Hodes began his military career in the horse mounted cavalry, in the Wyoming and Texas wilderness.

He led the United States Army into the mechanized age of trucks, cars, jeeps, tanks, and airplanes.

He served first as a field commander and later as a representative at Panmunjom – the Armistice Agreement with North Korea.

His service in post-war Europe was vital in the rebuilding efforts and designing defensive strategies opposite the communist Russians in East Germany and the Czech Republic, during the early 1950s.

He suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and died at Brooke General Hospital in San Antonio, Texas on 14 February 1962.