thedrifter
11-05-07, 06:22 AM
Published on Monday, November 05, 2007
Lejeune leader talks to church
By Michael Futch
Staff writer
Mentoring Marines is what Col. Adele Hodges has done throughout her nearly three-decade-long military career. She’s the commanding officer of Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville.
On Sunday in Fayetteville at the St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church, Hodges turned her attention to the women of this nation.
Hodges, who has family in the Fayetteville area, was guest speaker for the church’s Women’s Day service.
The crux of her words on this fine morning? Women, in and out of military uniform, are serving their country and their God in all manner of ways.
“We are all servants of God and our country,” she said.
Members of the Hodges family were sprinkled among Sunday’s congregation inside this old but majestic church at the corner of Ramsey and Moore streets. Here, in the intimate sanctuary, Bibles are placed at the ends of each pew, retractable kneeling stools offer worshipers a humbled stance for prayer, and a bright autumn sun splashes through the stained glass windows onto a few of the 64 in attendance on one side of the church.
“This is home. This is a homecoming for her,” one Hodges family member said during a brief break in the morning service.
Col. Hodges, the first female colonel to command Camp Lejeune, said before the morning worship that she had come at the request of her father’s cousin, Tommy Hodges of Fayetteville.
The night before, she had spoken during a Women Veterans Historical Project event at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. She pulled into the church parking lot half an hour before the 10 a.m. service dressed to the nines in her service Alpha uniform and a pair of black patent leather shoes that shone like the pride in her kinfolk’s hearts and eyes.
A native of Bridgeport, Conn., Hodges was born over half a century ago, the daughter of a mechanic and seamstress.
Cape Fear ties
Her father, Roscoe Hodges Jr., was from Southern Pines. Her grandfather, Roscoe Hodges Sr., called Hope Mills home. Samuel Jasper Hodges, her great-grandfather, ranked among the early leaders of black people in the Hope Mills community, and he donated land for the first black school in that area.
Col. Hodges, too, has made a name for herself during a distinguished Marine career that dates back to June 1978. In previous speeches, she has attributed this career path to an aggressive recruiter who got to her after signing up her sister for the Marine Corps.
The Corps was not open to blacks before World War II.
The first African-Americans allowed in the Marine Corps trained at Montford Point Camp near what is now Camp Lejeune. Overall, 20,000 black recruits went through training at Montford Point Camp before the service integrated.
Today, it is known as Camp Johnson.
Hodges attended Basic Supply Officers’ Course at Camp Johnson upon completion of the basic school.
During the summer of 2005, she was selected to command the Marine Corps base. This is her fourth time being stationed at Camp Lejeune, which is home to the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Logistics Group and other combat units and support commands.
During Sunday’s address to the church, Hodges noted that women were first allowed to join the military as active members during the Second World War. “If they became mothers,” she said, “they were asked to leave. Now, they can continue to serve. Many times the wife has to leave, serving their country on deployment, and the husband has to take care of the family.”
Ways to serve
But women don’t need to be members of a branch of the military to serve their country, Hodges said.
They can accomplish meaningful work that makes a difference with the Red Cross, the USO, the Peace Corps, as missionaries and as hometown volunteers who may simply work the line of a soup kitchen, she said, offering up a few examples. She pointed out that her sister is a Methodist minister at a small church in Toledo, Ohio, who teaches during the week.
“We are all,” she said, “servers of country and servers of God.”
Staff writer Michael Futch can be reached at futchm@fayobserver.com or 486-3529.
Ellie
Lejeune leader talks to church
By Michael Futch
Staff writer
Mentoring Marines is what Col. Adele Hodges has done throughout her nearly three-decade-long military career. She’s the commanding officer of Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville.
On Sunday in Fayetteville at the St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church, Hodges turned her attention to the women of this nation.
Hodges, who has family in the Fayetteville area, was guest speaker for the church’s Women’s Day service.
The crux of her words on this fine morning? Women, in and out of military uniform, are serving their country and their God in all manner of ways.
“We are all servants of God and our country,” she said.
Members of the Hodges family were sprinkled among Sunday’s congregation inside this old but majestic church at the corner of Ramsey and Moore streets. Here, in the intimate sanctuary, Bibles are placed at the ends of each pew, retractable kneeling stools offer worshipers a humbled stance for prayer, and a bright autumn sun splashes through the stained glass windows onto a few of the 64 in attendance on one side of the church.
“This is home. This is a homecoming for her,” one Hodges family member said during a brief break in the morning service.
Col. Hodges, the first female colonel to command Camp Lejeune, said before the morning worship that she had come at the request of her father’s cousin, Tommy Hodges of Fayetteville.
The night before, she had spoken during a Women Veterans Historical Project event at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. She pulled into the church parking lot half an hour before the 10 a.m. service dressed to the nines in her service Alpha uniform and a pair of black patent leather shoes that shone like the pride in her kinfolk’s hearts and eyes.
A native of Bridgeport, Conn., Hodges was born over half a century ago, the daughter of a mechanic and seamstress.
Cape Fear ties
Her father, Roscoe Hodges Jr., was from Southern Pines. Her grandfather, Roscoe Hodges Sr., called Hope Mills home. Samuel Jasper Hodges, her great-grandfather, ranked among the early leaders of black people in the Hope Mills community, and he donated land for the first black school in that area.
Col. Hodges, too, has made a name for herself during a distinguished Marine career that dates back to June 1978. In previous speeches, she has attributed this career path to an aggressive recruiter who got to her after signing up her sister for the Marine Corps.
The Corps was not open to blacks before World War II.
The first African-Americans allowed in the Marine Corps trained at Montford Point Camp near what is now Camp Lejeune. Overall, 20,000 black recruits went through training at Montford Point Camp before the service integrated.
Today, it is known as Camp Johnson.
Hodges attended Basic Supply Officers’ Course at Camp Johnson upon completion of the basic school.
During the summer of 2005, she was selected to command the Marine Corps base. This is her fourth time being stationed at Camp Lejeune, which is home to the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Logistics Group and other combat units and support commands.
During Sunday’s address to the church, Hodges noted that women were first allowed to join the military as active members during the Second World War. “If they became mothers,” she said, “they were asked to leave. Now, they can continue to serve. Many times the wife has to leave, serving their country on deployment, and the husband has to take care of the family.”
Ways to serve
But women don’t need to be members of a branch of the military to serve their country, Hodges said.
They can accomplish meaningful work that makes a difference with the Red Cross, the USO, the Peace Corps, as missionaries and as hometown volunteers who may simply work the line of a soup kitchen, she said, offering up a few examples. She pointed out that her sister is a Methodist minister at a small church in Toledo, Ohio, who teaches during the week.
“We are all,” she said, “servers of country and servers of God.”
Staff writer Michael Futch can be reached at futchm@fayobserver.com or 486-3529.
Ellie