Ward K. Dodge

Ward Dodge was commissioned through the Air Force ROTC program at Kansas State College on May 27, 1951, and he graduated from Undergraduate Pilot Training and was awarded his pilot wings at Hondo AFB, Texas, on September 13, 1952. Dodge then completed combat crew training at Nellis AFB, Nevada and served at Suwon AB, South Korea, flying combat missions with the 36th Fighter-Bomber Squadron of the 8th Fighter-Bomber Wing during the last few months of the Korean War. After flying F-86F Sabres in Korea, Dodge began flying F-86D Sabre interceptors as an instructor pilot at Perrin AFB, Texas. His next assignment was as Chief of Combat Operations for the 36th Tactical Fighter Wing at Bitburg AB, West Germany, when he became an instructor at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He served in this position until September 1966, when he began training to go to Southeast Asia. Major Dodge began flying combat missions with the 357th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Takhli Royal Thai AFB, Thailand, in March 1967, and he was forced to eject over North Vietnam and was taken as a Prisoner of War on July 5, 1967.