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“Superlative” best describes <em>Alfred Dodd Starbird</em>. Though among the youngest of 1933, he was a four-year star man. He was captain of the cross country team and a significant scorer in basketball and track. His outstanding athletic ability later carried him to 7th place in the 1936 Olympics Pentathlon as a member of the only US team ever to win that event. (He missed a gold medal only because Pentathlon team medals were not awarded until 1952.)</p>
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Dodd worked long hours, often over weekends and holidays. Yet he was courteous and good-humored even when expressing disagreement with his associates or demanding that a subordinate do better. Helped by his charming wife, Evelyn, he participated moderately but effectively in social activity. (For friends and associates, a high point of each Christmas season was the Starbirds’ annual party.) Known as a hopoid in cadet days, one friend well qualified to judge, who knew him first as a lieutenant, rated him “the best social dancer of his era.”</p>
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Throughout his career Dodd combined technical expertise, management ability and leadership. Quietly and without ostentation he personified dedication to Duty, Honor, and Country.</p>
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The dates and facts which follow were first chronicled by his sister Ethel, an editor of the National Geographic. Characteristically, Dodd checked them himself before he died. But to the matter-of-fact record, impressive though it is, we have tried to add overtones that bring to life its real significance.</p>
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Dodd’s formal education after West Point was limited to the Army Engineer School and a civil engineering degree from Princeton. Important to his own education and that of some 1700 cadets, however, was his teaching a little civil and military engineering and a lot of military history to the Classes of ‘39, ‘40, ‘41 & ‘42. Since his career included extensive staff experience at high levels, the Army did not send him to Leavenworth or to any war college.</p>
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In the spring of 1942 Dodd was transferred from West Point to the famous OPD (Operations Division) of the War Department General Staff, then situated in the WWI Munitions Building with a Major General Eisenhower as Chief. For this OPD tour (May 1942—December 1944) and possibly the youngest officer to be so honored, he received the first of his four Distinguished Service Medals. The Citation read (in part): “…established the North African troop basis …War Department representative and observer during initial phases of North African invasion …supervised build-up of balanced forces in UK for invasion of France …a representative of OPD at the Quebec Conference…”</p>
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That first DSM was presented in 1945, when Dodd was in Europe commanding the 1135th Engineer Combat Group—a Group which got General Patton’s assault troops across the Rhine, then later bridged the Danube in Austria.</p>
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In June 1945 he began a second OPD tour, then changed assignment frequently as his skills became visible at higher levels, including the White House. In 1948 he was given a key role in SANDSTONE, the first and technically significant nuclear test at Eniwetok Atoll. Then when SHAPE was established in Paris, he became its Secretary for the Staff (1951-53). This was followed by two years in the Office of the Chief of Engineers.</p>
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In 1955 Dodd began five years as Director of Military Applications of the Atomic Energy Commission. In that position he was AEC’s top manager for the development and production of atomic weapons. It was a period when the fantastic progress in fission and fusion was moved from research to on-the-shelf, ready warheads—the stockpile grew from very few to an arsenal of weapons. Of equal import was his work in developing AEG positions on US disarmament proposals to control nuclear weapons.</p>
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In 1961 he returned for the last time to Corps of Engineers duty. He was placed in command of the North Pacific Division, which had a large construction program for both military and civil works.</p>
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In December 1961, on short notice, the Defense Department called on Dodd to plan, mobilize and command Joint Task Force 8 for Operation DOMINIC, the final nuclear test in the Pacific. His DSM (1st OLC) citation reads (in part):</p>
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“The success and productivity of this most complex and urgent program transcended all previous efforts in the history of United States nuclear testing and significantly enhanced the security of the nation and the free world.”</p>
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The dust had hardly settled on JTF 8, when Dodd was appointed Director, Defense Communication Agency, to which in 1966 was added the special responsibility for the “Defense Communications Planning Group,” cover name for a secret project in Vietnam. The DSM (2d OLC) citation reads (in part):</p>
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“…he was engaged in a classified mission of great urgency and national importance … [he] contributed in an outstanding manner to the National Goals of the United States.”</p>
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In November 1967 Dodd became Manager of SENTINEL (later SAFEGUARD) Anti-Ballistic Missile System, a position held until his retirement from active duty in 1971. His DSM (3d OLC) citation describes specifics of his creativity, dedication and skill. The summation reads;</p>
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“His professional acumen, objectivity and keen, discerning intellect were dedicated to the nation and totally directed to strengthening the defense and peace efforts of the United States.”</p>
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Dodd’s 38 years of commissioned military service ended in 1971. But as a civilian he was promptly named director of the newly-created DOD Office of Test and Evaluation. Later, in 1975, President Ford appointed him assistant administrator for National Security of the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA). There his responsibilities continued, when in 1977 ERDA was integrated into the new Department of Energy (DOE), in which President Carter named him acting secretary for Defense Programs.</p>
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Dodd retired again shortly thereafter, only to be recalled, this time as director of the Joint DOD/DOE Long Range Resource Planning Group. For this final service he received a citation signed jointly by the Secretaries of Defense and Energy, which says (in part):</p>
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“…The Group’s report (the ‘Starbird Study’) …may be only one more milestone in your distinguished career of service to your country, [but] it has made a unique and unifying contribution to both Departments …our thanks for a job well done.” In August 1980 Dodd finally retired from government service, 47 years after pinning on his gold 2d lieutenant’s bars in 1933.</p>
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During the last two decades of Dodd’s career he held so many positions of responsibility that it has been possible here only to enumerate them. Any one of these positions would have been a fitting capstone for a career; any one of the citations/awards a brilliant climax. Yet he went on—each outstanding performance, as is common in the profession of arms, leading to an even more difficult and responsible assignment.</p>
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In 1980 the West Point Society of DC recognized his outstanding service to his country by presenting him its prestigious Ben Castle Award, given each year to a graduate who has exemplified the ideals of West Point in either a military or civilian capacity. At the presentation he was aptly depicted as “a man for all seasons, and for all tasks.”</p>
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Dodd’s military service won him three stars on his shoulders, nine battle stars on his nine service and campaign medals. Besides his four DSMs he was awarded two Legions of Merit, two Bronze Stars and the Army Commendation Ribbon.</p>
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In civilian service he received the AEG citation and Gold Medal for Commendatory Service (1970), the Secretary of Defense Meritorious Service Award (1975), and the Energy Research & Development Administration’s Citation (1977), a year in which he also received the Chief of Engineer’s award for outstanding public service. He was a member of the National Academy of Engineers (National Academy of Sciences), the Society of American Military Engineers, and the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association.</p>
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Dodd is survived by his widow, Evelyn Wallington Starbird; three children, Colonel Edward Starbird, CE; Susan Selfridge of Atlanta, GA; Catherine Ward of McLean, VA; ten grandchildren; and his two sisters, Ethel Starbird of Whitestone, VA, and Catherine Jennison of Washington, DC.</p>
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Dodd was buried with full military honors. At his funeral service the pastor, who had known three generations of the Starbird family, cited Saint Paul as possibly a patron saint. Dodd’s own dedication to his responsibilities was not visibly linked to moralization or religion; it was rather a continuing deep and quiet reflection of DUTY-HONOR-COUNTRY. In the context of his full and dedicated life, he surely earned the right to say, with Saint Paul:</p>
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“I have fought a good fight,<br />
I have finished my course,<br />
I have kept the faith.”<br />
End</p>
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<em>LJL</em></p>
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