Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1984 Lucky Bag:

Brian C. Hawley

Bri

From the ski slopes of Heavenly, Brian came skiing into Plebe Summer at a pretty fast clip and continued to barrel through obstacles until second semester plebe year when he met up with a second class named Webb. But elastic enough to bounce back Brian picked himself up and continued down the hill only to hit another mogul by the name of 4000 series conduct offense. It seemed a football pep rally wasn’t exciting enough so he and his roommate tried to brighten it up with fireworks only to be caught red-handed. Again picking himself up and brushing off the snow he persisted down the slopes only to be nearly hung on a tree branch called second class aerospace major academics made worse by his summer fling Susie. But Michelle came along and straightened him out (kind of) and Brian made it the rest of the way with only minor slips including a heartbreaking battering of his sweet little 240Z. Brian’s laid back Californian skibum, rock climbing ways will be missed but Pensacola and the NFO community will benefit from his presence.

Loss

Brian was lost on April 14, 1988 when the A-6E Intruder he was aboard crashed about 25 miles south of Chehalis, in southwestern Washington. The pilot was also lost; they were members of Attack Squadron (VA) 145, based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington.

Other Information

From Longview Daily News on April 16, 1988:

…the wreckage was spotted by a Civil Air Patrol plane about 4:45 p.m. (on April 15th) roughly 15 miles north-northeast of Mount St. Helens.

The Navy jet was “right on course” when it went down at about 4,000 feet elevation roughly a quarter mile from the nearest road, Stovall said.

The … jet was on a flight from the base north of Seattle to the Boardman bombing range in Eastern Oregon.

From researcher Kathy Franz: “When Brian was a junior at South Lake Tahoe High School in 1979, he participated in cross country and Nordic skiing.”

Brian is buried in South Lake Tahoe, El Dorado, California.

Remembrances

From Tahoe Daily Tribune:

“A lot of folks passed away, not always in combat, but I’ve lost a lot of friends and colleagues because of how dangerous of a profession it is,” Dvorak said. “It truly could’ve happened to anybody. Hawley was my best friend, we met in second grade at Meyers Elementary.”

While Dvorak reflected on his time in service, he also reflected on his long-time friendship with Hawley. The pair took almost identical steps together during their education paths and careers, both coming from South Lake Tahoe.

“Elementary, junior high, high school, the U.S. Naval Academy, and then we both ended up doing the same job sitting in the right seat of a A-6E Intruder, so it’s pretty wild how we both ended up in the same spot after all those years,” Dvorak said.

Photographs

From his high school yearbook

"Mark Dvorak (left) and Brian Hawley (right) U.S. Naval Academy graduation day May 23, 1984." Provided to Tahoe Daily Tribune by Mark Dvorak. Source