William Hershel Rhodes

Our Dad Retired Lieutenant Colonel William Hershel Rhodes (Bill) was born in Crossett Arkansas on 9/17/1924 and died peacefully surrounded and held by his family on 10/25/2010. He was in the Army Air Corps, 8th Air Force, 303 rd bomber group and flew 36 missions in WWII in B-17’s he was the top Turret Gunner, Flight Engineer and Crew Chief and only 20 years old. On his 4th mission, just after releasing their bombs they lost 8 feet of their tail, the tail gunner was killed and they crash landed in France. After returning from the war in 1945, he met and married the love of his life, Lydia Gorman who preceded him in death. He graduated from Arkansas State College with honors, went back in the Army and off he went. He was stationed in Germany, taught military science at Texas A&M while receiving his masters degree was stationed in Iraq for 1 year in a remote outpost while his wife and 3 daughters, Lynda, Charlotte and Rosemary remained in the U.S. One year after returning his son William Jr. was born. Shortly after he attended and graduated Command General Staff College in Leavenworth, KS. we were off to the Panama Canal Zone. He ended his military career as the Deputy to the Commander at NORAD in Colorado Springs. While stationed there he shot skeet for the Army team and in 1967 he won the Military World Champion Individual Title and his team won the Team Title. He retired from the military in 1968 and began his Civil Service career back in Panama he ended up at Fort Bliss for the third time in 1980, where he was the head of TASC until he retired in 1986. There is so much more to his incredible story and life. He was a quiet unassuming man until you put him in front of a crowd with his fiddle, boy could he play. Thank you to all those who have served and serving our country as our father did. And thank you Dad for your devotion to our family for showing us how to live a life full of laughter, adventure, integrity, and most of all love. You and your music will live in our hearts forever. We love you! P.S. Say hi to Mom. Visitation will be Monday, November 1, 2010 at 12:00 pm with a Funeral Service at 12:45 pm at Sunset Funeral Home- Northeast. Committal Service will follow at Fort Bliss National Cemetery. Celebration of life will follow interment at approximately 3:00 pm at 3316 Gabel. Go up Hondo Pass to Magnetic to Gabel. Services entrusted to Sunset Funeral Homes-Northeast. Please visit on-line register book at www.sunsetfuneralhomes.net