Fallen Crew Members of
USS KIDD (DD-661)
|
Fallen Crew Members of USS KIDD (DD-661) |
|
|
LESTER BENJAMIN HODGES
Lester Benjamin Hodges was born on July 05, 1925, in his hometown of Andalusia, Alabama, to parents William Alfonso and Willie (Kervin) Hodges. Based on the information currently available, he appears to have been their only child.
Lester attended Eufaula High School in Eufaula, Alabama. He joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in Birmingham, Alabama, at age seventeen on February 16, 1943. He attended boot camp at Bainbridge, Maryland, and afterward went to the training facility at Great Lakes, Illinois. He graduated in April of 1943 and boarded the USS KIDD (DD-661) on August 27, 1944.
While aboard the KIDD, Lester changed rates moving from Seaman 2nd class to Seaman 1st class on October 01, 1944. |
In January of 1945, during the KIDD's overhaul at Mare Island Shipyard in California, Lester returned home to visit family and friends during a 21-day leave. In February, he returned to the ship and set sail for Pearl Harbor and thence to Okinawa where he was killed in action when the KIDD was struck by a kamikaze aircraft on April 11, 1945. Lester was buried at sea the following day on April 12, 1945, along with his shipmates while the KIDD was en route back to Ulithi Atoll from the front lines.
A memorial service was later held for Lester at his family's church, Fairmount Baptist Church, in Red Level, Alabama (his parents had moved to Birmingham) on May 27, 1945.
Our thanks to Mrs. Lucy Miller, Lester's aunt, and her son who supplied the photo and much of the above information to our researcher, Richard E. Ammon, Jr.
|
|
Seaman 1st class Neal V. Fiscus was kind enough to write to us just months after this biography appeared in The KIDD's Compass newsletter. In response to our call for stories and information relating to our fallen crew members, Mr. Fiscus shared with us this memory of his friend and shipmate. |
|
April 04, 2003
The story on Lester Hodges in the last Compass brought back a vivid memory.
Hodges was a baker and a member of the Number 1 handling room crew. He often said he wanted to be transferred topside.
On April 10, 1945, the handling room crew had a discussion about "fate." Everyone seemed to have a strong belief, pro or con. I remember Hodges saying that he definitely believed that when your time came, you had no control.
April 11, 1945, was his first day on the damage control crew. No one in the handling room was injured.
Neal V. Fiscus
|
|
Back to the List of Fallen Crew Members of USS KIDD (DD-661) |
**Copyright 1997-2010 by Louisiana Naval War Memorial Commission** |
