Captain
Rodgaard has over 41 years with the naval service of the United States
including 12 years as a petty officer and 29 years of commissioned
service as a naval intelligence officer.
He had several active duty tours as a reservist including two years in the Mediterranean on the destroyer escort, USS Courtney,
DE-1021. He has also served on navy and joint intelligence tours with
Submarine Group 8, Carrier Group 4, the Office of Naval Intelligence,
the J2 Defense Intelligence Agency, Commander Submarines Mediterranean,
the US European Command and the Navy Staff. Captain Rodgaard completed
four years of active service with the National Geospatial Intelligence
Agency as a senior collection officer and strategist.
As a civilian, Captain Rodgaard has been employed as a contract
intelligence analyst with the National Reconnaissance Office, the
Central Intelligence Agency, the United States Air Force U-2 Programme
and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
He is a published author and a contributor to several television
programmes in the Discovery Channel’s Unsolved
History series. He was the US Naval Institute’s Author of the
Year 2000 and is a frequent contributor to the Institute’s Naval History Magazine. He
co-authored the only biography of Commodore Charles Stewart, USN the
most successful fighting captain of the USS Constitution.
Captain Rodgaard holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and
Political Science, a Masters in Political Science, and is a graduate of
the United States Naval War College.
He is married to Judith Pearson, PhD from Kansas City, Missouri, and
has two children from a previous marriage who are also intelligence
officers. Captain Rodgaard is the Grandfather of Isabella, age 4 and
Christian, age 1.
Captain
Rodgaard took over as lead author when his good friend, Bob Moore, the former CO of TS Venomous and the author and
publisher of the first edition, died in 2007. He
retired from the USN after 41 years service in October and came to
Britain in November to speak about his book at a joint conference of
theSouth West Maritime History Society and the Society for Nautical
Research at SS Great Britain
in Bristol and at a Society for Nautical Research Centenary Conference
in Glasgow.
Capt
John A Rodgaard USN (Ret) presenting a copy of his book to TS Vancouver in Kings Lynn
From left: PO Brian Wratten, OIC TS Vancouver, Ms. Lorraine
Werendel (cousin of the author), Capt John Rodgaard USN and PO Cadet
Jade Chasney
Captain
Rodgaard's Mother is from Kings Lynn and he has cousins living in the
town. On Monday the 13 December 2010 he presented a copy of A Hard
Fought Ship to the Sea Cadets
of Kings Lynn at TS Vancouver
which is named after the discoverer of Vancouver Island who was born at
Kings Lynn. HMS Vancouver, a
V & W Class destroyer, was renamed
HMS Vimy to honour those who
died at Vimy, France, in World War 1.
US
Navy Museum, Washington Lunchtime
lecture and book signing, 12.00 on 1 June 2011
The author spoke about his book at one of
the popular lunch time Lectures and Book Signings at the US Navy
Museum in the Washington Navy Yard, 805 Kidder Breese Street. "Come to
a talk about a book that rivals one of the great fictional accounts
about the Battle of the Atlantic, THE CRUEL SEA! However, this one is
true."
Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Halifax,
Nova Scotia, Canada. 14.00
hrs on the 18 June 2011
Halifax was the departure point for the Atlantic convoys which kept
Britain from starvation and HMS Venomous
was part of the First Escort Group at Londonderry, Northen Ireland,
which together with the ships of the RCN escorted the convoys across
the Atlantic. Halifax is also the home of HMCS Sackville, Canada's Naval Memorial,
the last of the 120 Canadian built corvettes which escorted convoys to
Londonderry. John Rodgaard's lecture focused on the time Venomous spent as an Atlantic escort during the Battle of the Atlantic.
Communicating Today, Channel 10 19.00 hrs on Monday 8 August 2011
John Rodgaard will talk to John Monsul about his book on the popular Channel 10 programme, Communicating Today.
Channel 10, Fairfax Public Access's flagship channel, broadcasts to the
Washington metropolitan area. Don't miss it! But if you do we hope to
put the televised interview up on YouTube.
If you live in the
USA you can buy signed copies
direct from the author
Or order online from Amazon.com
Follow
in the wake of HMS Venomous
on this web site
A Hard Fought ship was "launched" at the
RN Museum, Portsmouth,
England, on the 14 April 2010
