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Pfc Joseph F. Hill enlisted in Cincinnati, Ohio on 14 September 1943.

He had been overseas for five months.

On 22 October 1944, seven demolition men from Regimental HQ, were assembled under their section leader, Lt Richard A. Daly. About a dozen German Riegel mines (anti-tank mines) had been recovered from a dirt road where German engineers had planted them. A table was brought out of a nearby house and the mines were placed on and near the table.

When S/Sgt Schlensker demonstrated how to open the lid and disarm one of the mines, the device exploded. Evidently, the Germans had placed an anti-tampering protection system in that particular mine. The explosion sett off all the other mines stacked nearby. Lt Daly, S/Sgt Schlensker, Pfc Edmund Ambrose, Pfc. Joseph Hill, Pvt George Sheppard, and Pvt Joe St. Clair were all killed instantly.

Only Pvt Oresti Quirici survived the explosion, although he lost one eye and part of his leg.

Cpl Brigham was fatally wounded as a result of the explosion. He would die in the early morning hours of the next day.

He was buried at the American War Cemetery in Margraten, the Netherlands. On 30 April 2001 his remains were returned to his hometown, Milford, Ohio for burial in the Graceland Memorial Gardens.