As a child, Hal was traumatized by watching his father, a pilot, die in a plane crash.[3] Refusing to bow down to fear, he followed in his father's footsteps and became a military test pilot, despite being terrified every time he flew.[4] Years later, Hal had been kicked out of the military for assaulting an officer, and was reduced to an engineer giving planes tune-ups. He was abducted by a dying alien, Abin Sur. Sur wanted Hal to replace him in the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic police force that had safeguarded the universe for billions of years. [4] Hal accepted and was summoned for basic training to the Corps headquarters on the planet Oa. On completion, he was assigned to Thaal Sinestro of Korugar.[4]
