Freedom Remembered

Born: November 8, 2024 in San Antonio, Texas
Died: July 21, 2024 in Guam

Capt. Michael K. Dodson grew up in San Antonio. He had wanted to fly planes since he was 12. So he got in the Civil Air Patrol and worked through the summers to put himself through the program. By the time he went to college, he had clocked 400 commercial flying hours. He earned a bachelor of art degree in electrical engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona. But Michael didn’t want to be a navigator forever. He wanted to fly instead. In 2005, he participated in the Euro-Nato Joint Jet Pilot Training program in Wichita Falls, Texas. He was one of 15 out of a more than 300 applicant pool to undergo the international training. Michael had spent five years at Pope Air Force Base as navigator on C-130 cargo airplanes and then was selected for pilot training. He planned to return to C-130s but ended up in B-52s instead. Capt Dodson was a Pilot and Navigator with 2,121 hours of flying time including 293 combat hours. His awards include the Air Medal, Aerial Achievement Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Air Force Commendation Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster. He and his wife planned to return to Fayetteville, North Carolina after he completed military service. Michael was on of six victims of the B-52 crash near the Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. He was 31.

Burial is at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas -Sec MA3 Site 55

The Capt Michael Kennedy Dodson by Freedom Remembered, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.