Paul F. Hickey III

Paul Francis Hickey III was born on February 28th, 1985. His birthday was the closest day before a leap year, which shows that Paul was meant to have a birthday and his presence was needed on this earth. He was born at Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego, CA. He was the second born and oldest son of Edwina Gobasco and Paul Hickey Jr. Edwina was the only mother and father Paul ever knew. He had an older sister Paula, and two younger brothers, James (JJ) and Kyle. During his childhood, Paul lived in several places including; The Philippines, Hawaii and different places in Northern California. For most of his life and career, Paul was a native San Diegan.

Paul was put on this earth to stand out. His light radiated in every place he was present. From an early age Paul was rambunctious, what people might have referred to as a rascal. Any door that he was told not to walk through, he kicked down. Paul was accident prone and managed to get into any predicament that was possible. Any rule given to him by his parents, siblings or elders, he set out to break in the most innocent of ways. People fell in love with Paul because he was sincere in his mischievous way. All his quirky antics got him into so much trouble with his objective to always make people smile and entertain. There was nothing Paul wouldn’t do to make people smile. Throughout his childhood and most of his adolescence, he kept those comedic traits.

He was insightful and intelligent. Some of his favorite activities as a child and even into adulthood were games, jigsaw puzzles, crosswords, random trivia, and reading. He always needed to be engaged in activities that stimulated his mind. Paul was intelligent book-wise, and in his thoughts about life. Just like his need to challenge every rule, he also set out to challenge any fact or belief people had about living. He forced everyone around him to think and offered new perspective. Many things in life came naturally to him because of his intellect. He excelled at anything he did with little, to no effort.

Paul attended Central Elementary School in South Bay where he received the President’s award for his outstanding academic performance. He attended Mar Vista Middle School where he received similar awards for his exemplary honors for his high academic achievements. Paul graduated from Mar Vista High School in Imperial Beach, California. He attended Southwestern College in Chula Vista, California for a few semesters before joining the military.

In his early 20s Paul joined the United States Navy. He scored high on his ASVAB without a minute of studying and went on to be a Navy Corpsman. Paul always hoped to become an x-ray technician and he hoped the military would enable him to achieve this career goals. In January 2009, he was deployed to Farah, Afghanistan and was a part of “Operations Enduring Freedom” on the forward surgical team. Paul was able to help people cope and deal with hard times and even used deployments to display his talent by singing the ‘National Anthem’ for the Navy birthday that year. He came home from Afghanistan in October of 2009, and by the following September he was deployed again to Kuwait as a part of “Operation New Dawn”. During his career he received numerous awards including; 2 Good conduct medals, various merit unit commendation awards, Afghanistan campaign medal, NATO medal, Sea Service Deployment ribbon, GW-Terrorism Service medal, Navy/MC Achievement medal, several Letter of Commendation flags, and National Defense service medal to name a few. He was a committed service member and strived to do his job to the best of his ability. He spent the rest of his career in the General Outpatient Surgery Department at Balboa Naval Hospital.

Paul spent a lot of his free time doing volunteer work including; Feeding America, feeding the homeless and working at food banks, Earth Day and cleaning up at various events, and getting involved in different activities in the community. He loved to sing and had a deep love for all genres of music. He could always be caught singing everything from classic love songs and R&B, involved in rap battles with his friends, or listening to EDM. His love for music brought him to various shows, raves and concerts throughout the years.

Paul had a close relationship to his family and had the capacity to make everyone a lifelong friend. Once you were a part of his life, he became someone people could always call on. He carried in his chest a heart the size of a mountain. He loved hard, he gave willingly and cared deeply for anyone he called family or friend. The term “gave the shirt off his back” was meant for a man like Paul. His trademark was always dark clothing, band shirts and hoodies, and that did absolutely nothing to hide the light and energy that filled any room Paul entered. His most memorable personality trait was his sense of humor. Paul was funny without even trying. He went to any length or measure to make people laugh and bring smiles to everyone’s faces. He could be hysterical, crude, inappropriate, and brutally honest, and it’s those qualities that made him so unique. People were genuinely happy to be in his presence. You knew any event would be better if Paul was in attendance.

Paul passed away on the morning of November 21st, 2013 in San Diego, California. Paul was a devoted son, wonderful brother, proud uncle, loving boyfriend, and an amazing friend. He served his country with the same fervor he gave to all the people who were blessed enough to be a part of his life. His contribution to society will always be remembered as a positive one, and he is a man that will be missed in a way that words cannot explain. His objective in life was to make people he loved happy, and the hope from all that loved him can be that he finally obtained the peace he desired and deserved. A life full of trials and heartache, and he chose only to make all who were special to him smile and feel loved, despite his own pain. Our lives are more blessed, special and memorable because of his presence. He will be missed every single day.