Maj Don Loudin has served as our Chapter’s 2d Vice President since 2003 where he has been responsible for planning our dinner meetings. 

Don was born on 13 August 1932 in Cincinnati, OH where he grew up and attended high school. He attended Ohio State University in Columbus where he participated in Air Force ROTC. In those days, ROTC was mandatory for two years for all students at land grant colleges. He graduated and received an Air Force commission in 1954. 

A few months later, Don was called to active duty to attend the Officer Indoctrination Course at Lackland AFB, TX. Follow-on assignments were to Primary Undergraduate Pilot Training at Malden AFB, MO, Advanced Fight Training at Laredo AFB, TX and Shepard AFB, TX and, finally, to March AFB, CA. 

At March, he met Mary, who was a junior high school teacher in San Bernardino; they were

married there on 18 May 1957. 

In January 1958, Don left the Air Force and he and Mary moved back to his hometown in Cincinnati where he went to work for Sun Oil Company (Sunoco) and, shortly thereafter, joined the Air Force Reserve. His 32 year career with Sunoco included transfers to West Lafayette, IN, Columbus, OH and, lastly in 1969, to Philadelphia where he retired from the company in 1990. He was twice recalled to active duty for short periods while serving with the Air Force Reserve. 

After retiring from Sunoco, Don and Mary moved to Fairfield Harbour. Shortly after he retired from the Air Force Reserve. His reserve duty had required him to travel between New Bern and NAS Willow Grove, PA. In 2002, Don and Mary moved from Fairfield Harbour to their present residence in Taberna.

Throughout most of his adult life, Don has been involved with the Republican Party. He served as a GOP Precinct Chairman in West Lafayette and Philadelphia as well as Precinct 20 Chairman (which includes Fairfield Harbour) from 1992-2002. In addition to MOAA, Don was a member of the Coastal Carolina Council of the Navy League for several years, and also served as a Red Cross volunteer at the optometry clinic at the Naval Hospital at MCAS Cherry Point.

 Don and Mary attend Centenary United Methodist Church in New Bern. They have a son living in Philadelphia. Their daughter was killed in an automobile accident in 1976.

This past May, Don and Mary joined Jim and Arlene Dargan and Bud Strong from CC/MOA for the MOAA North Carolina State Council Convention at Sea aboard Grandeur of the Seas sailing from Norfolk to Bermuda.