Concurring in the Nomination of Daniel Alan Bernath Dan Bernath Daniel Alan Bernath
As Honorary Photographer’s Mate Chief Petty Officer, US Navy
April 30, 2006
I served with Photographers Mate 2nd Class Daniel Bernath aboard the USS Yorktown CVS-10 on her last cruise to the North Atlantic in her hunt for Soviet subs and during her de-commissioning. During that cruise we were often times flown over by Russian Bear bombers and the entire photo lab crew worked to record those events for the Pentagon and other intelligence agencies.
Bernath served aboard the USS Yorktown during her last combat cruise off the coast of North Vietnam and South Vietnam in 1968. He was also a Photographers Mate, recording the recovery of the first men to travel to the Moon, the Astronauts of Apollo 8 and has written extensively, along with his US Navy photographs and the photographs of other US Navy photographers at www.aspecialdayguide.com/yorktown/apollofirst.htm Bernath has exposed over 2,400,000 people to US Navy Photography on the website www.USSYorktown.com giving great visibility and honor to all US Navy Photographers. Photographers Mate Bernath also inspiring hundreds, if not thousands of young Americans to join the US Navy after viewing the photographs that we, the US Navy Photographers through the decades have created.
I was a Photographers Mate at the US Navy base at Cam Rahn Bay, South Vietnam, aboard the USS Essex and the USS Yorktown. In my opinion Photographers Mate Bernath was one of the best training Petty Officers in the Navy. He constantly was monitoring the young sailors who were assigned to the photo lab and giving them real-Navy pointers on how to accomplish their tasks in the darkroom, when photographing the change of command ceremonies and turning routine promotions and “shipping-over” ceremonies into artistic works of art. He always tried to find the art in the even the routine photo assignments, he always unleashed the creativity in the new Photographers Mates and that inspiration he provided has no doubt reverberated in the Navy, long after Bernath put down his Navy Speed Graphic and began work as a broadcast newscaster and attorney in the private sector.
His inspiration and molding of the new sailors can best be shown by what he did with one young, raw sailor from Detroit. The young sailor joined the Navy from off the mean-streets of the Motor City, completed boot camp and was then swiftly assigned to the mess decks. After his 3 months as a mess-cook, the Personnel Office routinely assigned him to the Photo Lab. Petty Officer Bernath and myself asked him what his experience was with photography and he stated, “I can take a picture, if that’s what you mean.”
Photographers Mate Bernath and I chuckled because this Airman Apprentice had only taken a picture with a Brownie and had much to learn. Bernath took this raw recruit under his wing and told him and then showed him how to properly expose a negative, how to work with people, from the Seaman to the Admiral to get pleasing results and act with a military demeanor and bearing, how to make portraits for the officer’s service jackets and then how to go into the darkroom and turn the raw negative into photographs that told the “Navy story.” This raw recruit from the streets of Detroit was taught well by Photographers Mate Bernath. He went from mess-cook to Photographer’s Mate 3rd Class in six months because Bernath inspired him and used the recruits enthusiasm and wove it into the vast knowledge and experience that Petty Officer Bernath had acquired serving the US Navy under many Chief Photographer’s Mates in both the Pacific Fleet and Atlantic Fleet. In many ways, Bernath did the work of a Photographer’s Mate Chief Petty Officer-not because he was ordered to. He did it because he saw the need for his leadership and stepped up to provide it to the new sailors and his subordinate. Indeed, when the USS Yorktown transited around South American to go from the Pacific Fleet to the Atlantic Fleet, many senior Petty Officers had already been transferred and Bernath stepped up to fill the leadership gap that should have been filled by a Chief Petty Officer.
During the de-commissioning of the USS Yorktown, many times Bernath was the senior officer of the entire Operations Department and fulfilled the role of a full Commander when reporting to the Commanding Officer regarding the current status of the entire Department.
Petty Officer Bernath appeared to have close friends in every division and at every rank and rate on the USS Yorktown. I recall that he had close friends in the deck crew of 2nd Division, the black-gang in E division, the aviation boatswain mates on the flight deck and pilots and air crew from the squadrons. They all came to be friends and admirers of Photographers Mate Bernath as he went around the ship on his every day assignments in the shooting crew of the Photo Lab and his brief assignment as Master at Arms.
As such, Bernath has inspired a strong military defense posture of the United States, he has greatly contributed to in his deeds while on active duty and as the creator of www.USSYorktown.com to support US Naval Photography and his shadow on US Navy Photography started when he became a Photographers Mate in 1967 and continues even now into the 21st Century. His past duty and present work on behalf of honoring US Navy Photographers is in the highest traditions of the US Navy Photographers corps and the US Navy and I heartily endorse the nomination to make Photographers Mate Daniel Alan Bernath, “Honorary Chief Photographer’s Mate.”
Steve K. Freund, Photographer's Mate 2nd Class
Steven K. Freund PH2
US Navy 1965-1970
Cam Rahn Bay, South Vietnam
USS Essex
USS Yorktown