George Dayton Dodge, a mechanic and former fleet manager for the H&S Baking Co. who earned two Silver Stars in combat during the Korean War, died of cancer May 22 at a daughter's Dundalk home. He was 80.
Mr. Dodge was born in Terra Alta, W.Va., and raised in Oakland, Garrett County.
He enlisted in the Army in 1946, and served from 1950 to 1951 as a staff sergeant with the 195th Ordnance Depot Company near Korea's 38th Parallel, where he experienced fierce enemy action.
"I was in two active fire fights. I was 21 or 22. They fired at us and we fired back," he told former Sun editor Ernest F. Imhoff, whose book, Good Shipmates, chronicled the restoration of the Liberty ship SS John W. Brown.
"We were in different places. Yong Dung O (Seoul), the Airport, the mountains near Pusan, north of Pusan. I got a couple of Silver Stars, I don't know for what exactly. Also, a Korean Government unit citation," Mr. Dodge said.
Recalling his time in Korea, Mr. Dodge said, "The moment you were there everyone wanted out. Korea was cold in the winter, hot in summer and stank all the time. It was terrible."
Mr. Dodge, who was reluctant to speak of his wartime experiences, told Mr. Imhoff, "It's all history now. That and 25 cents gets you a cup of coffee today."
Mr. Dodge remembered the time after arriving at the B & O's Mount Royal Station for a furlough in 1946, he was followed into a taxicab by another passenger.
"The guy says, 'I'm going to Pimlico. Where you going soldier? Where you been? Where next? Driver, take this soldier boy home after you leave me off. I'll pay for him and me,' " Mr. Dodge related to Mr. Imhoff.
"It was Clark Gable. He paid for both of us and gave the driver a $100 tip," he said.
Mr. Dodge, who explained that "my life's been machines," and had sailed on Army transports in the Atlantic and Pacific during his military days, went to work as a mechanic after leaving the service in the 1950s.
He worked as a mechanic for Triangle Chrysler, Diamond Cab and as a fleet manager at H&S Bakery for 14 years, until retiring in the late 1980s.
In addition to insuring that the company's fleet of 75 trucks stayed on the road, he supervised a small staff of mechanics and oversaw the purchase of six to eight new replacement vehicles each year.
He even assisted in selecting the Lincolns that owner John Paterakis Sr. drove.
