Retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Duane Foster has traveled to 60 countries. He’s been stationed all over the United States. He’s even intentionally flown into dozens of hurricanes. But his heart has always been in Indiana.
“I’ve been all across this country from coast to coast, but when it came down to where we wanted to go, we like Indiana,” Foster said. “It’s not perfect, but it’s home and a great place to have kids, and that’s very important.”
The 78-year-old retired from the military in 1991 and around that time, the rural Seymour man and his wife, Mary Foster, found their way back to his childhood home on Commiskey Pike near the Jackson County line with Jennings County.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryThe early years
Born July 15, 1939, in Jennings County, Duane is the son of Lester and Lettie Foster, who have both passed away.
He graduated from Crothersville High School in 1957. He was class president and valedictorian and a member of the Tigers’ basketball squad.
He met his wife, Mary, who was 13th in a family of 14 siblings.
“Her nephew and I worked and played basketball together and one night she went with him to a ballgame and he asked if I wanted to meet her and I sure did, Foster said. “The rest is history.”
Foster and the former Mary E. Beavers were married Aug. 16, 1959, at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Medora.
Mary graduated from Tunnelton High School and was a cheerleader there.
School & military
After high school, Duane received a scholarship from Butler University.
“At the time, they had an Air Force ROTC program and I wanted to fly,” he said. He graduated from Butler in 1961 and earned a high school math-teaching license.
“The day I graduated Butler is the day I became a second lieutenant,” Foster said. “I was commissioned through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training program in 1961, and then in 1962, I got my orders to report to Vance Air Force Base to begin pilot training.”
The Fosters packed everything into their Volkswagen Beetle and headed to Enid, Oklahoma, with their firstborn son, Mark.
“There was a half-day of classes, a half-day of flying and a half-day of studying,” he said. “You do the math and see there wasn’t enough hours in the day.”
Taking to the sky
After completing his training, Foster flew C-130 Hercules transports from 1963-68, spending time at Ramey Air Bases in Puerto Rico, Stewart Air Force Base in Tennessee and Travis Air Force Base in California.
While in Puerto Rico, he was assigned to the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, the Air Force’s famed Hurricane Hunters.
“I penetrated to the eye of the hurricane 39 times, and they give you a patch for that,” he said. “It’s rough going in and it’s beautiful in there, but you’ve got to come back out and it’s just as bad coming out.”
In the spring of 1968, Foster left active duty and went to work for Pan American Airlines. The family lived in New Jersey until the late ’60s, when they returned to Crothersville and Duane Foster commuted to JFK Airport in New York City.
Hired as an Air Reserve technician in 1970, Foster worked as a civilian 40 hours a week and was a reservist in the Air Force Reserve Command. Or as Foster puts it — the best of both worlds.
Between 1972 and 1981, Foster was director of operations for the 910th Tactical Fighter Group at Youngstown Municipal Airport in Ohio. In 1976, he also became base commander for the Ohio unit.
After completing Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama in 1980, Foster returned to active duty in the Air Force Reserves at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.
“One of the things about flying fighters is that you do lose some of your friends,” Foster said. “I was a commander and in my time I lost nine of them.”
In October 1981, Foster transferred to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio. By then, he was a full colonel and flew F-4 planes.
In 1983-84, Foster served at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida before getting a chance to become commander at Grissom Air Force Base in Indiana after the A-10 pilot who was going to become the commander could not do it.
“I called (my boss) and said he probably wouldn’t find many people who would like to leave Florida and go back to Indiana to fly A-10s and stop flying F-4s, but I would.”
Test pilot — sort of
He left Grissom in 1987 and returned to Pan Am as a pilot. He retired from the military for good in 1991.
His first stint with Pan Am had ended in a furlough (he was one of 500 pilots affected); after the furlough, he’d gone into the techinician program, hoping to build his practical skills. It paid off.
“… I went into the technician program because 17 years later, they called up and asked if I wanted to come back,” Foster said. “I decided to go back to Pan Am, living in Indiana but working out of New York.”
On a workday, he’d drive to an airport, then take a plane to New York where he’d get some sleep before piloting a flight to Europe. After Delta purchased Pan Am’s European routes, Foster was presented with a unique opportunity.
