HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — A picture says a thousand words. For 92-year-old Navy Veteran Duane Hoffman, stacks of photo albums tell his life story.
“I turned 18 when I was a senior in high school, so I got a draft card,” Hoffman said. “So I was going to be drafted. And, of course, a couple of my other classmates got the same deal going. I wanted to go into the Air Force, the other two wanted to go in the Navy, and I said, ‘Okay, I’ll go into the Navy with you.’”
The decision to join the Navy led Hoffman to spend more time behind the camera than in front of it. He said they got to pick a school to attend following Navy boot camp, in which he chose an airman school in Jacksonville, Florida. From there, he said he also chose to go to a photography school in Pensacola, Florida.
“As a graduate of aerial photography, I got assigned to a permanent station up in Washington, D.C., at a naval photographic center. That’s where it all got started,” Hoffman said.
He served as a naval photographer from 1951 to 1955.
“Knowing that I was standing right next to the flight deck, taking all kinds of 35 millimeter movie film of aircraft within 30 feet of me, catching those tailhooks on these cables,” Hoffman said. “And, I got to thinking, ‘Hey, it was a little dangerous.’”
Hoffman said the decision to join the military changed his life forever.
After being discharged, he took advantage of the GI bill, formally known as the Serviceman’s Readjustment Act of 1944. This helped him obtain a college degree in aeronautical engineering.
That degree eventually brought him to Huntsville, where he had the chance to fulfill a lifelong dream.
“I’ve always been attached in one way or another to airplanes. I built little model airplanes when I was 10 years old, and I always wanted to build my own airplane,” Hoffman said. “And I did it. I built my own airplane right here in Huntsville, Alabama. The reward you give to yourself for doing that, and flying a piece of equipment you built yourself, is just amazing.”
Hoffman now fills his days building model airplanes, recreating memories through drawings and tending to his laundry list of rare hobbies.
His secret to living a fulfilling life? Maintaining a dream that you’re always reaching for.
“Always have an objective. Something out there, something you want to achieve. You may not achieve it. That achievement point may move out on you, and you need to make another one. But, somehow, you need a point out there that’s something you want to do and keep working at it,” Hoffman said.
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