Ada Lou Reed Duacsek was born in 1925. A friend of her father had an small plane and she was hooked on flying before she could drive a car. Duacsek attended San Jose State University where she became a member of Alpha Chi Omega.
The only female in the Operational Aviation program, the program shut down during World War II, when the men in the program were sent to Army or Navy flight schools. Duacsek spent two and half years working at the Naval Air Station in Alameda as a flight instrument technician. Her nights were spent as a Stage Door Canteen hostess in San Francisco. Duacsek graduated in 1949 and tried to find a job flying planes.
Being a woman pilot in the early 1950s was not easy. Job offers were not forthcoming when it was discovered she was a woman. So she tried the Navy, because women were provided equal pay. She was one of three women among the 450 or so men taking entrance exams. She was in the third regular commission WAVE class. However, women were not allowed to be Naval pilots. She reported to duty in Glenview, Illinois, on January 1, 1950.
She earned a degree in aerology, a combination of meteorology and oceanography, from the Naval Postgraduate School of Monterey. There she met a Navy man, Lt. Anthony Duacsek, who would become her husband.
She was then assigned to Moffett Field in California, where she was on 24-hour watch to clear flight operations. When they decided to have a family, Duacsek was honorably discharged because married women with children were not allowed to be on active duty.
Duacsek became a military wife and mother to three daughters. The family moved several times following her husband’s career. Wherever she was, she would make use of her skills to make the community a better place. She helped develop hurricane evacuations plans and had a hand in helping with Operation Baby Lift in 1975. She volunteered more than 5,000 hours for the Navy Marine Corps Relief Society.
Duacsek was a Life Loyal member of Alpha Chi Omega. She died on November 21, 2021, at the age of 96.
