why are flags at half-mast today? Because Brad “Slate” Hovey died on June 15, 2026, during a B-52 flight test mission at Edwards AFB. He was 35, and the obituary identifies him as a B-52 and B-1 Air Force Experimental Test Pilot.
For Megan, their two children, and the Air Force community, the notice turns a public tribute into a loss with a name, a career, and a family. The obituary celebrates Hovey’s service, but it does not explain how he died during the B-52 flight test mission.
Brad Hovey and Megan
Hovey’s life story in the obituary moves from Algona, Iowa, to Casper, Wyoming, then to Adel, Iowa in 2001. He graduated from Adel DeSoto Minburn High School in 2009, earned Scouting’s highest rank of Eagle while a member of Adel Troop 152, and met Megan in ninth grade band.
Hovey and Megan married in Iowa in 2012. He later attended Iowa State University and excelled in Aerospace Engineering and Air Force ROTC with Det. 250, then graduated in 2014 and was commissioned as an officer in the United States Air Force.
United States Air Force service
Hovey began USAF Pilot Training at Vance AFB in 2014 and earned his wings in 2015 as a member of Class 16-02. He then began his bomber pilot career with B-52 initial qualification training at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana.
He spent six years with the 69th Bomb Squadron at Minot AFB in North Dakota, where he flew, instructed, and led. The obituary also says he completed three deployments, logged more than 1,890 total flight hours over 12 years of service, and flew more than 350 sorties across 29 distinct airframes.
Edwards AFB flight test mission
In 2022, Hovey and his family moved to Edwards AFB. He then attended the USAF Test Pilot School with Class 23A, was assigned to the 419th Flight Test Squadron, and flew B-52 and B-1 flight test missions.
That record makes the final line of the obituary harder to absorb: a pilot with combat experience, instructor time, and test-flying credentials died during a B-52 flight test mission at Edwards AFB. The notice identifies the service member and the assignment, but leaves the cause and sequence of events unresolved.
For Megan and the couple’s two children, the immediate reality is the obituary itself — a public accounting of a husband and father whose career stretched from Iowa in to Edwards AFB in. What caused Brad Hovey’s death during the B-52 flight test mission at Edwards AFB is the question left hanging in the record.
