Paul Joseph Hydo was born in 1918 and grew up in Perth Amboy, N.J. He entered Saint Peter’s College in 1936 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree on June 9, 1940. On December 26, 1940 Paul enlisted in the United States Army in Trenton, N.J. On August 15, 1941, Hydo was commissioned as a second lieutenant at Maxwell Field, Alabama. He ultimately rose to the rank of major as a member of the Air Corps.

On July 20, 1946, Major Hydo was commanding an Army Flying Fortress searching for three pursuit craft lost in a violent storm near Coiba Island, off the Pacific coast of Panama when his plane collided with another Flying Fortress killing fifteen crew members. Hydo was killed in the collision and his body was never recovered. He is thus designated as MISSING IN ACTION OR BURIED AT SEA. Hydo is listed on Tablets of the Missing at the World War II West Coast Memorial in Presidio, California. His Unit is shown as 2117th Service Unit, Aviation.