WEST FRANKFORT - West Frankfort volunteer fireman George Gass was more than happy to show young Kodee Kennings one of the fire trucks at the West Frankfort Fire Department.

After all, he had been talking to her on the telephone for several weeks prior to her visit to the station last September. At the time Gass also worked as a waiter at an area restaurant. A co-worker at the restaurant, who worked at the Daily Egyptian, told Gass about Kodee's plight. She told him how Kodee's mother had been killed by a drunk driver when Kodee was a little girl and now her father, Dan Kennings, was stationed with the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq. And now Kodee was living with a guardian, a woman Gass knew as Colleen Hastings.

Gass began talking to Kodee over the telephone. "We would talk four to six times a week," Gass said. In fact, Gass said there were some occasions when he was patched through to Iraq on a "special link" to talk to Kodee's father Dan.

The only trouble was it was all a hoax. It has since been determined that Colleen Hastings is actually Jaimie Reynolds of Marion. Kodee is actually Caitlin Hadley, a 10-year-old girl from Montpelier, Ind., who lives with her parents, Rich and Tawnya Hadley.

Kodee received major publicity through the Southern Illinois University Carbondale student newspaper, the Daily Egyptian. On Friday, the student newspaper issued an apology indicating it had been duped.

It is unclear who the man was Gass talked to claiming to be Dan Kennings. The motive for the entire deception is unclear except the little girl who portrayed Kodee thought she was helping Reynolds make a documentary. Gass said he was never scammed for any money but did "buy some Christmas presents." He is also in disbelief that his emotional involvement with helping a little girl cope with the separation from her father in Iraq was all based on a lie.

"She missed her calling," Gass said, who now believes that the voice on the phone he thought was Kodee was actually Reynolds. "She should have been an actor. I would like to know how she did it. I am still amazed that she could do it for so long and not mess up once. She kept her facts straight."

During the visit to the West Frankfort Fire Department Gass and fireman Wes Taylor showed Kodee around the bay where the fire trucks are kept. Gass let Kodee try on his fireman's coat and helmet. Hastings also showed the men Kodee's scrapbook of her father which reportedly showed the soldier in Iraq. Some of the pictures raised the suspicion of Taylor, who is a veteran and has trained in the desert.

"They had mountains in the back ground and at the time they looked a lot like the Mojave Desert's National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif.," Taylor said.

Gass said even though he had talked to Kodee several times, it was the first time he had actually met her in person. "She and Colleen came one other time to see me at the restaurant, but I was too busy to visit with them," Gass explained. "When I told her that I was a volunteer fireman in West Frankfort that's when she said Kodee really loves fire trucks and she wanted to visit."

Gass has been following the entire story of the hoax and is especially interested in the involvement of Daily Egyptian student editor Michael Brenner. Brenner also claims he had many telephone conversations with a girl he thought was Kodee.

"In my opinion the other guy is innocent," Gass said. "All the things that happened to him happened to me."

Mthomas100@mchsi.com

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