Brian Hawthorne
A Warrior and Advocate for Student Veterans
Brian
Hawthorne is truly a remarkable young man whose dedication and commitment to his country and fellow soldiers has earned him well-deserved honors. Entering the Army Reserves at the age of 18 in 2003, he had no idea that only a few years later he would have a major impact on the lives of many people, including fellow comrades, senior officers, veterans and students. Hawthorne first deployed to Iraq in May 2005 with the Alpha 401st Civil Affairs Battalion to Mosul. After his second deployment, this time with the 450th civil Affairs Battalion in 2007, Hawthorne stepped up when he saw that his unit needed a company medic. Without hesitation he volunteered to use the firefighter/EMT skills he learned in high school to become the company medic. His desire to see his operation run smoothly and successfully led him to train his fellow company and brigade members in combat life-saving skills. His remarkable leadership skills proved to be invaluable and he was credited with saving the life of a fellow solider when their unit came under attack. The solider sustained severe blood loss and broken bones but it was the bravery and rapid response of Hawthorne that contributed to a positive outcome. This act of bravery earned him the Bronze Star Medal. Today, Hawthorne continues to serve his country in a different capacity – as Director of Student Veteran Affairs in Washington, D.C. The 24 year-old veteran co-founded the George Washington University Veterans Organization. The organization helps to connect students with valuable resources and it advocates on the behalf of stuPage 2
dent veterans at the state and national levels. He is passionate about helping his fellow veterans by raising awareness of their needs. When asked what has serving in Iraq taught him about life, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness, he replied, “First of all, we’ve got it great, and second of all when I see how much opportunity and potential I have, I’m so much more appreciative of things like education and I’m so much more appreciative of being able to drive to work without any real fear. I know that no matter what, if I have children, my kids are going to be able to grow up in a world that they can do anything they want, or nothing. To me, that is what it’s all about. Having been in a place where that was denied for so long, that really is what it means to be free, because I just can’t imagine coming home and having to fight for little stuff. More importantly, I think we brought liberty to a people that needed it. Working with the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi police, it was such an honor for me to be able to work with people who really cared and really wanted to make things better for Iraqis. Being a part of that is very moving and humbling.” Serving in the Army Reserves has taught him strength and perseverance and has given him a much deeper appreciation for life and freedom. In the midst of the many meetings he attends, Hawthorne was gracious enough to take a few minutes to share his story with Exceptional People Magazine. Monica: Tell me about yourself and why you decided to join the military? What inspired you to do it? Hawthorne: I grew up in Westchester County, New York in a little
town called Pleasantville. I was a volunteer firefighter/EMT in high school and that was my varsity sport, basically. I was a firefighter/EMT all through high school and I really loved doing that. When I turned 18, I decided I wanted to continue doing that. I really didn’t feel ready to go to college. Of the 101 graduates in my high school class, 100 went to college. I entered the reserves. This was a huge deal. I mean there was no worse thing I could have done for my town. This was a very, very controversial topic that, I went into the military. Monica: How did your family feel about it? Hawthorne: They were not very happy. My dad was a big proponent of education and was very upset that I was not going to college. But I ended up going to college. I only took a year off and I graduated in 2003. I attended the Rochester Institute of Technology for one semester and I didn’t like it. I hated everything about RIT and I hated the cold. Monica: What were you studying there? Hawthorne: Pre-medicine and I didn’t like it. So I volunteered to go to Iraq and I connected with a civil affairs battalion that was in Rochester. They were deploying and they said, “You don’t have to go. You just got here. You just have to go to school.” I said, “Forget that. I’m going to Iraq. I was intending to stay four years and go on to medical school but I was there for only five months. I was a 20-year-old kid then. I’m a 24-yearold kid now. I didn’t know anything about the world. I didn’t know anything about the Army.
“Be willing to give up your comfort zone. Go farther than people think you can and definitely go farther than you think you can.”
Brian Hawthorne Monica: And Iraq was your only choice?
Monica: Once you were there, was it what you thought?
was an important asset to the people we were interacting with.
