Life for Hodges in Petersburg, Indiana soon took a drastically different turn once World War II broke out.

Gil played on the Petersburg, Indiana football team with my father, David Clinton Tharp, who later joined the 101st Airborne paratroopers and participated in the European Battle campaigns of D-Day, Holland and the Battle of the Bulge.

After Gil served as a member of the Marines ROTC program at St. Joseph’s, he had to give up playing baseball and soon went into battle at Tinian and Okinawa for the U.S. Marine Corps. He garnered many accolades for honorable service from 1943 to his discharge in 1946, including earning a bronze star.

We recently visited Petersburg, Indiana where the town has Gil Hodges featured on a bulletin board in his honor.

Dad’s wartime letters written to his family and his then sweetheart, who later became my mother, now have a final resting place in the book, COMES A SOLDIER’S WHISPER which contain sentiments that resonate with our soldiers of today.

For more videos, interviews and book orders visit: www.ComesASoldiersWhisper.com

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