Commander Dana R. Gordon with his wife Rolanda and their two daughters, Danielle Lauren and Reese Catherine. On June 30, 2005, the family of Commander Dana R. Gordon traveled to Washington, DC to attend his promotion ceremony at the Pentagon.

Commander Gordon is a graduate of Columbia High School and a 1989 graduate of Georgia Institute of Technology where he earned a BS degree in electrical engineering. He was commissioned through the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corp in January 1990 and proceeded to Naval Flight School in Pensacola, FL where he was designated a naval aviator in October, 1991.

In 2003, CDR Gordon was assigned to the Joint Staff’s Force Application Assessment Division (J–8) at the Pentagon. He currently serves as an aircraft capabilities analyst working new aviation programs such as the V–22 Osprey and the MH–60R through the complete Joint Staff evaluation, acquisition, and approval board process headed by the vice chairman of the Joint Chief’s of Staff. He also has served as an executive assistant to his general officer, the J–8 deputy director for force application and was a member of the J–3 Joint Staff Response Cell’s Ops team in charge of writing and briefing both the director of Joint Staff Operations (J–3) and the chairman of the Joint Chief’s of Staff on daily operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

CDR Godon has flown over 3000 flight hours in the SH–60 and has over 3250 flight hours to his credit. His personal decorations include the Naval Air Medal (two individual awards) and the Navy Communication Medal (five awards), the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, and numerous campaign and unit and service awards.

CDR Gordon is married to the former Rolanda Arlean Ogletree of Dayton, Ohio. The couple has two daughters, Danielle Lauren, six, and Reese Catherine, 18 months. He is the son of Bobby and Delores Gordon.