Jim Drucker’s life has a simple focus: God and country.

At 82, one might say he practices what he preaches.

That’s because Drucker — an accomplished radio personality, songwriter, music promoter, producer and publisher, is also an ordained priest in the Byzantine Rite of the Catholic Church.

Officially, the Rev. James N. Drucker is also a chaplain who’s retired from the U.S. Air Force Reserve, and holds a captain’s rank.

Over the years, he’s combined his skills as a journalist, communicator and clergyman while living, advocating and promoting the cause of his fellow veterans — a devotion that continues today.

Roots in region

Born in 1942 in Hazleton, a months-old Drucker and his siblings moved to Philadelphia, where his mother relocated after his father’s death.

His military connection started early.

An older brother, Joseph, left for World War II when Drucker was less than a year old. Joseph died in 1945 while serving his country.

More than 40 years later, Drucker visited Joseph’s grave site at Cambridge Cemetery for Deceased Americans in England, offering Mass in 1985 for veterans who died in the war, and personally for the brother he saw only in photographs but never really knew.

Drucker walked the tarmac at Great Ashfield Air Base where Joseph was stationed, and buried his crucifix lapel pin at his brother’s grave marker.

“It’s a memory I’ll treasure forever,” Drucker said.

Two other brothers also served. Paul, the second eldest, did two tours in the U.S. Navy in WWII.

“He had one submarine blown up, and he lived,” Drucker recalls. “And he saved many lives because he could swim like a fish.”

A younger brother, Louis, later served in the U.S. Army as a Morse code interceptor working with security personnel.

Growing up in Philadelphia’s Kensington-Allegheny neighborhood, Drucker attended Edison High School, which would eventually become the high school with the largest death toll of any in the Vietnam War era. Some of his schoolmates were among the 64 who lost their lives.

Drucker’s family, though, moved back to the coal region, and he graduated from West Hazleton High School in 1960.

Service, education

He returned to Philadelphia and began his military service when he joined the Army Reserve.

“I was trained more as a combat soldier than combat soldiers I knew who were in combat,” he said of his specialized training at Fort Jackson in South Carolina.

“They told us we were ‘this close,’” he said, using his thumb and forefinger to illustrate how near his unit was to being sent to Vietnam because of the added infantry training. “And somehow, miraculously, it didn’t happen.”

Thus began a six-year stint of weekly drills with an engineer unit at Lenkalis Army Reserve Center in West Hazleton. He also served as an enlisted member of the National Guard’s 111th Tactical Air Support Group at Willow Grove Naval Air Station near Philadelphia.

Along the way, he earned degrees from the University of Scranton and received theology training at Ss. Cyril and Methodius Byzantine Seminary in Pittsburgh.

At 36 and after a successful career as a radio disc jockey that began in Lehighton and included stops in Lansford, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, he was ordained in 1978 and served locally at churches in Beaver Meadows, Brockton and St. Clair. He also spent time as pastor of St. Michael’s, a Byzantine Church in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

After the death of his mother, Drucker was back in the military, being commissioned as a first lieutenant in the Air Force Reserve at Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts, where he served as chaplain, a calling that was a perfect fit for his lifestyle.

In 1989, he was assigned to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey after finishing a two-year tour at Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas.

In the Persian Gulf, Drucker served during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm.

He returned to the U.S. in 1991, serving at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas until retiring from active duty in June 1992.

In retirement, Drucker served as a chaplain with the Department of Veterans Affairs, most recently at its medical center in Lebanon until 2007, but his service goes on.

While there, he experienced some of the struggles his fellow veterans were living with.

Fundamentally, he said, the VA is a wonderful organization that has its shortcomings.

Drucker told the story of a WWII veteran who sought treatment there, but because his spouse’s income was too high he was denied benefits, even to the point of not being issued a veterans identification card.

Drucker took the case to an administrator, who found a way to waive the requirements.

“Do you see the inequality in all of this?” Drucker asked. “Because his wife made so much money they kicked him out of the threshold of being recognized as a World War II hero.”

Drucker also suggested that the VA provide more doctors who’ve had combat experience so they might better identify with patients they serve.

Labor of love

He can spend hours talking about his VA years, but these days, he’s back on the radio, hosting a weekly show in the Philadelphia area that blends his love of music from the Doo-Wop era with his lifelong concern and compassion for veterans.

An eclectic mix of entertainers share stories about the early days of the rock ‘n’ roll era, and his show often highlights guests and callers who talk about their time defending freedom.

Drucker shared the story of a Vietnam War pilot whose plane was shot down in 1972 just six days after the birth of his daughter half a world away.

He spent 15 months in the Hanoi Hilton, an infamous prisoner of war camp where he was beaten and interrogated regularly in isolation.

“Solitary was an upgrade,” retired Capt. Ralph Galati said in an on-air interview. “At least you had a window or something.”

Drucker played examples of the demoralizing, incessant broadcasts by “Hanoi Hannah,” a Vietnamese radio personality akin to “Tokyo Rose” in WWII.

“You have lost this war, GI,” she’d say. “Your army will leave you behind.” Or “Your rich leaders grow richer while you die in the swamp, GI,” were just a few of the slogans blared over the prison’s loudspeakers.

Galati said that during his captivity he missed “Americana.”

“The taste of freedom is substantial,” Galati told Drucker. “When you lose it, you really appreciate it.”

Drucker said Galati explained that when soldiers came home, they often couldn’t wear their uniform or find jobs or use their military experience on a resume.

“You couldn’t even join the VFW,” Galati told Drucker. “It was nice to be home, but it was really uncomfortable.”

Each of Drucker’s broadcasts also feature in-studio commentary and advice on veterans’ mental health issues from a psychologist who’s also a retired lieutenant colonel with the U.S. Air Force.

Often spending 20 hours or more preparing it, Drucker sees his show as a labor of love of the music that shaped his generation — even in the most isolated corners of the world — and a respect and devotion to his fellow veterans.

Not to mention a way to stay true to God and country.

“Doo Wop Reveille,” Drucker’s radio show, airs Saturdays at 4 p.m. on WWDB-860 AM. Listen live at wwdbam.com.