Lance Cpl. Jacob Hug, a combat videographer, considered being in the Marine Corps as “starting his life,” his mother told reporters in Phoenix.
The last words that Sgt. Ward Johnson’s parents sent their son were: “Love you, be safe.”
And the final communication from Nepal that Capt. Chris Norgren sent his parents was on Mother’s Day. He texted a message of love and made sure flowers were sent to his mother.
His mother, Terri, texted back: “I love you Chris. I’m proud of you.”
The six Marines who died in the crash of their UH-1Y Huey helicopter during a disaster relief mission in Nepal were from different parts of America: Nebraska, Kansas, Florida, Southern California, Illinois and Arizona.
But their families said they shared a devotion to their job and a sense that their mission, to bring supplies to desperate villagers in an earthquake-stricken country, was important.
“We stand with Nepal,” Capt. Dustin Lukasiewicz, one of the pilots, said on a Marine Corps video just days before the ill-fated flight.
The six Marines were assigned to Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 469 from Camp Pendleton. The squadron was in the Philippines on a training mission when the Marines and their aircraft were redirected to the relief mission in Nepal.
The six were identified Sunday:
—Lukasiewicz, a native of Nebraska. His wife, who is pregnant, lives in Fallbrook.
—Norgren, also a pilot, from Wichita, Kan.
—Sgt. Ward Johnson, a crew chief, from Altamonte Springs, Fla.
—Sgt. Eric Seaman, a crew chief, from southern Riverside County, Calif.
—Cpl. Sara Medina, a combat photographer, from Illinois, who was assigned to Marine forces in Okinawa, Japan.
—Lance Cpl. Jacob Hug, a combat videographer, from Arizona.
In the VFW Hall in Wildomar in Riverside County, Calif., veteran Michael Sheehan, interviewed by a Los Angeles television station, said of Seaman: “He volunteered with the service, so that makes him a hero automatically.”
In Florida, Johnson’s father recalled his son’s deployment to Afghanistan.
“We were terrified the entire eight months he was in Afghanistan,” Ward Johnson told a television reporter. “But when he said he had to go to Nepal to deliver food, we were just proud of him.”
During the three-day search for the wreckage, Andrea Hug told a Phoenix television station that her son, “loves his job, he loves it.”
Hug’s father, Jim, added: “God’s not done with him. God has a plan for him, his work is not done.”
In a video days before the crash, Johnson talked proudly of the mission to bring food, water, shelter and medical supplies to villagers in the rugged, heavily forested area of Nepal, one of the regions hit hardest by the two earthquakes.
“We’ve delivered over 68,000 pounds of needed supplies to the outer villages and we also plan to deliver another 140,000 pounds before we leave,” he said.
The Huey crashed about 8 miles north of Charikot, Nepal.
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