Hubbard enlisted in the United States Air Force in October 1952, reenlisted twice and was honorably discharged after 14 years of service.

During the publicity generated by the April, 1971 anti-war protest march on Washington DC, Hubbard made claims about his rank during interviews that he later admitted were false.

He was introduced on Meet the Press as a decorated Air Force captain who had spent two years in South Vietnam.

Historian and author of Home to War: A History of the Vietnam Veteran's Movement, Gerald Nicosia commented on the Hubbard military record controversy: ... service people doing covert missions, such as rangers going across the border in Laos, into North Vietnam, etc., never had those actions put into their records.

Al Hubbard was on similar covert missions, flying in a supply plane to the French when they were fighting the Viet Minh in the fifties.