FALL 2015 BANNER RECIPIENTS (Listed in Alphabetical Order by Last Name)
FALL 2015 BANNER RECIPIENTS (Listed in Alphabetical Order by Last Name) Click on name to view biography. Joseph Bodnar Page 2 W. G. Chapple Page 4 Jimmy Doolittle Page 6 Charles Duncan Page 8 Robert Erly Page 12 Francis D. Fane Page 14 Len Kaine Page 17 Dean Laird Page 19 Charles F. Laws Page 21 Lance Massey Page 23 Kyle Christopher McArthur Page 25 Arthur Mearns Page 27 Frank Meyer Page 29 Arthur O’Keefe Page 31 Arthur Price, Jr. Page 33 Harry Schrader Page 35 Henry Stanley, Jr. Page 37 Joseph Bodnar ______________ By Joanne Bodnar, September 2015 As a young child, I remember asking my father, “Dad, why did you join the Navy?” His response was simply, “I always wanted to fly.” Well, Commander (CDR) Andrew Joseph Bodnar did that, and a whole lot more. In addition to flying countless missions from 1947 to 1968, CDR Bodnar was one of three officers who invented and developed The Pilot Landing Aid Television (PLAT) System, a state-of-the art takeoff and landing system that’s still being used today on virtually all aircraft carriers. The PLAT System was first installed in 1961 on the carrier Coral Sea. Within the next two years, it became standard equipment on all naval attack carriers, providing enhanced safety and efficiency for pilots and navigators. The system, which involved videotaping each landing, proved highly useful for instructional purposes and in the analysis of landing problems and accidents. Born of immigrant Hungarian parents in Racine, Wisconsin, on November 30, 1923, Bodnar enlisted in the Navy at age 17, during the Summer of 1941, just a few months shy of the Japanese Pearl Harbor attack on December 7th.
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