Townsend F. Dodd

Who was Townsend F. Dodd?

Townsend Foster Dodd was the first commissioned US Army aviator. As a University of Illinois graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, he joined the Coast Artillery Corps and shortly thereafter became an aviator in the US Army Air Service. Dodd sat on many boards of review during the service's infancy and was one of the members who condemned pusher planes in favor of tractors. He served with General John Pershing on the Mexican Border where he set records for endurance flying. During World War I he was first assigned as the Aviation Officer of the American Expeditionary Force in 1917. He was later replaced by Colonel Billy Mitchell and was reassigned to the Bolling Mission.

He was the first US pilot to receive the Distinguished Service Medal during World War I. Dodd was promoted to colonel on 14 August 1918 and at the end of the war he was appointed the Chief of Staff, Material under Mitchell. Dodd was then posted to Fort Sam Houston at San Antonio. With the completion of the war he reverted to his pre-war rank of captain and became the commander of Langley Field, Hampton, Virginia. After returning home from the war he competed in endurance flight competitions and during one such contest he crashed and died. Nine years after his death Dodd Army Airfield was named in his honor.