Larry Hawkins
Family Information: Married Joy Stevens of Mesa, AZ in
1988. Children: Katie, born 1994. Andrew, 1997
Occupation: Airbus A-320 Captain, United Airlines
Address: 19234 E. Hickock Dr., Parker, CO
80134 Phone: 303 841-2047
What have you been doing since 1975?
WARNING: MORE THAT YOU WANT TO KNOW. I hope you are
sitting in comfortable chair and have a lot of time.
To me,
everything has been about one thing: flying.
I got the calling when I was around 7 years old and all I ever wanted to
do was to know the thrill of flight. While
we were in high school I was able to take those first small steps and got my
pilot’s license. Every time I
taxied in from flying at Cutter another one of life’s pieces fell into place
for me. I won a U.S. Air Force
ROTC scholarship and went off to
Arizona
State
.
My
Arizona
State
years were filled with flying after class as a flight instructor at Falcon
Field and
Deer
Valley
airports. I also was trying to
balance the demands of college and work. More
than once I found myself showing up for class just to find out there was a test
today. More than once I found myself
wondering what I was doing here. College was at times overwhelming and
lonely and at other times it could be fun. It might have been so easy at
times just to come home "for a little while" but it was a matter of
just taking it a little bit at a time. One of the dumbest things I ever
did was buy a Datsun 240Z when I was a freshman at ASU. It was a beautiful
car and I thought that I could swing it on my flight instructor pay but you know
how these things go. I remember the day I had no money what so ever to buy
food, that was the day I drove it down to a car dealer and sold it for
wholesale. Lesson learned but to this day I turn my head when I see a 240Z
come down the road. I still get this weird
nightmare about having to fly a United trip but I need to get excused from an
ASU class and the professor says "No way." I wake up in a cold
sweat. I think if I had actually studied I might have felt better about
ASU but I was always messing around at the airports in the valley. Somehow
I survived and graduated on time, in 4 years, with a never-used degree in
Business Administration. Perhaps,
more importantly I left ASU with a wad of pilot ratings and flight time and
headed to the Air Force. Sometimes just showing up is all you need.
My year of
USAF pilot training at Williams AFB was one of the most enjoyable years of my
life. It was flying Air Force jets
and there is no other single thrill on Earth, at least with clothes on, of
putting the throttles of a Northrop T-38 into the afterburner detent and feeling
that kick of acceleration, rotating and climbing into tumbling mirth.
I let the Air Force teach me their way of doing things, had a good time
and graduated very high in my class. I
had my choice of airplanes and being more of a lover and not a fighter I took
the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter to Norton AFB,
California
. The truth is I had my eye on the
airlines and USAF heavy jet time was the way to go.
Guys who flew fighters had no future in the airlines and would end up
selling used cars after a few years of flying.
My Norton
years (1981-1986). I flew the world on a monthly basis.
At Norton we flew a lot of Pacific airlift missions so I got to know
those islands and nations very well. Every
few months it was off to
Europe
. Norton was also tasked with a
combat airdrop mission (
CAM
) and a special operations low-level (SOLL) mission.
These thing involved flying low, about 300 feel above the ground, in a
formation or as a single airplane, and
dropping either paratroopers, special forces, or heavy equipment out the back
end of the airplane. It was more
that just a little bit dangerous so naturally I wanted to do it.
We also did air to air refueling as part of
CAM
and SOLL missions. So I was running
around the Pacific one week and the next I was hitting a tanker then dropping
down to fly a low-level over the Mojave desert.
For big airplanes this was the ultimate flying and I survived a better
man for the experience. I
worked my way up the ranks initially from co-pilot to aircraft commander to
instructor and finally to the end of the line as a flight examiner on the C-141.
In 1983 I
personally invaded and liberated the island nation of
Grenada
. I was shot at by Cubans and
thankfully missed. Awarded the
“Too Stupid to Be Afraid” medal; a common citation for young lieutenants.
