 After graduating from Oberlin College with an art degree in 1951, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and was stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio where he wrote and directed documentary, technical and training films.While in the Air Force, Brucker was temporarily stationed in New York City, where he became friends with some people who introduced him to caving, through the National Speleological Society (NSS).It was through those connections that he participated in the highly publicized Floyd Collins' Crystal Cave (C-3) Expedition in Kentucky in 1954, in which dozens of explorers spent one week underground, in an effort to determine if Crystal Cave might be connected with other caves.