Veteran Service Award
Rudy Baker Veteran Service Award winner takes long road from tobacco farm to distinguished military career By RANDY CAPPS
It was a steamy July afternoon in 1954 when Rudy Baker reached a decision that would change not only his life, but the lives of countless others. “I was looking for anything except a tobacco patch,” he said, of that fateful summer day. “I had been cropping lugs all week on Devil’s Racetrack, some farm down there. About three o’clock, I said, ‘There’s got to be a better way to make a living.’ So I threw my hat on the ground, put my foot in it and said, ‘I quit.’ (My dad) said, ‘You can’t quit. You own 3 acres of this.’ I said, ‘You can have the three acres and whatever it gets.’” He had just graduated from Selma High School, and went to High Point to work with a cousin in a furniture factory. “On Friday afternoon, I came out of 40 | [ JOHNSTON NOW ]
there with sawdust in my nose, eyes and hair and said, ‘This isn’t any better than the tobacco patch,’” he said. “I went down to the post office and saw a Navy recruiter with a sign up that said, ‘Be back in an hour.’ So, I sat down and waited. When one hour went by and he wasn’t back, I went across the hall and joined the Army.” He retired as a colonel 38 years later and, after 18 more years working for First Citizens Bank, has worked tirelessly to help his fellow veterans. That’s why he’s the 2021 Johnston Now Honors Veterans Service Award winner. “Whatever I can do,” he said. “The country’s been good to me. From a sharecropper’s son to an Army colonel to a senior vice president with First Citizens, I owe something back.” For Baker, joining the Army took a little serendipity. Staying in it after his
first enlistment, most of which was spent in Germany, was more of a practical decision. “I served in the Army for three years, and when I got out, I had the option of driving a dump truck or going back in the tobacco patch,” he said. “Seventy-six days later, I rejoined the Army.” In September 1961, thanks to the “blood stripe” policy, he got into Officer Candidate School in Fort Benning, Georgia. He was one of 238 non-commissioned officers to enter, and he was among the 50% who graduated. Members of that class wrote a book, “The Boys of Benning,” and Baker’s story is chapter one. Baker’s first tour in Vietnam featured a wide variety of experiences. On the upside, he got his captain’s bars on the ground after a “fun jump” from a helicopter, with
