I'm sorry, I just saw this thread.

I worked at the old Black Forest during Hod's years there. He was definitely a curmudgeon. He was also an excellent pilot. A few things I remember:

Hod would get bored and fly the landing pattern inverted in his ASW-15. He'd roll upright on base to final.

I would be giving wave orientations over Pike's Peak and he'd call "at your three o'clock". I'd look over and he'd be flying formation in his '15 - inverted.

When Alice and I were married in '83, he left the reception early. It was being held at my in-laws house just north of the old BFGP. About twenty minutes later we all looked up and Hod was doing an impromptu airshow over the house.

He lived in a mobile home behind the hangars. So he would usually be up and around by the time we arrived at work. He had a cat, Charles Taylor, that would walk up and down the flightline and watch the proceedings. There was even a club award for a time, the "Charles Taylor Award" for volunteer service.

Besides flying P-38s in WWII, he also flew relief transports for the U.N. into the Congo in the '60's. He flew for a major airline for awhile but you can imagine he didn't fit in very well there.

Mark