Edward George Hodge, 89 of Tuscumbia, passed away July 9 2012
Visitation will Wednesday July 11, from 1-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. at Colbert Memorial Chapel. Funeral services to begin at 3:00 P.M. at Christ The King Lutheran Church, Tuscumbia. Officiating is Pastor Derek Partow.
He was preceded in death by his parents, George and Esther Hodge, son, Douglas Brian Hodge and nine siblings.
Survivors include his wife of 69 years, Virginia Hodge
Sons, Craig Edward Hodge ( Rebecca ), William David Hodge ( Lisa ), Robert Lee Hodge ( Hibah Quabain )
Daughter, Carol Sue Coomer ( James Harvey lll )
Grandchildren, Beth Coomer, Brian Hodge ( Bobbi ) and Christopher Hodge.
Great-grandchildren, Teagan and Braden and a host of loving nieces and nephews.
Family and friends will serve as pallbearers
Edward George Hodge passed away July 9, 2012 at Helen Keller hospital. Born on August 8, 1922 the Rock Creek native was the last surviving child of ten from George and Esther Daily Hodge.
He grew up at Rock Creek during the particularly hard times of the great depression. He told many colorful stories of growing up in the hard-scrabble life of the mountains — farming with mules, raising hogs, coon hunting, etc, At age 16 he left home to find work up north in Cleveland, Ohio.
During WWll, Ed was trained on horseback at Fort Riley, Kansas, and Fort Bliss, Texas, where he joined the First Cavalry Division. Hodge became one of 57 Combat Military Policemen in the division – a special elite unit started in 1943. He was a mounted guard at Fort Riley for visiting President Franklin Roosevelt. Three days before shipping out to liberate the Philippines from the Japanese Hodge married Virginia Largent from Cleveland in El Paso, Texas.
When the First Cavalry Division was sent to the Pacific Theater to fight the Japanese the United States government took away the cavalrymen’s horses. While in Australia, Ed was a guard for General Douglas MacArthur in Brisbane. Ed was in the battles of New Guinea, Los Negroes, Manus, the Leyte campaign, and the Luzon campaign, including the battle of Manila. From there he, with 600 other hand-picked cavalrymen, known as “The Flying Column”, were sent by General MacArthur to liberate the suffering American prisoners from Bataan that were held at the Santo Thomas prison camp.
Ed was one of the first American soldiers into Tokyo, as General MacArthur had requested Hodge’s MP platoon to be the first into the city. Shortly afterward Ed was part of a small detachment sent to capture the military leader of Japan –Prime Minister General Hideki Tojo.
Of the 57 original soldiers in his platoon to leave the United States only 7 of the originals were still in the unit on its return; of those veterans just Hodge and two others were strong enough to walk.
After the war Edward and Virginia raised their family in Medina, Ohio where he farmed, logged timber, and was a long-time car salesman.
Ed and Virginia moved back to his birthplace at Rock Creek in 1994, where he restored his homeplace.
Colbert Memorial Chapel of the Shoals directing
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