In 1990 as an activated reservist I was called to duty for Desert Storm
and saw a lot of flying in some very weird environments.
My biggest fear was getting shot down by our own forces and thankfully
that didn’t happen but I did get to experience a Scud missile attack. It
really was hours and hours of boredom punctuated with moments of high concern
for my own personal safety. I was
now smart enough to be afraid, so they gave me another medal for being just
that.
My USAF years
were my coming of age years. They
gave me role models and taught me a way of thinking that has stayed with me for
the rest of my life. I met some
great people that I can still call my friends. I
realized that I could accomplish some difficult things and at times excel.
I craved challenges and fortunately the Air Force had some of those.
I was privileged to see a lot of things and experience life on a level
that I can’t explain. Ask any one
who has ever been in the military and they will tell you that responsibility
comes fast. It changes you. The
C-141 was a good ride and I loved that airplane.
She could be a ground loving whore that could break down in some of the
worst places in the world. Lockheed always had a knack for making something
overly complex but with a little understanding there was not a better airplane.
When I dream at night, it is usually about these years. I will always have
a bond to those people and places. A special thanks to the enlisted guys
who put up with me and help shape a young officer. There was no better
education or teachers.
1986 was a
pivotal year for me. My active duty
commitment was over and I choose to leave the active duty Air Force as I had
planned to when I first signed up. I
joined the USAF Reserves and headed off to Trans World Airlines (TWA).
The USAF Reserves was the best deal in the world of flying.
A motley collection of my ex-active duty friends who were now flying for the
airlines, it was a flying club. I
flew missions when I wanted to and there were no extra duties, only flying.
Plenty of Honolulu trips. My life in 1986 and for a few years after that was to fly at TWA for a
week or so out of
New York
then
Chicago, then run out to
California
to fly with the reserves then back to the east coast.
Lather, rinse and repeat. I
was living a hedonistic airline pilot playboy life. A lot of women.
Then along came Joy.
I had first
met Joy way back in 1979, when I was working at her father’s flight school at
Falcon Field. OK, I will confess
that I had a big crush on her but at that time I was not the suave man I was a
few years later. In fact it pains me
to admit it but I was pretty much the doofus I was in high school.
Airplanes were one thing but women were quite another thing.
Anyway…I did manage to keep in touch with her over the years.
It was frustrating for me, I never could get anywhere with her.
The crush had turned into something more.
I was
making it a point to drop into
Phoenix
just to see her. I would roll into
Phoenix
and call her up and she’d have to drop all her plans.
I found out later that this was not a good thing to do. I enjoyed
being with her but I couldn’t seem to make the upgrade from friend.
It was getting frustrating for me. Finally
on one fateful Saturday night I was a beaten man.
My sister-in-law had just asked me “Hey, aren’t you and Joy ever
going to get together?” I thought
long and hard and the sad truth finally hit me, like a kick to the gut, that it just wasn’t
going to happen. It was a lost
cause.
I was seeing Joy that night for dinner and since I was not good hearted
at losing I made it a point to be late picking her up.
Pouting is a hobby that I enjoy from time to time.
I figured that we’d go out and after this I would just let go and get
on with my life and just ease away.
I
picked her up about 20 minutes late (she didn’t notice, she was running late
anyway) and we went to the
Pinnacle
Peak
steak house. There was about a 40
minute wait to be seated and we were hanging out in the parking lot as the sun
was setting. The conversation was
starting to lag so I reverted to one of my tried and true conversation
picker-uppers and said: “Joy
you’re going to marry me someday.” I
was expecting the usual elbow nudge, a giggle and a “Yeah, right.”
Not on this night. She looked
right at me and said: “You know,
you’ve never really asked me.” A
cold wave of reality hit me. There are a few times in a
man’s life when it really is to do or die trying, there is no coming back.
