- Date Of Birth: April 23, 1944
- Date Of Death: September 16, 2011
- State: Arizona
Roger Stephen Duter, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy and Vietnam-era Navy combat pilot noted for his wit and wry sense of humor, died Thursday at his home in Flagstaff, Arizona of an apparent heart attack.
He was 67. He was proud of his service under Secretary of the Navy John Lehman during the Reagan Administration. He took equal pride in the more-than-200 combat missions over North Vietnam and Laos from aircraft carriers in A-4 Skyhawk attack bombers. He made two tours on Yankee Station in the South China Sea while attached to Attack Squadron VA-164–the Ghostriders. The tour was aboard USS Oriskany and the next aboard USS Hancock. Mr. Duter was born April 23, 1944, in Riverdale, Maryland to Ralph and Claire Duter. He lived his early years in Greenbelt, Maryland graduating from Surratsville High School in Clinton, Maryland, in 1962.“Roger was an airport kid. He learned as a teen at Hyde Field in Maryland, near Andrews Air Force Base,” recalled former squadron member Jim Waldron of St. Simons Island, Georgia. Mr. Duter further attended Parks College of Aeronautical Engineering in Saint Louis, Missouri, where he majored in meteorology, an interest he would carry through his life. While at Parks College, he further honed his skills. Following two years of study, he entered Navy training in Pensacola, Florida. He earned his wings and a commission as an Ensign in 1966. Mr. Duter had a wonderful sense of humor, and with a single pithy sentence, he could defuse a tense situation and create laughter. His former Squadron Commander, Captain Bill Span, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, said, “Roger was a source of inspiration for all of the junior officers and enlisted men of the squadron. I was proud to have him as my wingman and he performed his duty with distinction and honor. All of the Ghostriders will sorely miss him.”
Following his release from active duty, Mr. Duter returned to Pensacola, Florida where he earned a BS in philosophy and an MBA at the University of West Florida.
In 1973, Mr. Duter moved to the Washington, D.C. area, where he worked as an analyst for the investment, Ferris & Company. In the late 1970s, he joined the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, a division of the State Department, where he did an analysis of foreign arms sales. There he worked with John Lehman, who in 1982 was appointed Secretary of the Navy and named Mr. Duter his Special Assistant for Tactical Programs. The former Secretary said he considered Mr. Duter “my right hand as Secretary of the Navy. He played a lead role in most of the important initiatives in rebuilding the Navy and helping to win the Cold War,” Mr. Lehman said. “He feared neither the North Vietnamese nor the more dangerous government bureaucrats. His accomplishments were real and dramatic, yet he never claimed credit for a single thing. I and all of his former comrades will miss him sorely,” Mr. Lehman said. While serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Tactical Aviation, Mr. Duter was credited with major contributions to the creation of Strike U, a facility in Fallon, Nevada where naval aviators advance their air-to-ground ordnance delivery skills. Strike U is the attack pilots’ equivalent to the pilots’ Top Gun School.
In 1987, Mr. Duter left the Pentagon and founded Requirements Resources, Inc., which provided consulting services to defense aerospace companies.
He met his current wife, Cheryl, while they were both serving in the Pentagon. They married in 1995. The couple retired in 2008 to Arizona, where they owned homes in Sun City and Flagstaff. Mr. Duter was at the Flagstaff residence when he was apparently felled by heart failure. In retirement, he studied geology, and climatology and continued his interest in aviation and meteorology. He was a sailplane pilot, and he and his wife loved hiking. They often hiked trails on Mount Elden near their Flagstaff home.
He is survived by his wife, Cheryl; brothers Richard of Odenton, Maryland, and Lee of Ashburnham, Massachusetts; son and daughter-in-law David and Kari Duter of Yorktown, Virginia; stepson Kenneth Weaver of Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and four grandchildren. Mr. Duter will be remembered, and his life celebrated, at a Ghostriders squadron reunion in mid-October. Former squadron-mate Don Purdy of Berkeley, California said, “If we could have asked him how to do the memorial service, he’d have pondered for a moment, transformed his stoic face into a big grin, and with a sparkle in his eye said, ‘Well, definitely have a few drinks, some really good Scotch; tell a bunch of lies—and none of that maudlin stuff. I’ll have none of that.’”
