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Contact Info
Home Town Kingston
Last Address The Hospice Community Care of Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre, PA.
Date of Passing Feb 15, 2008
Location of Interment Indiantown Gap National Cemetery (VA) - Annville, Pennsylvania
PHC Daniel S. Dodd, U.S.N. (Ret.) Chief Photographers Mate
Daniel S. Dodd was born June 25, 1931 in Kingston, PA. Dodd joined the US Navy on September 8, 1950. He achieved the rank of PHC and was discharged on March 16, 1970.
Chief Photographers Mate Dodd was a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Navy, having served during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Dan was the official photographer of Commander River Flotilla One (COMRIVFLOT-1) and many of his pictures were published in the book "Mobile Riverine Force Vietnam".
Many of Chief Dodd's Vietnam photos can be found on the MRF Association's web site at www.mrfa.org. Chief Dodd donated all his photos and audio to the MRFA; not only are his photos on the web site but posted in their mobile trailer and on display at their reunions. Chief Dan Dodd was a good man and a good Sailor and will be missed by all who knew him and those who served with him. The officers and members of the Mobile Riverine Force Association express their sincerest gratitude and admiration for the courageous work of combat photographers, like PHC Dan Dodd, USN (Ret.). While the official photos are the property of the people of the United States, the heroism of those who took the pictures, as that of their subjects, will be their legacy forever.
Vietnam War/Counteroffensive Phase IV Campaign (68)
From Month/Year
April / 1968
To Month/Year
June / 1968
Description This Campaign period was from 2 April to 30 June 1968. The Naval air and gun fire support to operations such as Operation Silver Mace gave ground units the needed firepower while AirForce units were moved to air operations over Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam. From 7 to 18 April, ground, air, and naval units from each of the American services, the Vietnamese Navy, and the Vietnamese Marine Corps conducted Silver Mace II, a strike operation in the Nam Can Forest on Ca Mau Peninsula. The enemy avoided heavy contact with the allied force, but his logistical system was disrupted.
Enemy air defenses caused aviators more concern for by 1968 the Communists had developed a defensive system that was well-armed, coordinated, and supported. On the ground throughout North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and Laos, the enemy trained skyward thousands of small arms, automatic weapons, and antiaircraft artillery. North Vietnam alone contained 8,000 weapons of many calibers, concentrated around key targets. Beginning in early 1965, surface-to-air missiles (SAM) were added to this defensive arsenal, and by early 1968 over 300 SAM sites dotted the North Vietnamese countryside. The entire defensive system was tied together with a sophisticated network of communications, air alert stations, and early warning, ground control-interceptor, and fire control radars. New and replacement weapons and ammunition were amply supplied by sympathetic Communist countries. The loss in Southeast Asia of 421 fixed-wing aircraft from 1965 to 1968 attested to the strength of these defenses. The aviators killed, missing, or made prisoner totaled 450. The operating environment was especially dangerous in North Vietnam, where 382 Navy planes were shot down, 58 of them by SAMs.
Although only accounting for eight of the Navy's aircraft during this three-year period, the North Vietnamese air units posed a constant threat to U.S. operations, thus requiring a diversion of vital resources for protection. The enemy air force varied from 25 to 100 MiG-15, MiG-17, MiG-19, and MiG-21 jet fighters. The country's jet-capable airfields included Gia Lam, Phuc Yen, Cat Bi, Kep, Kien An, Yen Bai, Son Tay, Bai Thuong, Hoa Lac, and Vinh. The U.S. Navy engaged in its first air-to-air encounter of the war on 3 April 1965, when several MiG-15s unsuccessfully attacked a flight of F-8 Crusaders near Thanh Hoa. On 17 June, two Midway F-4 Phantoms registered the first kills in the long conflict when they downed two MiG-17s south of Hanoi.