. To really ask and to be
rejected is, by the secret code of men, a sentence of banishment, I could never
see her again. But to not ask is to
know the words of Shakespeare – A faint heart never won a fair maiden’s
hand. So, with a semi-faint heart
pounding I was able to blurt out those four words:
Will you marry me? This
is a question that usually has two possible responses.
I didn’t know there was a third.
Joy
started to giggle with a tinge of embarrassment and I am thinking my goose is so
cooked and it is off to the land of banishment for me, she will be the great
love that was lost. Seconds pass
painfully and I need help. Please
God, throw me a lifesaver, have a bolt of lightning strike me where I stand.
Thankfully God answered me, not with bolts but with words.
Without so much of a though on my part the words “You really don’t
have to answer that right now,” left my mouth without any thought from me.
I was sparred. Thankfully our
table was now ready and I was able to tread water for the rest of the night.
The next day I was able to shrug it all off as one of those things, a
little bizarre, and we could just pretend that it never happened.
Disappointed but not banishment, I decided not to worry about it.
I headed off for a few days with the USAF Reserves; a few days of flying
with my buddies and visiting the bars of Honolulu would get my mind off all this.
I returned home to
St. Louis
to get ready to head out to
New York
for TWA. As usual there were
messages waiting for me.
I
don’t remember which one was from Joy but it something to the effect of:
“Larry, this is Joy; there is a guy in
Los Angeles
that will give you the wholesale price on a ring, here’s his number…”
We were married a few months later on
8-8-88
at
8 o’clock
. I’ve asked Joy about that night
a
Pinnacle
Peak
, she said that she thought about it after I dropped her off that night.
She thought if she didn’t marry me then countless other innocent women
would have to know and/or date me. She
felt it was her duty and I can live with that.
To make another a long story interesting, TWA was a good airline with a
nice mix of domestic and international routes, through out its history TWA
suffered from less that stellar management.
Just after I joined TWA it was taken over by corporate raider, Carl
Icahn. Carl’s idea of running an
airline seemed to be limited to declaring special dividends to himself every
year or so. He was a disaster for
the employees of TWA. So in 1990,
just after Carl sold the London routes and declared yet another special
dividend, I had, to quote Popeye “I’ve had all I can stands, and I can’t
stands no more.” The day before I
shipped out for Desert Storm I was in
Denver
doing my final interview with United Airlines.
In July of
1991 and just released from USAF activation it was bravely off to United
Airlines. I went to one more
interview and after I completed the initial pilot program I went to work at the
training center as a pilot instructor (more $).
I taught on the Boeing 737-300 and 757/767 fleet.
If you really want to learn something just try to teach it. I’ve been
instructing people in airplanes since I was 19 year old; in civilian aviation
and as an instructor and flight examiner in the Air Force so this was a good
fit. In 1998 I finally had enough
seniority to hold a captain seat on the Boeing 737, first in Los Angeles and
then in Denver. Somewhere in the
middle of all this we had two children, Katie born in 1994 and Andy in 1997.
Flying the
line as a captain at United Airlines is a pretty darn good gig.
I flew about 10 years and 8000 flight hours as a captain on the Boeing
737. I was even a check airman on it. In 2008 fuel prices spiked and
United decided it was time to park the 737s so I took a bid over to the Airbus
A-320. OMG, what a nice airplane to work in, very comfortable and flies
beautifully. There are some serious differences between Boeing and Airbus
so it took some getting used to. Honestly, I do enjoy going to work.
Everyday is a little different. I fly nice airplanes to nice places and stay in
nice hotels. In an average year I am gone 180 days with 130 nights
away. Good thing my wife understands. Once in awhile I have a
"brush with greatness" in the last year I've met Robert Duval, Richard
Geer, Neil Armstrong and David Crosby.
My
father, Charles Hawkins, passed away in December of 1993.
So, between the kids and my dad’s death I began to long for my family
and being home. The USAF reserves,
still based in
California
, took up a lot of time and in early 1996 they offered an early retirement.
