Among the 14 soldiers who died in a Black Hawk helicopter crash in Iraq yesterday was the son of an Ohio fire chief who recently married a woman he met in Hawai'i. Another had lost a brother in Iraq three years ago. A third was an Army Ranger who loved jumping out of airplanes.

Many of the dead came from small towns like Springfield, Mo.; Rockport, Texas; and the Central Valley farm town of Clovis, Calif.

Ten of the 14 soldiers were based out of Schofield Barracks, the Army said.

The military was contacting family members yesterday and had not officially released names of the victims. But their identities began to emerge as family members contacted hometown newspapers and TV stations.

It was unclear yesterday which of the seven identified soldiers — Michael Hook, Joshua Harmon, Jesse Pollard, Nathan Hubbard, Ricky Bell, Garret McLeod and Corry Paul Tyler — were from Schofield Barracks or were part of the four-person UH-60 Black Hawk crew based out of Fort Lewis, Wash.

Hook, of Altoona, Pa., would have turned 26 tomorrow, his father, Larry Hook, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Hook and his fiancee, Suzie Fetterman, were expecting their first son next month. They planned to name him Mason.

Before joining the Army, Hook worked as a roofer.

"We told him he shouldn't join now with the war going on, but he wanted to go," Hook's grandmother, Winifred Hook, told the Tribune-Review.

'DEEP FEELING IN GUT'

Larry Hook spoke to his son on the phone for an hour last Friday from his home in Little Egg Harbor, N.J., after Hook received his birthday package.

Michael Hook had deployed to Iraq in August and was scheduled to return on Sept. 24.

Then yesterday, Larry Hook was watching the news with his morning coffee, the Tribune-Review reported, when he saw the reports about the Black Hawk crash and the deaths of the 14 soldiers.

"I just got a deep feeling in my gut," Hook said. "It wasn't an hour later, there were two (Army) officers at my door."

MEDICAL CAREER

Harmon, 20, was the recently married son of Richard Harmon, the fire chief for Willoughby Hills, Ohio.

Harmon was an Army medic who recently won the Medal of Valor for saving a wounded soldier's life, a family friend, Tim Serazin, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Serazin, a Willoughby Hills firefighter, told the newspaper that Harmon planned to continue his medical career and hoped to become a doctor. He was scheduled to return home in about three weeks after two tours in Iraq.

"He was just a genuinely nice guy," Serazin said. "He was incredibly close with his dad."

Harmon graduated from Mentor High School in 2003 and recently married a woman from Virginia whom he met during training in Hawai'i, Serazin said.

Willoughby Hills Police Chief Chris Collins told the Plain Dealer that the fire chief often bragged about Harmon at City Hall and at the fire station.

Pollard, 21, was an Army Ranger, a "very tall, good-looking young man" who loved his job jumping out of planes, his aunt, Sandy Kaufman of Springfield, Mo., told The News-Leader newspaper.

"He said it was an adrenaline rush," Kaufman told The News-Leader. "He just really embraced it. He'd come home and regale us with stories about jumping out of planes at night."

MOMENT OF SILENCE

After graduating from Glendale High School in 2003, Pollard wanted to fight "for our freedoms that we enjoy," his stepfather, Alan Dewitt, told The News-Leader. "After high school, he really got into wanting to do that. He prayed about it a lot before he joined."

In July, Pollard spent two weeks in Missouri before heading back to Iraq.

"We hadn't seen him in six months so it was good to have him back," Dewitt said. "He was doing what he wanted to do."

Glendale High School's principal, Gary Prouty, said the school will have a moment of silence in Pollard's memory today, the first day of classes.

Hubbard came from Clovis, Calif., and joined the Army about a year after his older brother, Jared, a Marine, was killed in Iraq in November 2004, KFSN-TV in Fresno, Calif., reported.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the Lord and with the Hubbards," The Fresno Bee quoted Terry Baro as saying yesterday. Her son, Jeremiah, died with Jared Hubbard in Iraq.

McLeod, of Rockport, Texas, was active with his family in the First Baptist Church in Rockport, according to Channel 6 TV News in Corpus Christi.

He graduated from Rockport-Fulton High School in 2002 before training at Fort Benning, Ga., in preparation for Iraq.

'WASN'T HIS UNIT'

Spc. Bell was the gunner inside the Black Hawk, according to Missouri television station KAIT K8.

He had just turned 21 on June 30 in Iraq and was scheduled to return home to Caruthersville, Mo., on furlough on Sept. 13, his aunt, Glenda Overbey, told The Associated Press.

Military representatives told Bell's parents about their son's death at their workplaces yesterday, Overbey said.

The family was confused yesterday because Bell's unit belonged to the Dark Horse Warriors. The 14 soldiers who died were part of Task Force Lightning, which includes units from Schofield Barracks and other bases around the country.

"It wasn't his unit," Overbey said. "We don't quite understand."

Bell graduated from Caruthersville High School in 2005 and immediately joined the Army, which sent him to Seattle.

A LOT OF MEMORIES

Family friend Dona Clark, who teaches freshmen students, told KAIT K8 that she was listening to the news yesterday when "I thought, 'How sad. All those families losing their loved ones.' Not even knowing that it was actually a former student and a friend of the family."

Bell's best friend, Thomas Guest, told the television station that they did everything together, especially four-wheeling.

"We used to see who could get their truck stuck first and we used to see who had the baddest truck or whatever," Guest said. "We had a lot of memories together."

J.J. Bullington, a middle school principal in Caruthersville, knew Bell as a child and taught him how to swim.

"This is a real small community of about 7,000," Bullington told the AP. "Everybody knows each other."

Army Capt. Corry Paul Tyler graduated at the top of his class at Camden County High School in Georgia, then went on to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1999, friends told Channel 4 News in Georgia.

Dr. William Warnock, pastor at First United Methodist Church in Woodbine, Ga., visited with Tyler's family yesterday.

"Mrs. Tyler is broken," the pastor said.

DIDN'T HAVE TO GO BACK

Because he was the lone male survivor in the family, Tyler was not required to return to Iraq but volunteered for a third tour anyway, Warnock said.

"It speaks highly of his integrity," Warnock said. "I served in the service, and any person who volunteers — they're just special, just absolutely special people."

Tyler is survived by his wife, Kathy, and three small children in Washington.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.