09/30/2026
LT COL JASON HUDAK NAMED NEXT WV WING COMMANDER
Lt. Col. Jason A. Hudak, a retired family doctor honored as the Civil Air Patrol Health Services Officer of the Year in 2023, has been named the next commander of CAP’s West Virginia Wing.
He will formally succeed Col. Debbie Butler-Case, wing commander since 2023, in a change of command ceremony Oct. 24 at the annual West Virginia Wing Conference. “I am pleased to announce the selection of Lt. Col. Hudak as the next West Virginia Wing commander,” said
Col. Dennis Bissell, commander of CAP’s Mid-Atlantic Region, which includes the West Virginia Wing. “Lt. Col. Hudak brings a wealth of knowledge and experience that will greatly benefit the members of West Virginia Wing and Civil Air Patrol. I am excited to welcome him to the leadership team of the Mid-Atlantic Region and am excited to see what he and the members of West Virginia Wing accomplish during his tenure.”
Hudak first joined CAP in 1992 as a cadet in the Jon A. McBride Composite Squadron, now known as the Beckley Composite Squadron, and rejoined as an adult member in 2019. Since that time, he has served in multiple capacities, including West Virginia Wing deputy commander and wing medical officer, commander of the wing’s Mid-Valley Composite
Squadron, wing character development Instructor, and wing director of administration and personnel, as well as in multiple squadron staff positions. Hudak is active in all three mission areas of Civil Air Patrol, but particularly in emergency services, which was a focus of his time as commander at Mid-Valley, starting up the squadron’s first ground team. He has multiple ES ratings in aircrew, ground team, and
mission base staff roles, earning an IC3 rating in 2024. He has actively pursued advancement across more than a dozen specialty tracks, was awarded the Gill Robb Lt. Col. Jason A. Hudak will serve as the next commander of the West Virginia Wing. Wilson Award ( #4074) in 2022, and serves as an instructor for Volunteer University, which provides structure for CAP’s Senior Member Education and Training Program.
As the wing’s medical officer, Hudak has served as an instructor in first aid/CPR/AED with the American Red Cross, and as an instructor in Wilderness and Remote First Aid, beginning a certification program for the West Virginia Wing in 2022, for which he received a Commanders Commendation in 2021. He has staffed multiple activities as a health services officer, including multiple encampments, wing-level ES training activities, the wing’s Aerospace Education Weekend, and the Mid-Atlantic Region Honor Guard Academy and Region Cadet Leadership School.
In 2020, he established the cadet First Aid Response Team (FAST) for the West Virginia Wing Encampment, and mentors several cadets in that role yearly. He and his wife Terri
established the West Virginia Wing Health Services Scholarship in 2020 for both adult and
cadet members to pursue training in the health sciences. He was awarded the Meritorious Service Award in 2019 for his work on the COVID
Remobilization Team for the West Virginia Wing. In 2022, he was named both the wing and region Health Services Officer of the Year, and in 2023 earned the national-level Health Services Officer of the Year Award.
Hudak graduated from Marshall University with a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences in 2001, the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine in 2005, and completed his residency in Family Medicine in 2007, being accepted into the residency program a year early on an
accelerated track. He served Marshall University first as chief resident and subsequently as a clinical associate professor of Family Medicine and has since gained recognition with academy
fellowships in Family Medicine and Wilderness Medicine. He also served as a senior aviation medical examiner and employee examiner for the FAA and serves as a frequent aeromedical consultant to wing pilots and aircrews. He is certified in Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) and serves a large community of first responders on the Cabell County CISM team.
Hudak also served on the ethics committee at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Huntington and
brings that experience back to CAP to serve his wing as a character development
instructor.
He enjoys teaching and regularly contributes to meetings and conferences with presentations such as “Aviation Physiology,” “Health Hazards of Human Spaceflight,” “Activity Planning for HSOs,” and producing a revision of CAPs “Fit to Fly” Drug Demand Reduction presentation.
In recognition of his diverse service to community, state, and nation, in 2023 he was named an Honorable Kentucky Colonel by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.
Hudak retired from clinical private practice in 2026.
