★★★ Memorial Monday ★★★
Henry Dozier '27, from Omaha, Nebraska in the Lucky Bag:
"HANK'S first appearance is very striking. You see a neat, well-groomed young man, medium in height and broad of shoulders. He came to the Academy after a high school course and one year of college work at Creighton University in Nebraska. His previous military training won him a place as adjutant in our Plebe Summer organization. He is very athletic, a devotee of football, basketball and lacrosse, but an injury has held him up in this line of activity.
No, don't give up hope yet, ladies. He was a confirmed woman-hater during his first two years, but after trying unsuccessfully several times, his luck changed and since then he has been quite a ladies' man. Paris and London helped to bring about this change for the worse. Hank is inclined to be brilliant in his studies but doesn't allow them to interfere with his education. A trace of Southern blood causes him to lay aside his books when there is something more interesting on the program. His easy-going pleasant manner has won him numerous friends both in and out of the service. A touch of Satan often causes him to get in trouble, but being a politician, he manages to smooth things over and come out on the top. To sum him up, Hank is a real man, good-natured, strong, both physically and mentally, and above all a good roommate which covers a multitude of sins."
Henry earned his wings as naval aviator #3679 on July 28, 1930; he spent the pre-war years in various squadrons and at the Naval Academy for postgraduate education. Shortly before the war began he was in Washington, D.C. at the Bureau of Aeronautics.
Henry's early wartime experience isn't known to us, but by 1943 he was serving aboard USS Yorktown (CV 10) during her construction and fitting-out. Following Yorktown's commissioning in April 1943, he was still aboard through her first combat operations later that year.
Sometime in October or early November 1944 he was transferred to the staff of Carrier Division 26. On November 5, 1944, while en route to this billet, he was aboard USS Ticonderoga (CV 14). That ship had been attacked several times earlier in the day, and was running dark at 2105 when he fell overboard into the Philippine Sea.
Henry was survived by his wife, four children, and brother. (His brother became the TV producer of "Batman" and "Green Hornet" in the 1970s.) One of his daughters passed away in December 2020. His grandson, Gus Colom, graciously provided several wonderful pictures of Henry as a midshipman through time at sea aboard Yorktown.
To Honor! ⚓
http://usnamemorialhall.org/index.php/HENRY_R._DOZIER,_CDR,_USN