Sgt. Maj. (Retired) Godfrey distinguished himself throughout his 25 years of service to the Airborne throughout his 25 years of service to the Airborne and Special Operations Test Directorate (ABNSOTD) by always seeking to provide the best equipment possible to Soldiers.  He contributed to the accomplishments of the ABNSOTD while assigned in successive positions as the Senior Airdrop Non Commissioned Officer, Directorate Sergeant Major, and Department of the Army Civilian Fabric worker.  These three assignments, along with his other exceptional contributions, equaled a service period of more than 37 years.

Throughout his combined military and civilian careers, Godfrey completed more than 1,000 static line parachute jumps; developed airdrop procedures for inclusion in Army Field and Training Manuals; and supervised the conduct of testing of manufactured air delivery equipment used in every ABNSOTD test mission.  Working with test officers, engineers, and data collectors, Godfrey completed documentation on air delivery procedures during the second busiest period of testing in the ABNSOTD’s history since its inception in 1940.

One of Godfrey's significant achievements while serving as the ABNSOTD sergeant major was leading a Quartermaster School and Natick Laboratory effort to find remedies to the poor performance characteristics of the MC1-1B parachute so that it could continue to be used for mass airdrops.  He designed two of the three modifications to the MC1-1 which received favorable consideration by the Commanding General, XVIIIth Airborne Corps.  He also retrofitted existing T-10 parachute canopies into older models of the parachute system no longer in the Army inventory in order to allow for comparison testing. 

Godfrey attended the Sergeant’s Major Academy at Fort Bliss, Texas, in January 1975.  Upon graduation, he returned to Fort Bragg as the NCOIC of air delivery operations at the Airborne, Communications and Electronics Board hangar on Pope Air Force Base until he assumed the senior NCO position as the ABNSOTD Sergeant Major.

After retiring from active duty in 1981, he returned to ABNSOTD in 1987 as a fabric worker.  He regularly fabricated, repaired, designed, and modified air delivery equipment items used for operational testing at ABNSOTD.  Regularly commended for his initiative in developing solutions to test equipment problems, Godfrey designed canvas pouches that secured data collection cameras aboard aircraft in flight, allowing test officers to obtain close-up details of the parachute extraction sequence.