Robert Dodd was born on September 8, 1923, in Lexington, Kentucky. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve on November 2, 1942, and entered the Aviation Cadet Program of the U.S. Army Air Forces as a Flight Officer on February 14, 1943. F/O Dodd next completed flight training and was awarded his pilot wings at Aloe Field, Texas, on January 6, 1944, followed by P-51 Mustang upgrade training before deploying to Europe in July 1944. F/O Dodd was commissioned a 2d Lt in the Army Air Forces on November 22, 1944, and was assigned to the 328th Fighter Squadron of the 352nd Fighter Group in England from July 1944 to September 1945. Lt Dodd left active duty and entered the Air Force Reserve on October 21, 1945, and was honorably discharged from the Air Force Reserve on May 27, 1959.

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.