I just wanted to be home in the worst way.
Since I was almost ready to resign anyway, I took the retirement.
I was laying
over in
Phoenix
on
9-11-01
and it was Joy telling me to turn on the TV.
9/11 is not an abstract event for me, I knew people on those airplanes.
My airline, that didn’t have a fatal accident in years and years,
had lost two airplanes in one day. Recession,
terrorism, war, SARS in
Asia
, high fuel prices, and competition from low cost carriers have taken a toll on
my company and career. Pay cuts, lay
offs and bankruptcy for United followed in short order.
I suppose that life is not meant to be too easy.
Without some hardship there can be no appreciation of the good times. It
really is what you make of it. I
have had to ponder what would I do if my airline were to fail and for the first
time in my adult life I would be without an airplane to fly somewhere.
I know that I am not suited for any sort of honest or hard labor.
There is a price to pay if
you want to spend a large portion of your life dedicated to one thing.
Aviation is my cruel mistress.
I’ve lived in
Parker Colorado since 1992in the same home that Joy and I bought
when I first started at United. For
hobbies we like to ski in the winter and camp and fish in the summer.
I played in a garage band with some other United pilots for a couple of years
but then they kicked me out. Playing in your first band is a lot like
having your first girlfriend: You make a lot of mistakes while you try and
figure out what to do. So I got serious about playing the guitar, started
taking lessons, and practice, practice, and practice. In late 2008 I got
another band going with much better results. It is so much easier when you
know the landscape. My band's name is "The Feint Hearts" a
paraphrase of The Bard's "A faint heart never won a fair maiden's
hand." The drummer thought it would be cute to change
"faint" to "feint" and these are the compromises you make
with bands or spouses. We play covers on Beatles, Stones, Joan Jett, or
just about anything we can play well. We might even have a few songs that
were recorded in the last 10 year but for me there is nothing quite like classic
rock and roll or the blues. If I got nothing else out of playing in a band
it is a deep appreciation of the work and talent that goes into making and
playing a song. It has changed the way I hear music. Yes,
I've been told to keep my day job but it
sure is fun. Anyway that drummer quit so I changed the band's name to The
Faint Hearts. www.thefainthearts.com
When you hear Twist and Shout, that's me on the lead and I've got the very first
"Ahhhhh......" on the send up.
It really has been a
good life. I wouldn't trade a moment of it.
I’ve got the love of a
good woman, sweet kids, a good home, and the smell of burnt jet fuel in the
morning. Life is good.
Memories of MHS:
What a big time in my life. To
go in as a child and leave as adult, sort of. Playing on the frosh and JV
basketball team with coaches yelling "Pass the ball, don't
shoot!" Playing on the tennis team and being a lot better in tennis
than basketball. The away trips with the tennis team and going to the
state tournaments and staying up all night. Mr. Versaevel trying to be a
good tennis coach and really becoming one. My first close dance with a
girl, Joanne Herrera, at a sockhop, she smelled sooooo good and will
always have a special place in my heart as well as the song "Nights in
White Satin". Working at the airport, so a special thanks to Mrs.
Pickerd and Bob Mace, you helped me more than you will ever know. Bombing
Globe. Taking a few of you flying, you had no idea of the mortal danger
you were in, neither did I. Flying my prom date, Alice Gonzales, to
Phoenix for dinner after the prom. Bombing Globe. Having crushes on about
fifty girls (if you talked to me for more than 5 minutes I probably developed
one). The great teachers we had. You really did look after us.
Debating Mrs. Sloan and Mr. Bejarano about politics and current events.
Working as a lifeguard during the summer at the pool in Miami and going over to
the La Paloma during my breaks for a bean burro. Looking out the windows
of A building watching the clouds go by. Having Mr. Gladden tell me
"Mr. Hawkins, no one going to pay you just to sit around to look out a
window and watch clouds go by." And finally....bombing
Globe.
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