I nominate Daniel Alan Bernath because of all he has done to support and honor the Photographer’s Mates and for all he has done so that the world can know of the accomplishments and sacrifices of the US Navy sailors. There is no person more deserving of this honor because he contributed more and done more to support US Naval Photography throughout the 38 years I have known him..

I served with him in the combat zone in Vietnamese waters. Dan Bernath was a Photographers Mate on the USS Kearsarge and USS Yorktown. During his service time, he photographed sea air rescues of downed pilots in the Tonkin Gulf, the shipping going into and heading toward the communist ports or assisted and his photographs and assistance aided the intelligence community as they planned out future bombing missions. He was so committed to our country, the US Navy and the war that when his fellow shipmates on the USS Kearsarge were looking forward to returning to the US, Bernath volunteered to transfer to the USS Yorktown for another combat zone deployment.

The first time I saw Daniel Bernath I was standing on the rolling deck of USS Hassayampa AO-145 waiting for my turn to be highlined to USS Yorktown and report to Helicopter Antisubmarine Squadron Four. (Yorktown had just returned to operations in Vietnam waters from the Sea of Japan and I had flown to Hassayampa from Da Nang a week before.) Dan Bernath was photographing the refueling and highlining of personnel. I was able to observe him for quite a while and enjoyed seeing how he covered the event. I don't remember how many fuel lines or stations there were on Yorktown that day, but Daniel Bernath was running from station to station getting pictures of all the men connecting lines and securing them into place.

Upon my arriving on Yorktown, Dan was standing nearby and I asked where the photo lab and HS-4 offices were. He pointed toward the hanger bay and said, photo lab is the first hatch on the right. He then said, “I'm on my way to the flight deck to get some pictures of the helicopters hoisting stores aboard, I'll show you the HS-4 office.”

During my TAD to Yorktown for the Apollo 8 Astronaut and Command Module recovery, Dan Bernath photographed all the practice recoveries from the ship.

Being with HS-4, I was TAD to Yorktown photo lab. After settling into the lab, I noticed that just about every photo job that came in, Dan would ask his leading petty officer PH1 John Starkey if he could shoot the assignment. I mentioned this to the lab chief, Senior Chief Relleve and he told me that Dan was the best shooter he had and Dan tried to learn and do everything. PHCS Relleve also said he tried to work it that Dan shot all portraits, because he did it better.

A large black and white print order came in one day and I remember two or three of the guy's fussing about who was going to print it. (no one wanted the job) I think it was 8 or 9 35mm negatives that needed 10 or 15 8X10" prints each. Dan reached over the crowd and took the negatives from Petty Officer Starkey's hands and said, "I’ll do it."

While on Yorktown, my skipper wanted me to cover everything HS-4 did. Dan often asked if I needed help covering flight operations and flight missions. Dan Bernath helped on the flight deck and flew several photo assignments with the squadron in the combat zone with HS-4, HS-6 and other search and rescue squadrons as shooting for the squadron as we landed throughout South Vietnam at Hue, Da Nang, Cam Ranh Bay and rescue locations elsewhere in South Vietnam.

He had a particular talent for helping out the new photographers assigned to the photo lab and took great pleasure in finding the talent in every Photographer’s Mate and in turning a raw recruit into an accomplished Naval Photographer.

This affection he felt for his fellow sailors also surfaced when he went into every division on the ship and photographed the working sailors at the often time dirty and tedious jobs so that he could present his fellow sailors as the common-man heroes that his photographs of them revealed them to be for the cruise books and Naval Achieves.  He entered every space of the ships, into the boiler rooms, officer's country, jet fuel and oiler facilities and spaces, voids, CIC, etc.

Photographer’s Mate Bernath is an outstanding individual, unexcelled as a technician in the darkroom and with the ability to place everyone at ease, from Admiral to Seaman, as he photographs the most routine “shipping over” to sensitive and dangerous accident photography with jet fuel splashed everywhere and intelligence photography. During his military career he was one of those rare individuals who receives nothing but the best effort from himself and from those around him.

For all that Bernath has done for Naval Photography while in our Navy’s uniform, he has done far more for the US navy since that time After leaving the US Navy, Bernath became a broadcast journalist at major radio stations in New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, St. Louis, New Orleans, etc. and always sought out the local US Navy recruiter for publicity and to talk up the role of the Photographer’s Mate. It would be a fair estimate that Bernath recruited hundreds of young men and women to the US Navy by his broadcasting the US Navy story when he was a radio newscaster and talk show broadcaster.

