By Mary Divine
St. Paul Pioneer Press
Marine Corps Capt. Kelly Hinz helped hold his family together when his pilot father died after a plane crash almost a year ago.
Now, with Hinz dead after a fighter-plane crash in Iraq this week, his younger brothers find themselves struggling with the thought of replacing him — in the lives of their mother, Pat, Hinz's wife, Molly, and 7-month-old daughter, Abby.
"We are all here with Molly and the baby, and we are not even going to let that baby grow up without a dad … so there's going to be three uncles for Abby," said Ben Hinz, choking up during a telephone interview from San Diego on Thursday.
"That's how we're getting through this. We're focusing our attention on Molly and the baby."
Kelly Hinz, 30, a Woodbury native, and another U.S. Marine Corps pilot died Monday after their single-seat F/A-18 "Hornet" fighter jets collided over south-central Iraq. Hinz had shipped out to Iraq on Jan. 18 from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego.
His family said initial reports suggest that a sandstorm and lightning might have contributed to the crash. There was no initial indication of hostile fire.
Friends and family remembered Kelly Hinz as an accomplished downhill and water skier, a gifted student and a driven worker who often woke at 4 a.m. to haul trash for Eagle Environmental, the family business.
"They were wealthy, but these kids worked on the garbage trucks every weekend — that's the kind of guys they were," said Bill Miley of Hayward, Wis., who coached Hinz on a state championship ski team at St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights.
Kelly graduated from the all-male, Catholic military academy in 1993, followed by Ben and brothers Kurt and Luke. Their parents, Don and Pat Hinz, were active at the school.
"All their friends really looked up to those kids. It shows a lot of character to go to a school like St. Thomas and work on a garbage truck on the weekend," Miley said.
An academy spokeswoman said Hinz's loss was felt deeply by many at the school.
"The entire family is very well known by hundreds and hundreds of people here," Mary Culbertson said. "They're a part of our family. We mourned last year when we lost Don and to have this happen again to the same family — one year later — with another plane crash is just a horrible thing for anyone to have to go through."
Hinz attended the University of Colorado at Boulder for a year and a half before transferring to the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, graduating in December 1997 with a degree in business administration.
He married Molly Jo Milbert of South St. Paul in 1999. After Hinz was commissioned an officer in the Marines, his flight training took the couple to Quantico, Va., and to Florida and Texas before they were stationed in San Diego. He earned his wings as an aviator in March 2002 and joined his current unit in 2003.
Miley said he spoke to Hinz just before he left for the Middle East on the USS Carl Vinson. "He told me how excited he was," Miley said. "I told my wife, who is not supportive of the war, that I felt very good for Kelly because he was going to do what he wanted to do."
Ben Hinz also is a Marine pilot, flying the same fighter from the same air station as his brother. Kurt, a water-ski instructor who lives in Florida, has his private pilot's license and Luke, a journalism student at the University of Colorado at Boulder, is planning to get his license this summer.
"Our dad was a pilot, so it was just something that we did as a family," Ben Hinz said. "Along with water-skiing and snow-skiing, we flew."
Donald Hinz, a retired naval and commercial pilot who was 60 when he died, had devoted his retirement to restoring a P-51C Mustang fighter to honor the Tuskegee Airmen, the nation's first black military pilots.
He was performing fly-bys during the Wings of Freedom Airshow on May 29, 2004, when he reported losing power and attempted an emergency landing. The Mustang went down about a mile west of Red Wing Regional Airport. Donald Hinz died the next day.
Kelly and Ben Hinz had hoped to repair and fly their father's P-51C Mustang fighter again some day. They had also planned to bring two Hornets back for a memorial show for their father.
The Hinz sons grew up water-skiing on Lake Elmo and the St. Croix River and at the family cabin near Chippewa Falls, Wis. They spent winters downhill skiing in Minnesota and Colorado.
"Most Minnesotans play hockey in the winter, we all skied," Ben Hinz said.
In San Diego, where Kelly Hinz water-skied regularly with the San Diego Mission Bay Boat and Ski Team, friends remembered his infectious smile, helpful nature and phenomenal water-skiing skills. Last summer, Hinz qualified for the 2005 men's U.S. National Championships and was planning to compete in August.
"He was one of our top skiers," said Kay Goodfellow, the team president. "He was a very nice guy, very friendly. He was always smiling and always very enthusiastic about everything. He was helpful to other skiers, giving them pointers. He was just a regular good guy on the dock — always wanting to help out."
In Texas, Larry Frederick recalled with laughter his first chance meeting with Hinz. Frederick said he was cruising down the Nueces River in Corpus Christi, Texas, when he spotted a "nice-looking, clean-cut guy" waving wildly from the riverbank.
Hinz had just moved to town for flight training, but he had his priorities straight, Frederick said, because the first thing he did upon pulling into town was to look for a place to water ski.
"Their SUV wasn't even unloaded yet," Frederick recalled Thursday. "When he saw my ski boat, he just started waving like crazy. He said he figured I must know something about skiing."
Frederick, who skied regularly with Hinz, said he was impressed with the pilot's ability to handle rigorous flight training and "still have plenty of time for skiing fun."
Hinz's funeral will be in the St. Paul area sometime next week; arrangements are pending, Ben Hinz said.
He said he hopes his brother's death will put a human face on the casualties in Iraq. There have been 19 members of the military from Minnesota who have died in Iraq since 2003.
"We want people to know that people like Kelly are the ones dying out there — people who are active in their community and are loving and supporting," he said. "These are our neighbors and brothers who are going out there and dying."
Ben Hinz said he and his brother followed their father into the service.
"Dad always had this big huge sense to serve the country and Kelly wanted to do that, too," he said.
With both now gone, "we will work as a family to fill Kelly and Dad's shoes — no small task and not possible for one person to accomplish."
"Kelly was, above all, a family man," Ben Hinz said. "He was instrumental in keeping our family together, as Dad would have. To a fault, he cared for all of us."