Charles Osgood's friends were relieved when the 27-year-old Marine helicopter pilot was assigned to search and rescue duty in Arizona after two tours of duty in Iraq.

But then came the news that the Colorado native was killed Thursday in a crash during a training exercise near Yuma, Airz.

"Everybody breathed a sigh of relief when they had heard that he had come home (to Arizona)," said Pastor Martin Jacobsen of the Central Presbyterian Church at 1660 Sherman St., where the Osgood family have been mainstays of the congregation. "So it really caught us off guard."

He noted that Osgood leaves behind his wife Meeuwisse, who is expecting twins in March and their 11-month old son Nathan.

"It's a serious tragedy," Jacobsen added. "That kind of compounds the grief."

Four men were killed when the helicopter crashed near the Colorado River while flying on a routine training mission out of the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma.

The casualties included another Colorado native, Marine Corps Major Cesar Freitas, 35, a pilot from Boulder. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

Osgood's father John is an elder in the congregation. His mother Leslie is volunteer director of the church's heritage center.

His brother Seth is currently serving with the military in Afghanistan, Jacobsen said. Their father had also served in the military.

John Osgood serves as a church usher.

Whenever one or both of his sons were back in Colorado, they would work alongside their dad as ushers too.

Jackie Kendal-Gebel, director of the church's youth ministry, had known "Charlie" since he was freckle-faced seven-year-old.

He had a strong idealistic streak that was evident from an early age, she said.

Once when the kids were asked to come dressed as some one whom they felt was "doing God's work". He came to church in a military uniform.

Kendal-Gebel remembered being apprehensive when Osgood told her that he planned to join the Marines.

When she asked him why, Osgood described a television commercial with the image of a Marine hanging out of a helicopter to rescue someone.

"I want to do that," he told her.

"Why do you want to do that?" she asked.

"I want to make a difference," he replied.

On Wednesday, Kendal-Gebel thumbed through photographs of Osgood while he was growing up in the church. The images showed him playing the part of a biblical king and playing with stuffed lambs and penguins. She plans to forward them to Osgood's wife.

"When he joined the military, I was afraid he wouldn't come back," she said. "He was so committed and idealistic that he's the kind of person who would have laid down his life for somebody else."

Services were held in Yuma this week for the Marines killed in the helicopter crash. A date for a service for Osgood at Central Presbyterian is still pending.