From Sandbox to Duck Blind
Operating Engineer Brad Eaton balances a career in the trades
with his role as an adopted member of the Tucker family’s duck blind.
In the aftermath of the tornadoes that recently hit Merrillville, Indiana, Brad Eaton and fellow heavy equipment operators spent their weekend mobilizing dump trucks and skids, working 12-hour shifts to clear trees and debris from the wreckage. On Monday, it was straight back to the job site.
That’s life in the trades, and for the 26-year-old Operating Engineers Local 150 member, it is exactly where he wants to be.
“From when I was five, I knew I was going to run heavy equipment,” Eaton says. He was clearing snow off the driveway with a blade long before he could legally drive. Today, he works alongside his father and uncle in the family business, turning a childhood dream into a career playing in what he calls the big sandbox.
While his professional life is rooted in the union and heavy equipment, his time off is happily spent in a duck blind. Eaton has become a fixture in the Tucker family’s hunting orbit. He and Boston Tucker grew up as friends in the same small-town circles, their fathers having played baseball and basketball against each other in a long-standing high school rivalry. Over time, that shared history evolved, and Eaton integrated into the Tucker family’s tight-knit waterfowling tradition.
This tradition was created by brothers Jim and Pat Tucker more than 30 years ago. Rooted in the trades—Jim serves as a United Association (UA) International Executive Vice President, and Pat is a journeyman sprinkler fitter—the Tucker brothers built a camp culture where union solidarity, hard work, and a passion for the outdoors are inseparable. Today, that legacy is carried forward by the next generation, including Jim’s son, Boston, an organizer for Local 597, and Eaton, who has become an adopted member of the tight-knit crew.
And the torch at duck camp is slowly being passed to the next generation.
“Boston and I are the killers,” Eaton says. “Jim and Pat are there to smoke cigars and eat good food. Food is number one, ducks are number two.” While Jim and Pat often leave their shotguns in their cases just to watch the younger guys shoot, everyone enjoys the social side of the duck blind.
Eaton has always appreciated the union, and that appreciation grows as he gets older. He speaks of the profession and the compensation as a distinct blessing, viewing the union as a path to stability for young guys coming out of high school who want a viable career without a college degree. Though he went to college himself for construction management and engineering, he chose to return to the field full-time, signing up with Local 150 to run equipment.
“I would love to hunt or fish full time, but this is a close second,” Eaton says of his work. For now, he’s content to work as much as possible in the summer months, as long as that means he can spend more time in the blind come fall.
