
Photo by Erin Nelson.
Rudy Duda, a Vietnam veteran, is photographed at the New Merkel House in Vestavia Hills. Duda, who now lives, works and volunteers in Vestavia Hills, spent 12 years with the U.S. Air Force, serving in Vietnam and at various air bases around the country.
Growing up in a suburb of Omaha that was populated by no small number of Air Force “brats,” Rudy Duda decided he, too, wanted to join the U.S. Air Force by entering the ROTC program at the University of Nebraska.
“It’s a good life,” Duda said of the military.
The now 75-year-old made a career out of flying planes through Vietnam and around the United States, but his desire to volunteer and help others continued long after he retired from military service.
Duda, who now lives, works and volunteers in Vestavia Hills, spent 12 years with the U.S. Air Force, serving in Vietnam and at various air bases around the country. He graduated college in 1966, was immediately enlisted as a second lieutenant in the Air Force, sent to pilot training at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma and graduated one year later. From there, Duda was sent to train in the jungles of the Philippines.
The Air Force sent Duda to Vietnam just as the Tet Offensive was getting under way. In the middle of the enormous conflict, Duda volunteered for a mission, something his father had warned him never to do.
Duda, along with other volunteers, was sent to Nha Trang Air Base and assigned to a crew.
In the span of about one year, he flew 138 combat missions, carrying a crew that was responsible for gathering intelligence on the location, movement and chatter of the Vietcong.
A typical day for Duda meant waking up at the crack of dawn, gathering with the rest of the team, obtaining objectives and flying seven-hour missions.
“It was an important operation, although we never got to see firsthand what happened a lot of times,” Duda said.
When Duda returned from Vietnam, he found a “dominant” anti-war stance among many American citizens.
“We weren’t really admired back then,” Duda said. “But we did our job. … You just kind of took it in stride.”
Duda was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal for his service in the Vietnam War.
When he returned in 1969, he was assigned to fly KC-135s at Castle Air Force Base in California, a short stint before spending two years at March Air Force Base, also in California.
In 1971, he was sent to Kincheloe Air Force Base in northern Michigan, where he spent four years flying KC-135s for domestic missions. In his spare time, Duda also obtained his master’s degree from Central Michigan University.
While he was several years removed from war, there was a time he thought he’d be sent back as tensions continued to rise in the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East.
It was also in Michigan where Duda was sent to Alaska to train pilots and other personnel at an Air Force base there. Duda recalled they were always sent in the “worst possible conditions,” meaning temperatures of 30 or 40 degrees below zero, with snow and ice on the runway.
“You always practiced” for the experience, he said.
However, nothing could have prepared him for one call he received in Michigan. One night, the command center, where Duda was working after getting a promotion, received a call of strange activity going on in a street on base. The base commander, whose son was about to be deployed to Vietnam, had committed suicide.
“Every day is a different situation,” Duda said.
Duda continued to work in the command center when he was transferred to Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he also flew T-39s from 1975-78.
“Every day is a new challenge,” Duda said. “When you’re in command control, you’re taking in the entire capability of the base.”
In the late 1970s, Duda was promoted to the rank of major and assigned to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines, but he refused the assignment, leaving with the rank of captain after 12 years of service.

Photo by Neal Embry.
Rudy Duda, a volunteer at the New Merkel House,helps take food out of an oven.
Duda had decided his family had already had enough travel. His son had been born while he was in pilot training, and his daughter was born while he was in upgrade training in the Philippines. While that’s what military service members “sign up for,” Duda knew he had had enough.
“It’s traumatic on the kids,” Duda said.
While his children learned to adapt to new surroundings quite frequently, uprooting his family was always a problem, Duda said. But it did allow them to see a large number of places around the country.
“It’s got its good points,” he said.
Just because he had left the service didn’t mean Duda stopped working. He quickly went to work in an oil field in Houston, working as an engineer for a company that sold and serviced rigs all over the world.
Duda came to Birmingham in 1988 and worked for The Orcutt Co., which sells industrial clutch and brake products for industrial machinery. In 2011, Duda bought the company along with another co-owner, and continues to operate the business today.
Duda said he enjoys living and working in Vestavia Hills. He spends a large amount of his free time at the New Merkel House, the senior center in Cahaba Heights. He helps prepare meals, visits other members and assists in other tasks around the building.
“I like volunteering,” Duda said. “I’ve always tried to volunteer, to help your neighbor. Somebody always needs something. I don’t mind helping them if they need the help.”
Melanie Perry, director of the New Merkel House, said Duda has always been willing to help her around the New Merkel House, whether in serving meals or taking care of other senior citizens. Duda is a “sweet spirit [and] a kindred heart,” Perry said.
Several decades removed from his flying days, Duda still maintains his commercial pilot’s license and watches videos and reads about aircraft. While he doesn’t fly anymore, he said he could “in an emergency.” The skill is not easily lost for a decorated Air Force veteran.
“It’s like riding a bike,” Duda said.