Captain Rodgaard has over 41 years with the naval service of the United States, to include 12 years as a petty officer and 29 years of commissioned service as a naval intelligence officer.

As a petty officer, his sea tours saw him as a CIC Watch Supervisor and Intelligence Petty Officer, on a destroyer escort and submarine tender. In 1977, he became one of the Navy’s first intelligence specialists. He received his direct appointment as a naval intelligence officer in 1981 and served in various navy and joint intelligence tours to include Submarine Group 8, Carrier Group 4, the Office of Naval Intelligence, the Deputy Director for Intelligence, J2 Defense Intelligence Agency, the US Naval Forces Europe and the Navy Staff. Captain Rodgaard completed his last four years of service with the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency as a senior uniform intelligence collection officer in 2010.

As a civilian, Captain Rodgaard has been employed as a contract imagery intelligence analyst with the National Reconnaissance Office, the United States Air Force U-2 Programme, and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.

He is a published author and a contributor to several Discovery Channel Unsolved History Television Programs: “The Death of the USS Arizona; Inside Hitler’s Bunker; Unsolved History of Pearl Harbor – Midget Submarines.” His work on the Japanese Midget Submarines was showcased on NOVA Science Series, “Killer Submarines of Pearl Harbor” in 2011.

He co-authored the biography about Commodore Charles Stewart, USN the most successful fighting captain of the USS Constitution, A Call To The Sea: Captain Charles Stewart of The USS Constitution, 2005. He published his second book in 2010, the second edition of A Hard Fought Ship: The Story of HMS Venomous. The third edition was released in 2017. He wrote the foreword to Britannia’s Royal Naval College’s official history, Turning The Tide, The Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway, 2013. His book, From Across the Sea: North Americans in Nelson’s Navy, was released in 2020 by Helion Publishers. He is currently working on his next book, Tailships: Hunting Soviet Submarines in the Mediterranean, 1970-1973. Rodgaard is also a co-editor of The 1805 Club’s annual, The Trafalgar Chronicle and co-editor of the Naval Historical Foundation’s, International Journal of Naval History.

Captain Rodgaard is the recipient of the Naval Institute’s History Author of the Year for the year 1999 and he is a contributor and reviewer to the Naval Institute’s Naval History Magazine, the Society for Nautical Research quarterly, the Mariner’s Mirror, and the Naval History Foundation’s Naval History Book Reviews.

He is the past commander of the Naval Order of the United States’ National Capital Commandery and Captain Rodgaard is a life member of the US Navy League.

Captain Rodgaard holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Political Science; a Masters in Political Science, and he is a graduate of the United States Naval War College.

He is married to fellow Club member and co-editor of the Trafalgar Chronicle, Judith Pearson, PhD.