 Hays graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1950 and served on a destroyer for one year prior to commencing flight training.After a series of operational aviation assignments, including a tour as an experimental test pilot and two combat tours in Vietnam flying the all-weather attack A-6A Intruder, he was ordered in 1969 to the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., for duty on the staff of the Chief of Naval Operations.Between 1969 and 1988 Hays' career path was divided between fleet aviation assignments and resource management positions in the Pentagon.