JACKSONBORO: Jack Nolan Hadwin, Retired Major United States Air Force, husband of Virginia Ruth “Ginger” Weeks Hadwin, entered into eternal rest Saturday evening, February 24, 2024 at the Trident Medical Center in Charleston. He was 86. He was born March 31, 1937 in Estill, SC the son of Lawrence Daniel Hadwin and Hannah Lee DeLoach Hadwin. Officially known as Jack, he was also known as Nolan, Papa, No-No and Dad to his family and friends. His quiet and reserved personality in his later years betrayed the earlier parts of his life. He spent his formative years in the swamps and on the plantations of the South Carolina Lowcountry. His father died in 1953 and the family returned to Hampton. In 1955, he graduated with the first class of Wade Hampton High School. Unable to afford college, Nolan worked for three and a half years at Westinghouse until the draft and an Air Force Recruiter, changed everything. The recruiter asked the “country boy” high school graduate if he would like to become and Air Force Officer and fly jet airplanes. That was the beginning of twenty-one years in the USAF, flying some of the fastest, most advanced fighters in the world. He often compared his life experiences to Forest Gump as he crossed paths with many famous and powerful people. His Air Force Career was a close parallel to the original movie “Top Gun”, including standing at attention before the squadron commander explaining why he buzzed the tower with full afterburners at 6:00 AM on a Sunday morning, awakening the whole base! Like in the movie, he was later selected to attend the Air Force version of a Top Gun school (before the Navy had their own). In 1969 he was selected to be part of a two-aircraft contingent representing the United States at the International Air Show in Totonta, Canada. In 1970 he was reassigned to Elgin AFB, Florida for an operational test and evaluation (OT & E) of a new navigational system, and then went on to a combat tour in Southeast Asia in 1971. “Alone, unarmed, and unafraid”, he earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal (with five oak leaf clusters) to go with many other medals and awards earned during his career. Nolan seemed to have led a blessed life. He survived a fiery plane crash with live weapons on board, open heart surgery, three major heart attacks, six different kinds of cancer, a year of combat, stepping on a very large and very alive rattlesnake, a near drowning while swimming a wide salt water channel alone to reach an island, drag racing and live-catch wild hog hunting. He loved hunting, fishing, golf, scuba diving, everything outdoors, and operating heavy farm equipment…especially his back-hoe. He was an accomplished athlete, having won a Grand Forks, ND city-wide bowling tournament, held two separate golf course records, and recorded six “hole-in-ones”. He was an avid fan of the Irish vocal group “Celtic Women” and had attended many of their concerts throughout the country. In addition to his wife of 63 years…the “love of his life’, Nolan is survived by a son, Lawrence Joseph “Larry” Hadwin (Christie), and by a daughter-in-law Karma Hadwin. He leaves behind his cherished grandchildren Azha Ackerman, Avery Bouska, and Stefeny, Dillon, and Bryant Hadwin. There are six great-grandchildren: Brailyn, Tommy, Nolan, and Ashlin Ackerman, and Athena and Luna Bohannon. He was pre-deceased by a beloved son, Keith Nolan Hadwin. The family will receive friends during a time of visitation Friday evening, March 1, 2024 from 6:00 until 8:00 at Parker-Rhoden Funeral Home, 117 Paul Street in Walterboro. Funeral services will be held Saturday afternoon, March 2, 2024 at 2:00 in the chapel of Peeples-Rhoden Funeral Home, 300 Mulberry Street in Hampton, with burial following in the Steep Bottom Cemetery near Estill. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be made in his memory to Hopewell Baptist Church, 6869 Parkers Ferry Road, Adams Run, SC 29426. Parker-Rhoden Funeral Home of Walterboro is in charge of arrangements.
