Ryan Hawn is a Coast Guard Academy graduate and rescue helicopter pilot currently stationed in the San Francisco Bay area.  He also attends the Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary through its online eCampus program.

Within the military environment, such distance learning programs are fairly common, especially since Masters Degrees are frequently required for promotion (though the military does not guarantee it will give you time to get that degree).  In general, like the undergraduate degree for pilots, the military is less concerned with the subject of a graduate degree and more concerned with the fact that an officer has one.

In Hawn’s case, he is able to further his own Christian education, and potentially his career, while at the same time continuing in his professional service every day.