Grandpa Remembered

This is my grandpa and grandma.....George and Faye Hodge.

They were married in 1943, one week before my grandpa left for World War II.

Grandpa grew up in the Lake area where I now live. He met my grandma in Eldon, MO.

Grandpa was born February 12, 1925 in Tuscumbia, MO.

A couple years ago he took my mom and I on a memorable drive through the back woods of Tuscumbia (which he told us was named after an Indian Chief).

I sat in the back seat and took the best directions I could so that my family would be able to find these places again. He took us to 3 different cemeteries and also past his grandpa's 160 acre farm where he grew up.

Down the road from that farm was his other Grandma's farm. She was a Shoshone Indian and raised 6 kids on her own while working the farm after her husband passed away from a appendicitis.

As we drove down the drive that use to lead to his grandma's property he was telling us how her little log house use to be up on the left.....and to our surprise, there it was!!

That was so fun to get out and walk around the small building where my grandpa hung out with his grandma!

My mom even remembered being there as a young girl and chasing Grandma Burlingame's chickens (even though she was told not to!)

My mom also tells me there was a huge feather bed up in the loft that was handmade!

I wish I could put a couple pics on here of the old log house and grandma burlingame, but I dont have them on my computer...maybe another day!

My grandpa set off to World War II in May of 1943.

He was an elite member of the 101st Airborne, Screaming Eagles. He served in the 502nd Parachute Infantry, Company A.

He started D-Day in the cabin of a C-47 transport and was suppose to jump 20 miles inland from the Normandy Coast. Due to heavy flack, the pilot jumped his company too quick and one entire platoon jumped in the English Channel.

My grandpa landed on a grassy bluff right in the middle of a German Regiment. He was held captive for several days until the 4th Infantry Division over-ran the bunker and released him.

He continued on to fight in four major campaigns with the 101st.

He was in the battle to take Carentan. He jumped in Holland and spent Christmas morning fighting Germans in the Battle of the Bulge.

The weeks he spent in the forest outside Bastogne left his legs and feet permanently damaged from the freezing temperatures.

If any of you have seen "Band of Brothers", this is exactly what my grandpa went through. If you have not seen it, I would recommend it....it is a great movie.

My grandpa was interviewed a few years back and it is filed in the National Archives and can be watched via the internet.

After the war he went on to raise 2 daughters...he had 4 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.

He was married to my grandma for 56 years when she passed away in 1999.

This was their 64th year and he met her in Heaven on October 28, 2007.

We all miss him very much.