BRIAN T. GAHN, ENS, USN

Brian Gahn '83

Date of birth: December 6, 1958

Date of death: January 11, 1985

Age: 26

Lucky Bag

From the 1983 Lucky Bag:

Brian T. Gahn

Mamou, Louisiana

Gonzo

Brian reported to USNA as our resident cajun having already spent two years at school back in Louisiana. This proved to be his key to success since he was never bothered with trivialities like studying. Instead, he was always available to help out a classmate with any problem, and few ever left his room without receiving his genuine support during E.I. During Plebe year and Youngster year, no one could really figure Brian out since he played as many sports as he possibly could and was usually caught sleeping during his free periods. Brian’s speed on the O-Course is a testament to his abilities, but when he discovered sailing, he said good-bye to most of his weekends. In this, too, Brian excelled markedly becoming a cockpit captain quicker than most people learn to trim sheets. During Second Class year, the girls discovered Brian, and he was literally besieged by them with letters and calls. Without much effort, he managed well in the face of this and he will probably always be seen with a different young lady in his passenger's seat going down route 50. Brian must learn that drinking excessively during Plebe year does not help one’s chances for stripes, but it does help one’s chances for form-2's! Despite the face that he could have been commissioned two years before the rest of us, none of the Boys from Nineteen would have wanted Brian any other way than the loyal classmate he was. —EBM

Brian T. Gahn

Mamou, Louisiana

Gonzo

Brian reported to USNA as our resident cajun having already spent two years at school back in Louisiana. This proved to be his key to success since he was never bothered with trivialities like studying. Instead, he was always available to help out a classmate with any problem, and few ever left his room without receiving his genuine support during E.I. During Plebe year and Youngster year, no one could really figure Brian out since he played as many sports as he possibly could and was usually caught sleeping during his free periods. Brian’s speed on the O-Course is a testament to his abilities, but when he discovered sailing, he said good-bye to most of his weekends. In this, too, Brian excelled markedly becoming a cockpit captain quicker than most people learn to trim sheets. During Second Class year, the girls discovered Brian, and he was literally besieged by them with letters and calls. Without much effort, he managed well in the face of this and he will probably always be seen with a different young lady in his passenger's seat going down route 50. Brian must learn that drinking excessively during Plebe year does not help one’s chances for stripes, but it does help one’s chances for form-2's! Despite the face that he could have been commissioned two years before the rest of us, none of the Boys from Nineteen would have wanted Brian any other way than the loyal classmate he was. —EBM

Loss

From The Ville Platte Gazette on January 17, 1985:

Reports say Navy Ensign Brian Thomas Gahn, 26, a student pilot at NAS Chase Field air base in Beeville, was killed Friday, Jan. 11 along with a Marine captain flight instructor when their training jet crashed near Freer, Texas during a routine training flight. Also killed was Capt. Dan Sweeney, 31, of the U.S. Marine Corps, an Ohio native.
Beeville newspaper accounts say the crash occurred when the U.S. Navy T-2-C "Buckeye" training jet died over the McMullen Target Site 85 miles southwest of Beeville at 1:20 p.m. Friday. The site is a flight and bombing test area....
Both Gahn and Sweeney were members of Training Squadron 26 at Chase Field.

Obituary

From Find A Grave:

Brian Gahn graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1983 and was in flight training in Beeville TX when his plane crashed.
Brian was the eldest son and third child of seven children. He was the son of Dennis Brian Gahn and Jeanne Gary Gahn. Born in Wareham MA., raised in Japan, California, Oklahoma, and finally Louisiana. He was always an active child, by today's standards he would have been considered ADD. I remember my mother's surprise when my parents were told Brian had the IQ of a genius. This was when he was in 7th grade. I was equally surprised after all he was just my pesty little brother who couldn't keep still. He was good-natured and easy to get along with.
He was preceded in death by his brother Dennis Michael Gahn.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

In his senior year at Mamou High School in 1976, he was named best all around track and field man and also played football (tight end) and baseball. He was a member of Beta Club and the band. In April 1977, he pole vaulted 11-0’.
He received a University of Southwestern Louisiana Academic Scholarship. He attended in the fall of 1977 and earned a 4.0 that semester in the School of Engineering. His next three semesters, he was on the Dean’s list.
In June 1984, Brian completed his first solo flight at the Naval Station, Whiting Field Milton, Florida. He was attending the 14-week basic course in primary flight training.

From The Daily World (Opelousas, Louisiana) on April 8, 1983:

Gaining entry to the U.S. Naval Academy was, for Brian Gahn, a dream that faded and then came true anyway.
The Mamou youth, whose father was a 14-year U.S. Air Force veteran, dreamed of enrolling in one of the nation's service academies, but lost interest in the idea when he graduated from Mamou High School in 1977.
But in just a few weeks, Gahn will be commissioned an ensign in the U.S. Navy after having completed four years of rigorous academic and military training in Annapolis at the Naval Academy.
He'll get to throw his midshipman's cap high into the air at graduation ceremonies, just as classes have done for years, and then head off to Pensacola, Fla, for training as a naval air corps pilot.
But between then and high school graduation were six years of worry, elation and hard work.
"With my father being a career officer, I was interested in the service academies. But I put them out of my mind when I left high school.
"I enrolled at U.S.L. for a couple of years," be said, but noting he entered mechanical engineering, a field of heavy academic study at the Naval academy.
He sought and received a nomination to the academy from Congressman Gillis Long, hoping the academy "would just get a good look" at him, and gained acceptance with the fall class of 1979.
"I was elated," Gahn said, and so were his parents, Dennis and Jeane Gahn and his 6 brothers and sisters.
For a Mamou native, the first view of the picturesque and history-laden academy at Annapolis was a moment to remember.
"As we were approaching the academy, I just thought it was a beautiful place. At the same time, I also wondered what I would feel like a few weeks later," he recalls. Gahn tackled the tough academy academic program head-on, earning a double major in mathematics and mechanical engineering.
He said the plebe, or first year, is the academy's toughest.
"If you can finish your first year, you can make It through the last three years. That's because they put a lot of pressure on you, and try to see if you'll break down," he said.
But the pressure of succeeding in one of the nation's premier schools also brings out the best in academy students, Gahn said.
"You're trying to compete with people who are as good or better than you are. But you also end up becoming close with them too, " he said.
Traditional pranks, too, also help lighten the load of tough academy life, Gahn said. "We pulled the old trick of stretching celophane over a glass on one plebe.
We all watched as he lifted it and turned it over and spilled milk all over himself," Gahn said.
Adventure also enters into a midshipman's life, too, Gahn said. One summer found him on a sailing cruise in the Atlantic, and another saw him take submarine training.
"It represents a commitment. You're looking at six years of your life when you leave here," he said, adding that he's not sure if he'll make the navy a career.
"If I like it, I'll stay and if I don't, I'll get out. But I feel great about it right now.
"I think everybody respects you as an officer, and I know there are plenty of people who'd like to fly," he sald.