D. Hill is proud of his military service and only agreed to attend Thursday's El Campo Chamber of Commerce & Agriculture Banquet to be honored for his wartime efforts.

He didn't know the citizenry of El Campo had far more in mind.

Thursday Hill was named the 2007 El Campo Citizen of the Year, an announcement which brought the Civic Center crowd to its feet with thunderous applause.

"To get D.D. here without arousing suspicion, (Chamber President) Becca (Socha) told him we were honoring him as a war hero. Well, that is partially true," El Campo Leader-News Publisher Chris Barbee said as he introduced the night's honoree.

L-N Photo by Quala Matocha Top Citizen D.D. Hill thanked the crowd and acknowledged his family as he accepted the Citizen of the Year honor Thursday.

"D.D. Hill is an excellent example of what a Citizen of the Year should be," he said in his nominating letter. "He served his country, his God, his family and his community in many, many ways. But being a humble man, he is not a braggart, although he has a lot to brag about."

Thursday Hill was humble as he walked onto the stage, asking his family to stand and be recognized as the crowd cheered.

"We veterans like to know you folks appreciate us," he said thanking the crowd for the honor.

Serving The Nation

Before joining the Navy in 1940, Hill, a farm boy from the Texas valley, had already witnessed the painful price of military service.

"We had an Armistice Day in my elementary school. My teacher had lost her husband. To see her weep was devastating to us children," he told the Leader- News in an earlier interview, adding his father had also served during World War I.

"I volunteered," Hill said. "But I was working for a dime an hour out on the farm. I wanted to serve my country and I wanted to get off that farm. I got $21 a month, my clothes and hot and cold running water."

Stationed on the destroyer the U.S.S. Dewey in Pearl Harbor, Hill was an 18-year-old machinist mate on Dec. 7, 1941. He had been below decks studying for a certification test when the first bombs dropped.

"I had a front row seat, but I was busy trying to get equipment ready to shoot," he said. "I saw the smoke from the battleships and the planes with the rising sun over their wings."

The Dewey's crew fired 1,300 .50-caliber rounds at the attacking planes, according to commanding officer A.J. Detzer's action report. The commander thought his crew had brought down two of the attackers, although he wasn't sure which gun to give credit to. Hill said he manned a gun, but didn't think he'd hit anything.

The commander didn't recognize the sailors conduct during the attack as heroic. He simply reported, "All hands were notably self-controlled and as expected, performed their duties with credit."

Hill has shared his story about the chaos of the moment many times with groups of area children, veterans and citizens.

He gives the most credit to the heroism of a single seaman (a quartermaster) who had the sense and presence of mind to take the helm of another ship and ground it in a sandbar rather than allow the harbor to be blocked.

"If he had allowed it to be sunk in the channel, it would have been months before we would have been able to get out."

Instead, the Dewey and other surviving ships were able to respond almost right away.

"We got out after midnight," he said, and "exhausted all our depth charges. Then we came back in to refuel and head out for Wake Island. We wanted to let the Japanese know we had a presence in the Pacific. So we headed there at flank speed."

Serving The Children

After Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal and the battle of the Coral Sea, Hill made it back home and into the role of an educator after earning his degree at Texas A&M.

He first served the community as a teacher in the Crescent school district before joining the El Campo team.

"For many years, he shaped the mind of young people who now are not so young, but they are making a contribution to this community now," Gordon Sorrel said in his nominating letter. "Practicing what they learned from D.D. no doubt."

Hill taught hundreds of local youth in his agriculture classes.

"His job as El Campo High School's agriculture teacher for many years went beyond the classroom," Barbee said in his nominating letter. "He worked with his students before school and after hours on their fair projects and their school work. And always with a big smile and pleasant attitude."

Serving The Community A long-time member of the El Campo Masonic Lodge, Hill's work to make El Campo a better place didn't stop with his retirement from teaching.

He still works with the Masonic scholarship programs and was one of the main organizers of the El Campo Special Friends program, a mentoring program to assist at-risk students.

"The program is still going strong, making a huge difference in the lives of at-risk children who can join the program starting in the fourth grade and going through high school graduation," Barbee said in his introduction of Hill.

"The Special Friends Program is now having its second round of high school graduates. Some have gone on to college."

Hill has also been active with the El Campo Boys & Girls Club and the Boy Scouts.

"For years he was been a staunch defender of everything that is or should be right in our community," Rocky Hamman wrote of Hill.

"He is a living example of what life should hold and how to give back to others."

Hill also remains active at First United Methodist Church.

"The first time I met D.D. was during a 30-week Bible study," Quala Matocha said in her nominating letter.

"I thought he was sort of gruff on the exterior, but quickly learned he lived his life in an honest, caring and loving way."