Soldier Honored: Raymond E. O’Hare

2019-Raymond E. O’Hare
Dates:
Hometown:
Branch of Service: Navy
Rank: Lieutenant Commander

Navy Lieutenant Commander Raymond E. O’Hare, 33, of Great Mills, Maryland, died July 11, 2000 when the T-38A Talon training jet he was co-piloting inexplicably crashed while on a routine instrument approach at the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland.

LCDR O'Hare, the youngest of four children, was born in Chicago Heights. He was an A student at Brother Rice, where he played basketball and football. He excelled in football, playing quarterback and defensive back. In 1989, he received his bachelor's degree in history from Harvard, where he was also a defensive-end and punter on the football team. He joined the Navy in 1990, graduated first in his class from Officers Candidate School, was commissioned an ensign in 1990 and designated a Naval Flight Officer in 1992. From 1992 to 1997, LCDR O’Hare served as Radar Intercept Officer on F-14s in a variety of fighter squadrons based out of Miramar, California. He participated in the Navy's Postgraduate School Cooperative Education program and would have received his master's degree in Aeronautical Engineering upon graduation from TPS.

"He was larger than life in so many ways," Colleen O'Hare said of her husband. "He was the most brilliant man I ever met. He was the most spiritually strong person I ever met. His faith was unbelievable - that's what drove his actions. He always thought of the other person first."

All three of the O’Hare children are Folds of Honor Scholarship recipients.


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