Hawthorne: No, but my friends were going. It was an easy choice and I wanted to deploy. I joined right after the invasion of Iraq. I had no illusion about the conflict; I had no illusion about the politics of it. My friends are going anyway, who would I be to not go? I felt passionate about it. I felt like I was ready; I needed the experience, I wanted the experience. Being at home going to college parties was just not something I’d be able to do very long. I felt very comfortable with that decision.
Hawthorne: No, but it was what I wanted. To me, I felt like it was where I belonged. It was something that I could make a difference in. People ask me, “Do you support the war? What did you think about the invasion?” It really wasn’t my decision to get involved in that.” But do I support everything about the decisionmaking process in Iraq? No. Do I think that it could have been handled differently? Sure. Do I think that I was contributing to something negative? Not at all. I felt like when I got there that my responsibility, my unit
Do I agree with the war? No, but that’s okay. I wanted to go anyway because I felt that it was my duty to go. If there are going to be people going over and dying, then I want to do my best to help them out. Why? Just because I’m a reservist or because I’m a college kid, I should be able to get out of that? No. My family was very upset. I don’t know if I ever really came clean and told them that I volunteered until I was home. Even now, I miss Iraq every day.
Page 3
Monica: In what ways has serving your country and helping the Iraqis been rewarding?
That, to me, is what it’s all about and that’s where only the military can provide that kind of experience.
Hawthorne: Well, it was very rewarding personally as far as development. I was a young man and I really didn’t know anything about myself. I didn’t know anything about leadership. I didn’t know anything about people. So the opportunity to learn about how people work and learn how to become a leader, leading soldiers in combat, is the greatest honor I’ve ever been given. That I miss every day. I’m a staff sergeant. People turn to me for guidance and leadership. I miss being known as the person who can get stuff done. During my first tour, I was sent to a base where I was the only civil affairs person for 100 miles. People were saying, “You need to help the guys.” There are 20 Americans and 400 Iraqis. Find out what they need and make it happen.”
Monica: When you entered the military, were you a fully-trained medic?
Page 4
Hawthorne: I went over my first tour as a civil affairs specialist but I was a civilian medic in the real world. I worked as an EMT. I had been a firefighter/EMT for a few years and I was studying medicine. I was not a medic on the first tour but I was my team’s medic because we didn’t have one.
My new unit, the 450th Civil Affairs Battalion, a different civil affairs battalion, is the airborne unit that I’m in now. They were activated and so I had only been home less than a year. The surge kicked off but they were not expected to deploy. They said, “You don’t have to come. This is not your responsibility, but we are going. You haven’t been home a year, so you are not required to come.” I said, “These are my friends. These are some of my best friends. How am I not going to go?” So I signed a volunteer waiver.
Monica: When you returned to Iraq a second time, did you volunteer again?
Monica: Can you talk about one instance that had a major impact on your life?
Hawthorne: I came home but didn’t want to go back to Rochester, so I decided to move to Virginia. I began working at Washington Hospital Center.
Hawthorne: The biggest one is I got a bronze star because I saved my best friend’s life. I was in the vehicle right in front of him and we stopped and I ran back. It’s all a blur but I ran back
and we pulled him out. He was bleeding everywhere. We got the other casualties in the other trucks and I did my best to stop the bleeding but I couldn’t. I thought he was going to die. I did everything I could and, fortunately, everything came out okay. He was my best friend. There’s just no comparison. That kind of sacrifice is so negligible to me at the end of the day. Monica: Would you say you are truly happy with where your life is right now? Hawthorne: Yes, I am because I was part of something absolutely incredible. I was part of an opportunity that I would not give up for anything. Did I like everything about Iraq? Hell, no. Would I give it up? No. I miss feeling like I’m contributing. I miss feeling that I’m doing something really powerful. I miss feeling that
I’m really making a difference. But do I mind being a 24-year-old junior? No. Nobody’s keeping me down. I’m doing exactly what I want to do because it makes a big difference. There are people who have done many more heroic things than I who have not been recognized. It frustrates me because I still have to work with these guys and I feel like such a sham that I’m getting credit and they’re not. But at the same time, I think it’s really important that these stories are told. Monica: How did you become involved with Student Veteran Affairs? Hawthorne: I was trying to figure out my own personal benefit while I was in Iraq and I was getting nowhere fast because I knew I was accepted to George Washington University.
