Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1984 Lucky Bag:

Mark A. Prusinski

Pru

Mark Prusinski is in some ways, well, a bit different than the normal person. For example, most people get obnoxious when they’re drunk; Pru is obnoxious when he’s sober, but mellow when he’s drunk. Most people crack up their parents’ car; Pru’s mother cracked up his car. One way in which Mark is not unique, however, is in his desire to fly F-14’s. Mark knew he wanted to become a pilot as early as junior high school and shaped his career at the Academy around this desire. When it came time to pick a major, he chose Aerospace Engineering, figuring it was as close as he could get to the real thing for the moment. Another unusual thing about Mark is that he did well in this major. So well, in fact, that he found himself sweating bullets when the prospect of a nuclear draft was brought up. Mark was, not, however, so obsessed with flying that he couldn’t take time out to enjoy other things. He joined the Glee Club and for four years terrorized the United States with its subsidiary, the “We’re There Club.” Youngster year he even went out with the same girl more than twice. To commemorate the occasion he made her his girlfriend, and they’ve been going out ever since. In keeping with Pru’s tradition, AnnaMaria’s parents hate Mark, so this may turn into a permanent affair. The other love of Mark’s life is his car, a British-Leyland MGB. His mother put it into the shop for the first time, but decidedly not for the last time; that car hag already failed to start in two countries. True to form, Pru got what he wanted for service selection, and will be reporting to Pensacola one fine day in July. We wish him all the best and send him off with one of his favorite toasts: “You can pick your friends, and can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friends nose.”
CMS KDW

Loss

Mark was lost on March 28, 1990 when the aircraft he was piloting crashed near the Naval Weapons Center China Lake, California.

Other Information

From the July/August 1990 issue of Shipmate:

Born in Tarrytown, New York on 11 February 1962, he was appointed to the Naval Academy from the State of Minnesota and graduated with the Class of 1984.

Upon graduation, he entered flight training and was designated a Naval Aviator in April 1986 at NAS Meridien, Mississippi. After completing fleet replacement training in Attack Squadron 128 at NAS Whidbey Island, Washington, he joined the Milestones of Attack Squadron 196 flying the A-6E Intruder. During this tour, he made two Western Pacific/Indian Ocean deployments on board USS CONSTELLATION (CV-64) and participated in the first “Earnest Will” operations escorting reflagged Kuwaiti tankers through the Persian Gulf. Assigned to the Naval Weapons Center since August 1989, he was flying both the A-6 and the QF-86 Sabrejet.

Survivors include his wife, Michelle, of Ridgecrest, California; his mother Joanne of Spring Lake Park, Minnesota; his brother Norman of Chaska, Minnesota; sisters Linda Sroufe of Federal Way, Washington, and Donna Sershen of Chanhassen, Minnesota; and his grandmother Mary Segretta of New York.

A Star Tribune article mentions Mark performed with the Naval Academy Glee Club and that he was studying for a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at the time of his death.

He is buried in Minneapolis.

Photographs

From the Lucky Bag.

Remembrance

From the Many Point [Scout Camp] Staff Alumni Association via Google cache:

March 28, 1990 - U.S. Navy Lieutenant Mark A. Prusinski lost his life when his QF-86F Sabre crashed near Trona, between Ballarat and Wildrose Canyon. Mark was 28 years old.

The story is sad but it happened so long ago now that the pain has mostly faded for me. For my Mother, it can still be fresh.

Mark was a Test Pilot at China Lake in the Mohave. He was testing A6 Intruders. He was doing very well and had just gotten married on March 10, 1990. March 28th was his first day back at work and he took out the AF-86F. What ever happened, happened suddenly. What I remember is that the Navy said that Mark probably did a maneuver that was OK for the Intruder but not for the F86. When he tried to correct the problem, what they speculate is that he corrected for an Intruder and it wasn’t the right thing to do in an F86. The crash was sudden and death was instant.

His wife Michele eventually came to live in Minnesota with my other brother and his family. Because she was from New Zealand, the Immigration Department people wanted her out of the country. She eventually had to leave and come back as a foreign student. We were not considered family. She is now in Bellingham, Washington. She had remarried and has a little girl Madeline.

I know Mark loved his time at Many Point. He always went full tilt in life. As it seems he did in death. I always am some what consoled that he died doing what he loved best…flying.

God bless you all,
Donna Ploof
(Mark’s sister)