Ol'Harry

A COUSIN'S SUPREME SACRIFICE

That a sizeable number of folks fail to research the military stories of their loved ones baffles me.   Whether it be service in peacetime or wartime, in country or overseas, in the Revolutionary War or the Gulf War, these are the stories from which our family and country personas spring.

In some instances, those loved ones made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.  Failing to research and memorialize the service of these heroes is unpardonable. 

Excuses for missing the military story boat are rampant, wide and varied.  Some don’t have the time.  Some don’t have the resources.  Some don’t have the facilities or expertise.  Some don’t know where to start.  Some don’t have the interest.

None of those excuses work for me.  I knew an older cousin had gone missing in World War II.  I knew he was an airman because my aunt wore his wings on her blouse or apron six days a week and on her dress on Sundays.  My mother said that wearing the wings helped my aunt grieve the loss of her son. 

AUNT LILLIE POST HODGES, SHREVEPORT, LA

I knew the missing airman was a special first cousin to my mother.  His two sisters, both nurses, took my mother into the Hodges home during her problematic pregnancy to deliver me.

After my mother, aunt, and both nurse cousins had been dead for many years, and after I had encouraged hundreds to research and appreciate their military heritage, I set about finding out what happened to my cousin, S/Sgt Howard Hodges, of Shreveport, LA.

My wife and I visited a 93-year old cousin in the mountains of North Georgia whom I had only met once in my life, as a young boy.  In bits and pieces, she remembered our cousin, Howard Hodges, was a gunner on a bomber that went down off the coast of New Guinea on June 8, 1944, but his body was never recovered.

With help from another cousin, Google, and the miraculous intersection with the author/family member of another WW II veteran, we learned that on June 8, 1944, the 5^th Air Force operated in the New Guinea area.  And that the 71^st Tactical Reconnaissance Group flew B-25 bombers in the region.  And that the 17^th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron flew a bombing mission of 10 B-25s off New Guinea on June 8, 1944.

 

We found that Howard Hodges was assigned as photographer/gunner aboard one of those 10 B-25 Mitchell bombers for that mission of June 8, 1944. 

THOUGHT BY FAMILY MEMBERS TO BE HOWARD HODGES,
BUT COULD BE HIS BROTHER, CHARLES, WHO ALSO SERVED
IN THE ARMY AIR FORCE IN WW II

It had already been suspected to have been a critical mission.  Major William G. Tennille, Jr., Commanding Officer of the Squadron, personally led the raid, tasked to attack a convoy of six Japanese destroyers bearing enemy troops to retake Biak. 

The Japanese convoy threw up intense anti-aircraft fire as the B-25s fearlessly made their bomb runs in a blazing, low level attack.  At least four Japanese ships were heavily damaged and one was sunk.

General MacArthur personally commended the mission, "The job was magnificently done."  General Ennis Whitehead did as well, "This squadron has this date performed one of the finest military feats of the war."  

The mission was costly.  Of the ten B-25s, only seven returned to their home field – five of them were heavily damaged.

The B-25 on which Howard Hodges served as Photographer/Gunner was hit by anti-craft fire and crashed.  The entire crew was presumed dead the day of the mission. They are memorialized on the tablets of the missing at Manila American Cemetery.

HOWARD HODGES WENT DOWN IN THE B-25 "STRAGGLER"
SHOWN HERE IN NEW GUINEA, MANNED BY A PREVIOUS CREW

Posthumously, Howard Hodges was awarded a purple heart, air medal, distinguished flying cross, as well as additional awards and campaign ribbons.  I don’t know if any of those decorations made it to my aunt in Shreveport, LA.  If so, she was always partial to her son’s aviation gunnery wings.

She had a second son in the Army Air Force – Charles Hodges Jr. flew missions ‘over the hump’ during World War II, and returned home safely.

As an aside, Major William Grant Tennille Jr., Commanding Officer of the 17 TRS, also went down.  Tennille was posthumously awarded a distinguished service cross for his action.  It is the second highest military award that can be given to a member of the U.S. Army.

While it was sadly satisfying to learn of my cousin’s military service and his supreme sacrifice for his country, Major Tennille’s part of the story introduced an ironic twist.

 

Major Tennille was born in Greensboro, NC, and lived at 600 Asheboro Street.  His father worked for the Guilford Benbow Hotel and Hare’s Motors.  The Tennilles later moved to Winston-Salem, where William Tennille Sr. was still listed as a hotelier.  Major Tennille is memorialized in Salem Cemetery.

The Tennille connection went beyond the fact that my cousin and his commanding officer went down on the same mission.  That his commander lived at 600 Asheboro Street in Greensboro before World War II was most ironic – one of this writer’s most fulfilling projects was researching and writing THE HISTORY OF ASHEBORO STREET BAPTIST CHURCH, completed and privately published in 2012.  The church was located at 710 Asheboro Street, Greensboro, NC. 

The Tennille connection and intersection with Allen D. Boyer, who wrote Rocky Boyer's War: An Unvarnished History of the Air Blitz That Won the War in the Southwest Pacific, are gifts of historicity that keep on giving.  They are more fully developed in another column.