I stumbled upon Student Veterans of America. They said, “Hey, you’re in Baghdad. That’s cool. When you get back and you’re going to school, look us up. Tell us what you need.” They had a conference in Washington, D.C. the week I got home. I went to the conference, had a great time and got elected somehow. I got thrown into it and it spiraled from there and I became a regional director. I had 13 states under me. Now I’m the Washington, D.C. Director of Student Veterans of America. Managing the states is a lot of work, but managing just the city, I’ve done Congressional testimony and I get to go to meetings on the Hill. I really just love doing it. Veterans’ advocacy is one of those things that makes me feel like I’m in the fight. Some vet is going to read this I hope and is going to say, “You know what, he’s doing the right thing. I need to be Page 5
doing the right thing. I need to be in school,” or, “Hey, that affects me. I need to call this guy.” That makes it worth it.
Senator Inouye is a World War II Medal of Honor recipient, GW alumnus, whom I’ve met. I’ve met with both of senators. They are incredible.
Monica: What do you consider to be some of the more common needs of student veterans?
My grandfather was an infantry captain in World War II. He was shot and he spent 15 months in a POW camp in Germany. He was listed as missing in action before the Russians freed the camp and he just showed up one day back home. He became a military intelligence officer and went over to Japan with General MacArthur, where he tried Japanese war criminals. My uncle was a marine captain. So, that’s the background that I came from. Those are big shoes to fill. I had a lot of role models that I look up to.
Hawthorne: I think the first thing is a community. We come from a very fraternal organization. I get paid to look after people. Coming home and not having someone check up on you is kind of disconcerting. College can be very lonely and so that community is so critical to the success of a vet, especially because college is so competitive. We are in an environment with 17, 18 and 19-year-old valedictorians, captains of their basketball teams types of kids. A lot of vets come to me and say, “The only reason I’m here is because of this organization.” Hey, I don’t need sleep. I’ll do anything to keep getting responses like that because, to me, that’s what it’s about, that I kept a vet in school, we kept a vet in school for another year because he or she felt that they belonged. Monica: Do you plan to make the Army Reserves a long-term career? Hawthorne: Definitely. I will be in the Army Reserves until they kick me out. Monica: If you have one, who’s your military hero? Hawthorne: I really look up to Senator Webb from Virginia. He received the Navy Cross in Vietnam and received his education through the GI Bill. He’s now the Secretary of the Navy. He helped lead the fight for the new GI Bill, so he goes a long way in my book. Page 6
Monica: What advice or encouragement can you give to young people today who are considering or have recently joined the military? Hawthorne: I think the biggest thing is don’t get discouraged. You know, your first duty station is your first duty station. You have to pay your dues. It’s like freshman year in college. It’s like your first junior management position. You’re going to make copies, you’re going to dig trenches, you’re going to be up until 2:00 in the morning studying and you’re going to get up at 6:00 for your next class. You’ve got to see beyond it. I think the one thing that I see in so many Americans, especially those of my age, is people do not know how far they can really go and the military is big on this. People need to challenge themselves. I usually get three to four hours of sleep a night. I go from 5:00 in the morning until midnight and I’m in meetings, I’m in class. I can go from sweatpants to a suit, to an Army uniform, to casual clothes and into a tux-
edo for an evening dinner all in a day for six or seven days a week. To me, if you’re doing important work, if you’re passionate about what you’re doing, those sacrifices are easy because you know you’re going to make it. Monica: You certainly have a great attitude towards life and I’m sure it’s paying off for you in more ways than one. Hawthorne: Yes, it is and it’s kind of awkward because I’m a very humble person. My father was a chaplain. My parents were divorced and we didn’t have a lot of money but we lived okay. And so now, to be recognized for things like this is very awkward for me. Monica: If you had to give an inspirational thought or comment, what would it be? Hawthorne: Pick something that’s important to you that doesn’t directly benefit you, it can be a career, it can be something to do out of the goodness of your heart. Do it because it makes you happy and not because you receive any gain from it. Go farther than you thought you could and continue until you see tangible results. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work but commit to something that’s larger than you. Be willing to sacrifice. Be willing to give up your comfort zone. Go farther than people think you can and definitely go farther than you think you can.