Loudon teacher receives diploma

When David Dukes tells his students at Loudon High School to buckle down and earn their diploma or they’ll regret it, he speaks from personal experience.

The Navy Junior ROTC instructor holds a bachelor’s degree in aviation management, but most people didn’t know until this month that Dukes didn’t have a high school diploma. Instead, he earned an equivalency diploma in the Marines.

“I loved high school, and I loved all my friends,” Dukes recalled this week, but he admits he made bad decisions. His senior year he preferred to play hooky and go to the lake rather than class.

One day when a friend needed a ride to a recruiter’s office Dukes drove and then began listening and asking questions.

Enlists in Marines

Dukes already knew he couldn’t graduate on time. “There was no way I was going to make it,” he said. So he enlisted in December 1976 and reported for duty in May.

When Dukes checked in at the Parris Island education office, he already was embarrassed that he didn’t have a diploma and signed up for the General Educational Development test, passing the first time he took it. “Someone in the Gainesville school district must have done something right,” he said.

“I called my mother the day I got it,” he said of the GED. Without a diploma, he said, “I was ashamed for my family.”

Dukes already planned to go to college at some point, as his parents and four siblings had.

Unhappy with his career field of logistics and support, he signed up for embassy duty and served in India, Chad, Switzerland, Guatemala and China. “Not many Marines get to do all that,” he said.

“I was just a boy from middle Georgia back then,” he said. “People probably couldn’t understand how I talked.”

In 2001, he retired from the Marines as a master sergeant when his mother, Louise, was dying of cancer. “It was time to take care of my family,” he said.

Dukes had begun working on his bachelor’s degree in the late 1970s, taking classes when he could in various locations. As he prepared to leave the military, he finished the degree through Southern Illinois University, majoring in aviation management because that was the degree available.

While he was figuring out what to do next, Dukes decided to apply for the position of NJROTC instructor at Loudon High School, and his big sister encouraged him to wear a suit when he dropped off his application.

“They interviewed me right on the spot,” he said.

Back in class

A Maryville resident now, Dukes began teaching during the 2001-02 school year. “The first year or so was frustrating for me,” he said, because he was unaccustomed to teens’ disrespect and apathy. “The Marine Corps is a different culture.”

“I got kids like me,” he said.

He tells his students, “I’m the king knucklehead. What you’re trying to do, I’ve done twice.”

“You can get behind fast,” he warns them, “and when you’re behind it becomes a slippery hill” to work your way back.

Dukes believes students appreciate the hard truth. He fondly recalls one of his teachers, Miss Farr. “She saw right through me,” he said. “She pulled no punches.”

Although he skipped other classes, Dukes showed up for her history class. “I was scared of her,” he admitted, and when she called him out for acting up in class, “I would apologize to her.”

“She was a big influence on me,” Dukes said.

The ROTC program emphasizes life skills, such as responsibility and working with others that will serve students whether they enter the military or not.

“I watch kids grow up from 14 to 18,” Dukes said.

“I like it — Don’t tell them that,” he said with a laugh.

Even after they leave the program, students sometimes text and ask him for advice. “That makes me feel like I’m doing something right, maybe,” the teacher said.

Enlists in Marines

Back in class

Overcoming regret

Limousine ride