Corporal Lilly was a member of Company L, 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy near Unsan, North Korea on November 2, 1950 and died while a prisoner on February 28, 1951.

Through the work of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the remains of Corporal Lilly were accounted for in 2023. His name is permanently inscribed on the “Courts of the Missing” at the Honolulu Memorial.