“I did get the chance to fly a brand new Airbus, the only thing was that it only had two engines to fly over the Atlantic,” Foster said.
Foster said they were trying it to see if it could be done, so Foster made big arcs and flew close to Greenland and Iceland, just in case they lost an engine so there would be a place to set it down.
“I also got to fly the Big Bus 747 while working for Pan Am and it was a beautiful plane to fly with 16 tires in the back and two in the front,” Foster said. “When the war in Iraq was starting up, we went in and transported soldiers back and forth.”
Foster would fly into Rome, switch planes and fly it to Saudi Arabia and bring it back and then do it again, he said.
One unforgettable memory for Foster occurred when he came back from Vietnam and how poorly returning service members were being treated because of the unpopularity of the war, he said.
“I did some training at the University of Southern California for about three months and we would never wear our uniforms going to classes,” Foster said. “We could sit down and watch them doing things and protesting and it was rough, but at the end of the Iraq war it was different.”
Foster had picked up a flight crew in Rome to fly them home went to an Army Air Force Base down in South Carolina, he said. That crew were given a nice celebration with family, friends and others.
“I thanked the Lord because I got to see and be a part of how it should be when we come home and it made all the difference,” he said.
Back home
“While I was away in the service Dad added on to the house,” Duane Foster said. “When I came back, Mom had passed away and Dad was remarried and living in Crothersville, so I asked him if I could buy the house, so in 1991 we moved back here.”
Mary Foster, along with her sister, Lula Wolka of Vallonia, was the driving force behind the Cougar’s Den shop in Seymour, for Trinity Lutheran High School.
“I was around to help with the grunt work and get things going but decided I had a greater calling,” Mary said. “That was to be at home for my family and grandchildren when there was a need.”
In 2001, Foster started Foster Brothers LLC Excavating and Crane Company in Seymour with two of his sons, Paul and David Foster. He retired in 2010.
Duane Foster said people say when you retire you don’t have anything to do, but they have their grandchildren, ballgames, hobbies and other things to keep busy that includes his music.
“What we have here in Seymour, is a band called Kyper Creek, and there are six of us,” Foster said. “I’ve been in it maybe six or seven years.”
The band plays for assisted living centers in the area and have a ball doing it, Foster said.
“I play guitar and try to sing,” Foster said. “We play southern gospel or classic country from the 1960s or earlier and they love it.”
Mary Foster said she is the goat that pulls the wagon with all the equipment.
In Duane Foster’s home office, he has photographs of family and of himself, from his days of flying. He also has memorabilia and a world map with push pins, serving as tokens to mark each place he has traveled to.
“I’ve flown over 12,000 miles with military and commercial flight time combined,” Foster said. “I have been to every continent except Antarctica, but didn’t want to go there anyway because it was too cold.”
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Kyper Creek members
Duane Foster, Seymour: Sings and plays guitar
Fred Stuckwisch, Brownstown: Sings, plays guitar and fiddle
Jack Clark, Houston: Sings, plays guitar and dobro
Steve Sidwell, Brownstown: Sings and plays guitar
Steve Pletcher, Columbus: Sings and plays guitar
Bill Daeger, North Vernon: Sings and plays guitar
Al Hochstetler, Seymour: Sings and plays guitar
Kyper Creek monthly schedule
First Monday of the month at 6 p.m. at Hoosier Christian Village in Brownstown
Second Tuesday of the month at 6:30 p.m. at Covered Bridge Health Campus in Seymour
Third Tuesday of the month at 6:30 p.m. at Lutheran Community Home in Seymour
Fourth Tuesday of the month at 6:30 p.m. at Seymour Place in Seymour
Music style
Southern gospel and classic country
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Duane and Mary Foster’s family
Oldest son: Mark (Angie) Foster, co-owner of the gun company, FosTecH Outdoors in Columbus, five children, one grandchild
Middle son: Paul (Donna) Foster, spent 20 years as a Seymour firefighter and also runs Foster Brothers LLC Excavating and Crane Co., three children
Youngest son: David (Angie) Foster, co-owner of the gun company, FosTecH Outdoors in Columbus, four children
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