At about the time that the United States was attacked on 9/11, Bernath sought out new ways to serve our Country, our Navy and the Photographer’s Mate rating. He took over the website www.USSYorktown.com and under his command it has grown from a few pages on the internet to one of the most visited sites with over two million four hundred thousand people. His honoring of US Navy Photographers and the US Navy has probably caused hundreds, if not thousands of people to be inspired enough to join the US Navy.

He has taken thousands of US Navy photographs made by Photographers Mates and displayed them to the world. He has exposed our best work by displaying it like this to his audience of over two million;

The most famous picture from World War Two Official US Navy Photograph by Photographers Mate Chief Petty Officer Alfred Cooperman, the USS Yorktown under attack and crew shoots down a torpedo bomber, put on the cover of Life Magazine. Picture autographed by "Jocko" Clark, the Yorktown's first skipper:
"Victory At Sea"~see movie combat movie footage by Photographers Mate Corey and other US Navy Photographers
"Done in the Face of Grave Danger." US Navy Photographers Mates record the US Navy in combat in the 21st Century”

Having done so much to show the world of our service to our country and our Navy by displaying over 2,000 official US Navy Photographs, Bernath wanted to go even further. Photographer’s Mate Bernath searched out the history of the Photographer’s Mate rating and posted it on USSYorktown.com. He placed it on the internet to coincide with the end of the Photographer’s Mate rating in the summer of 2006 to honor our rating. On this tribute to Photographer’s Mates (please see attachment), Bernath traced the history and the heroism of our rate.

Many Photographer’s Mates reading the tribute to their own rate say that they learned things about Photographer’s Mates that they never knew before, such as the heroic efforts of the Photographers Mates at Pearl Harbor on December 7^th 1941, the story of Photographers Mate Roy who photographed the battle of Midway who had only an aerial camera to photograph the sinking of the US navy ships and thereafter saved the film by taping the film to his body as he abandoned ship-but saving the pictures for future generations to view, Navy Photographer Edward Streichen who went back into the Navy at age 62 and after the war had his photographs sell for nearly $3 million.

Photographer’s Mate Bernath acquired all the “crows” of Navy Photographers through the decades, from the “flying printers” crow, to the bellows camera crow, the light through the lens with and without wings and finally to the new rate of Mass Communications Specialist. Photographer’s Mate Bernath, put it all together for everyone to see like a museum on the internet in honor of our rate and all we Photographer’s Mates have done for our Navy and our Country

Bernath has also acquired and displayed for the world to view pictures of Photographer’s Mates struggling to do their work in the combat zones around the world and even has the uniform patches of Combat Camera Group for both the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets. Bernath, thus not only honors Photographer’s Mates by showing our many tasks around the world but also ends the tribute by revealing that Photographer’s Mates are the “Eyes of the Fleet” and that there is “Thanks from a Grateful Nation” for the Photographer’s Mates for “telling the Sailor’s Story.”

This tribute to photographer’s mate has been received well, quickly becoming one of the most visited features on USSYorktown.com Indeed, when someone types into the Google search engine the words, “Photographers Mate Rate USN”, the living museum to Photographer’s Mates that Bernath has created shows up in first place with over 105,000 other websites mentioning those words coming after. When the words “u.s. navy photographers mate” are typed into Google, Bernath’s tribute shows up in second place after the official US Navy site www.news.navy.mil

Not only is the history of the Photographer’s Mate rating preserved and presented in an easily accessible format because of the support of Naval Photography by Bernath but this tribute is being viewed around the world. Tracking shows that the tribute to Photographers Mates is being viewed by US Navy sailors out to sea, US Navy sailors at Navy bases such as Norfolk, San Diego, many visitors from Pensacola Florida, presumably active and retired US Navy Photographer’s Mates, and also visitors from England, Spain, France, Hong Kong, China, Canada, Germany and Japan to name a few.

Not only is Bernath honoring Photographer’s Mates but he is helping retired Chiefs and veteran Photographer’s Mates reunion. On each of the 10 pages of his moving and inspiring tribute there is a link to our Navy Photography Association and a direct call for action and encouragement from Bernath to go to our website and to join our Association!

 Milt Putnam