U.S. Marine Corps 1st Lt. Dustin M. Shumney, 30, was on a mission providing security for Sunday's long-awaited Iraq election when his chopper crashed, killing all 31 soldiers on board.

According to the Department of Defense: "(Shumney) died Jan. 26 when the CH-53E helicopter ... crashed near Ar Rutbah, Iraq."

The cause of the crash is under investigation, according to the announcement.

The married father of three young children lived in Texas with his wife, Julie, and was based in Hawaii.

Shumney, a 1992 Benicia High School graduate, is the only child of Shama Shumney of Benicia. His father is dead.

Dustin Shumney went to junior college in Concord, playing football there, said his grandmother, Lucille Nunes of Benicia. He then attended school at Sacramento State University before moving to Virginia for officer training.

"I loved him dearly. He was the apple of my eye. His mom was so proud of him," Nunes said. "He's easy-going, lots of fun, loves sports. He loved kids, always liked playing with kids."

He planned to make a career out of the military, his mother told ABC-7 News. She had just sent him a care package.

"He just got my care package," she told ABC-7. "And when I asked what he wanted, he said gummy bears. And so I brought him bags and bags of gummy bears."

What would he tell her now? "He would say, Mom, be strong. I love you. Help my children and my wife. Be there for them.' And he's still there for me. He'll always be there," she said.

Ken Butler of Benicia found out about Shumney's death on the news Thursday night and was shocked. The pair were friends since they were 5 years old and grew up a block away from each other.

"I remember just pallin' around the neighborhood. We had our own clique. Dustin and I and some kids had a fort behind a buddy's house and we had rivalries with other kids, all in good fun," Butler remembered. "We'd hang out and camp out in our backyards on the weekends."

Butler played football with Shumney all four years at Benicia High. "He was very good, very aggressive on the field, but mellow off the field. He was a good student," Butler said. "He was well liked by everyone.

"He was a good guy. I didn't talk with him much after high school. We both went our own ways, but we'd run into each other every once in awhile and catch up," Butler said. "He was always there for his buddies in high school and even younger."

Butler said Shumney had worked for a number of years at the Benicia Raley's supermarket.

He didn't know Shumney was a Marine until a few years after high school. "I saw him and he had his head shaved, and he made the comment that he had just joined the Marines," Butler said. That was the last time the two spoke.

Shumney's football coach his sophomore year, Bill Earp, remembered him fondly. "He was a nice kid, kind of quiet," remembered Earp, who still teaches history and geography at the high school. "I'm just real shocked to hear this."

Ray Lewis, a Benicia High biology teacher, says Shumney stuck out. "This sounds so clich, but he was just the kid next door. He as athletic, he played football. He was good-looking, popular, smart," Lewis said. "He didn't have a lot of difficulty in class. He was just a well-rounded kid."

Lewis knew a lot of his students became soldiers in his 28 years at Benicia High, but he never heard of any being so much as injured.

"This brings this home. He's the first person I know who died over there," Lewis said. "When it comes so close to home, it puts a whole new face on it."