In Their Words

Fran Dudding

My husband Wayne Dudding, then a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army reserves, volunteered for duty after 9/11. He was assigned to Central Command at MacDill AFB in Tampa, FL. He was on active duty from 2002 to 2004. His duties took him back and forth from Tampa to Qatar. We were fortunate in that although some of duties took him to Iraq for several months and surrounding countries, he spent most of his time in Qatar so we were able to communicate every few days. I set one of my clocks to Middle Eastern time and loved getting those calls in the middle of night! 3:00 a.m. Pittsburgh time was just about the time he would find time in his work day to call me from Qatar. He was wonderful about keeping in touch. He always found a way to mark a holiday or my birthday, even from overseas. Wayne even did several radio spots as a correspondent from the war on our local radio station KDKA, 1020 am. The station was kind enough to coordinate a feed between me, Wayne and the airwaves one morning. It was very exciting for us to be able to converse with such a clear connection and be able to share this experience with the listening audience.  Wayne earned a bronze star for his efforts in the Iraqi oil fields during the war. His uniform is now on display at Soldiers and Sailors Museum in Pittsburgh.