Brad Loos, 2nd Vice President

Bradley David Loos, born October 17, 1954 in Lincoln, Nebraska to Larry and Esther Loos. I have a younger brother, Kirk Douglas, February 1956; and two younger sisters, Lannelle Rae, May 1958 and Lori Ann, August 1961. I have an older half-brother, Larry, same dad different mom. My parents divorced when I was very young. Both remarried. I graduated from Lincoln High School in 1973 and went into the Navy that same year.  I spent the winter of 1973 at Great Lakes Naval Base doing first basic training and then a Gunner’s Mate A School.  I went to the USS Manley DD 940, home ported out of Athens, Greece, on May 1, 1974. I served in the Mediterranean area until August of 1975, when we left there for the United States, arriving in Philadelphia in September, 1975. We were home ported out of Philadelphia until December, 1976. Then we shifted our home port to Jacksonville, FL.  In January of 1977, we left Jacksonville and were in the territories (St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix and Puerto Rico), as well as Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  While operating out of Guantanamo Bay doing gunnery exercises on March 16, 1977, there was a problem in the gun turret. As we were trying to fix it, a round in the gun turret exploded. This set me on fire, gave me shrapnel wounds, and blinded me. Shrapnel penetrated my forehead, resulting in my having a plastic forehead now. Lt. JG Walter Wilson was also blinded in the incident. When a second round went off, he and the other two men originally with me in the gun turret were out, so I was the only one in there for the second explosion. Because of burns to my throat, a Navy corpsman performed an emergency tracheotomy so I could breathe through my neck. Ultimately, I got spinal meningitis, pneumonia, a collapsed lung, hepatitis, and a burst blood vessel in my head.  After I survived and recovered, I married my first wife, MaryJo, in 1981. Our daughter, Jennifer, was born dead and MaryJo died later that year. Lupus killed them both.  I married my second wife, Sheila, in 1992 and divorced in 2000. Kyra, Ben and Emma came from that marriage.  I married my current wife, Barbara, in December of 2003. Barbara’s first husband, Jim, died of a sudden heart attack in June of 1989. She brought Garth, Marsha and John into our marriage. Sadly, John died in May of 2017. We have nine grandkids.  My wife and I are both cancer survivors who today are recovered, healthy, and happily married. We participate in the National Federation of the Blind, our church, family events and community activities.