DesMoines Register -- Marine Cpl. Nathan Schubert of Cherokee had survived bloody battles in Iraq and had been looking forward to returning home to Iowa before he was killed in a helicopter crash this week.

Schubert, who died one day before his 23rd birthday, had received orders to leave Iraq on Feb. 4, said Matt Schubert of Spencer, Nathan's older brother. Nathan Schubert was an infantryman who arrived in Iraq shortly before Thanksgiving and had been involved in numerous gunfights in Fallujah, including some in which fellow Marines were killed and wounded.

"That is the thing that we are having the hardest time with. He survived all of that and then he died in a helicopter crash.

"There wasn't a thing that he could do about it," Matt Schubert said Friday.

Schubert was described by friends and family Friday as a friendly, likable young man who patriotically enlisted in the Marines only weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He graduated from Washington High School in Cherokee in the spring of 2001 and had just begun studies at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids when the attacks occurred.

"Nathan was just a great kid. I think everyone here is in shock," said Marlin Lode, Cherokee's school superintendent. "Everyone is quite concerned about Nate's family, and everyone is mindful of other Cherokee Washington grads who are in the service, especially those in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Schubert was a varsity letter winner in high school football, basketball and baseball, and he was a member of the German and FAA clubs. During the fall of 2000, he was the starting wide receiver on the football team's playoff squad.

Former Cherokee football coach Bill Messerole, now an associate principal at Centerville High School, was choked with emotion Friday as he recalled his memories of the young man.

Schubert was among a tight-knit group of 18 seniors on that 2000 team who always worked hard and never took a day off from practice, Messerole said. Almost all of them had begun kindergarten together, and they had stuck together throughout high school.

"Nathan was a very competitive kid. Athletically, he was undersized, but he really made up for it with quickness and determination. He was a very good football player and just a very gifted athlete," he said.

Schubert's last visit home was in June when his father, Drew Schubert, 52, died of a brain tumor. Survivors include his mother, Cheryl Winklepleck of Sioux Falls, S.D.; his brother, Matt; and a sister, Elizabeth Householder of Whittemore.

The young Marine will be buried next to his father at a cemetery in rural Ida County. Tentative plans call for funeral services to be held Feb. 5 at the Cherokee high school.

Cherokee Mayor Dennis Henrich said that although quite a few of Schubert's classmates have left town to attend college or obtain employment, many will be returning to pay their last respects.

"I have heard from several people who said, 'You know, my kid is going to be back here.' So I think it will be a big, big funeral," Henrich said. "You know you read about this kind of thing in the paper and hear about it on television, but it doesn't hit home until it happens to somebody right close by."

Matthew Schubert said he had last talked with his brother on Jan. 21 and he had been planning to come home on leave within the next few months. Nathan's hobbies included doing anything outdoors, including pheasant and deer hunting, and fishing and canoeing.

"He had a big heart," Matthew Schubert said. "He was pretty carefree. He didn't let things bother him. He just lived life to the fullest."