Marine Corps News Room

http://www.freep.com/news/mich/soldier31e_20051031.htm

October 31, 2005

BY DAN CORTEZ and AMBER HUNT MARTIN
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

Marine Sgt. Michael Paul Hodshire, 25, of North Adams always dreamed of joining the Marine Corps.

Army Staff Sgt. Lewis J. Gentry, 48, was a career soldier from Detroit.

Both men died while serving in Iraq within the last five days. They are the 65th and 66th members of the U.S. armed forces with known Michigan ties to die in Iraq.

News of Hodshire's death came Sunday, devastating the small town in Hillsdale County.

"We're a small, rural community here," said Kenneth Kurtz, a family friend. "He had a lot of friends here."

Hodshire, a father of two, was three months into his second tour of duty in Iraq with the 2nd Marine Division when he was killed Sunday morning by indirect gunfire near Fallujah, Kurtz said.

Serving in the Marines fulfilled a lifelong dream for Hodshire, he said.

"That's been a passion of his from his school days," he said. "He wanted to be a Marine."

Four days after Hodshire graduated from North Adams-Jerome High School in 1999, he went to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego for basic training. He spent the next six years on active duty.

Carl Christenson, principal of the North Adams-Jerome Public Schools' junior and senior high schools, said Sunday night that students will be upset by the news.

"It's a small district. Obviously, it will have an impact," said Christenson. The district includes a total of 550 students.

Christenson said he met Hodshire last summer during a Little League baseball game. Christenson's 11-year-old son and Hodshire's younger brother play on a local team together, he said.

A man who answered the phone at the Hodshire residence in North Adams on Sunday night declined to comment.

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Defense could not confirm on Sunday that Hodshire had been killed.

The Defense Department announced Sunday that Gentry had died Wednesday in Mosul from a noncombat-related cause.

Gentry had been assigned to the Army's 94th Engineer Battalion in Vilseck, Germany.

Vianne Gentry, 64, remembers the day when her little brother enlisted in the Army. It was Nov. 26, 1986.

"He was my baby brother, that's why I remember the date," she said Sunday night from her Detroit home. "He was a really good guy."

Vianne Gentry's son, VonEric Gentry, had already enlisted in the military. He encouraged his uncle to join.

"He really wasn't doing that much at the time," said VonEric Gentry, 45, of Detroit. "I wanted him to go into the military. I told him it would give him a good start. Get a career and training."

Lewis Gentry enlisted and served in a transportation unit. That took him to the Middle East during the Persian Gulf War and into Somalia. He was assigned to a transportation unit in Germany most recently, but VonEric Gentry wasn't sure what his uncle was doing in Mosul last week.

Lewis Gentry hadn't been back to Detroit since Christmas. He leaves behind a wife and several children.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete Sunday night for both men. A memorial fund is being established to benefit Hodshire's children. He is also survived by his parents, a brother and three sisters.

Contact DAN CORTEZ at 586-469-1827 or cortez@freepress.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.