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Fred Hodges was born June 16, 1916 in Loganville, Georgia and passed away at Letterman Army Medical Center, Presidio of San Francisco, California on October 11, 1976. September 6, 2003 I received a short e-mail from the granddaughter of Fred Hodges whose name is Dawn, but when I tried to e-mail her back I got a message that said the e-mail address was no good. DAWN-- If you see this message please e-mail me again.Thanks, Tom Moore E-mail pepperbud@pobox.com January 9, 2005 I am a friend of Helen Hodges, Fred's first wife. She told me that he was in CNAC and she lived in Calcutta. He went back to the States and was drafted, and served in the USAAF in Europe. As far as getting hold of Dawn, Helen really doesn't know any of his other family. They had two girls together. The story of their romance and marriage is one for the books. If you are interested in the story let me know. Monday, 15 Sep 2008. Here it is: The following is the story of Fred Hodges and Helen Anderson, as told by Helen. When the AVG was training in Toungoo, Burma, Fred Hodges (they called him Fearless Freddie because he was deathly afraid of insects) met Helen Hodges. She was 20 years old. He fell in love with her. He asked to marry her. She said no because she didn't want to be married to a Yank. When the war started, the AVG left for Kunming, China; except a few who stayed in Toungoo and the 3rd Squadron going to Rangoon to support the British. The bombs started to fall on Rangoon, Helen had just turned 21, found herself alone, as she lost tract of her mother and father. Now she decided that she was going to take Freddie’s offer to get married, but Freddie was in Kunming, the AVG Headquarters. She hitchhiked on the Burma Road to Kunming. When she got there seeking Freddie she found out that Freddie was in Loiwing, then she hitchhiked to Loiwing. At Loiwing she found Freddie. She wanted to get married. But there was no one to marry them; not chaplain, no minister, no missionary. So someone came up with the idea that if Loiwing was a city the mayor could marry them. They made Loiwing a city, then elected the superintendent of the Loiwing repair factory as mayor. (There is a very good narrative of this in Greg Boyington’s book, "BaaBlack Sheep.", also in many books) They were married on the 2nd of April, because she didn’t want to get married on April Fools Day, April 1. When they got back to Kunming they were married by Rev. Frillman, the AVG chaplain on May 11, 1942. When the AVG was disbanded he flew for CNAC (Chinese National Air Corporation), as did 21 other AVG pilots. Helen and him were living in Calcutta, India at this time. Eventually he ended in the European Theater flying P-51s. He came home on leave, and got Helen pregnant, then vanished. Helen brought up the girls up by herself, and never got remarried. He died in Sacramento, California in 1976. She is now living in Minnesota with her younger daughter. (she passed June 4, 2016 in Minneapolis,Minnesota) Bob Andrade, AVG Historian   or would like to be added to the CNAC e-mail distribution list, please let the CNAC Web Editor, Tom Moore, know. Thanks! |