Hanley was born when his father was in Vietnam, flying Huey helicopters for the 101st Air Assault. They were born into a relatively strict service family. While Justin Hanley provided the hard education about the real world, Katherine taught her children love, respect, and the value of friends and family.

The Hanley family grew up as Army brats, constantly moving. They were all very popular at school. They were all gifted sportsmen, and drew the attention of females quite easily. They spent their entire life knowing that they’d be heading straight into the Army. Naturally, Hanley did. He went well in basic training, and Warrant Officer training. At Aviation Training, he excelled in all of the helicopters, but ‘majored’ in the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.

He headed back home to Fort Campbell, to join the Aviation Brigade attached to the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) as an Apache pilot. He led a flight of Apaches in Desert Storm, eliminating several Iraqi armoured units, and artillery positions.

His consistently excellent flying brought him to the attention of Special Operations Command, and the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the Nightstalkers. Not long after joining, he was shipped off to Somalia, as part of Task Force Ranger. He performed well, and had a good relationship with the Rangers. He didn’t even try to make friends with the Deltas, they were in a world of their own, and tended not to associate with the other troops. He was on a special assignment in another part of Somalia during the Black Hawk Down incident, and was upset to hear of the deaths of several members of the Task Force.

Hanley was on the front line for the next few years. His unit performed very well in Bosnia and Kosovo, dropping SEALs, Delta Force and Special Forces behind enemy lines. He also served in Columbia, when the US promised a more active form of assistance in combating the drug cartels. In 1998, Hanley resigned his commission.

He heard an old friend, Travis Porter, had joined the Sierra Falls Police Department. So he headed home, and shifted to California. He went to Air National Guard Officer Candidate School, and became a First Lieutenant in the 136th Rescue Wing, He also joined the SFPD, and went pretty well in the Academy. He served for a few years as a patrol officer before becoming a pilot in the SFPD Air Wing. During his time in the SFPD, he was awarded three livesaving ribbons, one for a massive rescue operation during a yacht race when a storm blew out of nowhere. The pilot lost his nerve, and Paul had to take over. The other two involved a rescue of a stranded girl in the woods, and the rescue of man from a fire in the city.

In 2003, the 136th Rescue Wing was deployed to Afghanistan, for rescue operations, and to support special operations. During a bad sand storm, Hanley flew the Pave Hawk into the storm, over confident in his own abilities. The chopper crashed, killing eight of the eleven occupants. He was disciplined, and it appeared on his Air Force file. A month later he returned home.

He won the Barlow Award in February 2005, when a Joint SFPD/DEA Task Force tracked a major player down. During the arrest, Hanley’s chopper dropped in a SWAT team. The suspect tried to escape, but following some daring flying, Hanley blocked off the escape route.

Hanley is checked out on all three helicopters in the SFPD Air Wing, and has flown all three on numerous occasions. He can also fly fixed-wing craft, and bought the small Cessna after selling his shares on the stock market. He likes to fly it around when he’s not on duty, just for fun.

Hanley is a happy-go-lucky guy, a bit of a chick-magnet. He has always been one of the boys, hanging out in clubs and pubs with his co-workers. He has a bit of an ego problem, believing that if anything can be done in a helicopter, he can do it.

Hanley is tall, well built, and relatively good looking. When off duty, he generally wears jeans, a shirt and a leather jacket, as well as his 160th SOAR cap.

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