page_title: Townsend F. Dodd
section_title: Distinguished Service Medal
hierarchical_section_title: Townsend F. Dodd / Military career / World War I / Distinguished Service Medal
caption_attribution_description: Townsend Dodd standing in front of his aircraft. From the San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive
context_page_description: 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.
context_section_description: During Dodd's service in World War I he was the first US pilot to receive the Distinguished Service Medal. His citation reads:
  The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Colonel (Air Service) Townsend F. Dodd, United States Army Air Service, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during World War I. Colonel Dodd organized the Aviation Training School at Issoudun and successfully conducted the negotiations for the first purchase of aeroplanes from allied governments for the use of the American Expeditionary Forces. He later served with distinction as Chief of the Supply Section, Air Service, American Expeditionary Forces, and as Technical Advisor and Information Officer of the Chief of the Air Service, 1st Army.
caption: Captain Dodd standing in front of his aircraft
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