Mourning First U.S. War Casualties

Two U.S. Marines died in combat and another dozen American and British Marines were killed in a helicopter crash that appeared to be accidental.

A U.S. Marine was the first to die in action. His company was advancing on a burning oil pump station when he was shot in the stomach, a comrade said. President Bush was informed of the death early Friday and expressed his regrets.

He was from the U.S. 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said Lt. Col. Neal Peckham, a British military spokesman in Kuwait. He died in the sweep on the Rumeila oil field in southern Iraq, where acrid smoke blackened the sky.

U.S. Central Command gave no other details.

The second Marine, also from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, died Friday at about 4 p.m. while fighting enemy Iraqi forces near Umm Qasr, a strategic port which came under allied control Friday.

The eight British and four U.S. Marines died when their CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter crashed and burned about nine miles south of the Iraqi border town of Umm Qasr. Military officials said no hostile fire was reported in the area.

The pilot was Capt. Ryan Beaupre, 30, of St. Anne, Ill., his sister Alyse said. Her family was notified early Friday morning, she said.

The Rev. James Fanale, the priest at the Beaupre family's church, St. Anne's Catholic Church, said a Marine Corps delegation came to the family's home at 3 in the morning with the news. A memorial Mass was celebrated at the church Friday morning.

"He was just really devoted to the service, to his friends," Fanale told CBS Radio station WBBM-AM. His parents "were apprehensive but it was what he wanted to do. He felt very strongly about what he was doing."

Fanale said St. Anne's Church has six members serving in the Gulf now, from a town of about 1200 people.

Beaupre's family last talked to him two days before he shipped out in February, reports CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales.

"It doesn't make me angry," said Beaupre's brother Christopher. "We needed to disarm Saddam Hussein and get rid of his weapons of mass destruction and this is something that just happened."

Two of the other crash victims were from Maine. They were identified as Maj. Jay Thomas Aubin, 36, of Winslow, Maine, and Cpl. Brian Matthew Kennedy, 25,a Texas man whose mother lives in Port Clyde, Maine. The fourth victim was Staff Sgt. Kendall Damon Watersbey, 29, of Baltimore, Md.

Aubin was assigned to the Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron - 1, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz. Beaupre, Kennedy and Watersbey were assigned to the Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron - 268, 3d Marine Aircraft Wing, Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton, Calif.

"We knew, for some reason we just knew," when she saw a television report on the chopper crash, Nancy Chamberlain, Aubin's mother, said.

And then came the knock at the door Friday morning, confirming the death.

Americans should realize that the technology that allows for instant coverage of the war is a mixed blessing, Chamberlain said.

"Technology is wonderful, but there is another side to this story, and that's the people who are waiting at home," she said. "For the moms and the wives who are sitting there wondering about every helicopter or every tank and thinking about their sons or daughters, it's terror."

At a Washington news conference, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld expressed gratitude for the men's sacrifice.

"The world will be a safer place because of their dedicated service," he said.

"He went with bells on," said Aubin's mother. "He's a Corps man true and true."

There are six CH-46 squadrons, each comprising 10 or so Sea Knights, at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego and the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base in northern San Diego County.

Near the bases, word of the deaths was the news everyone had been dreading.

"It's like a family here with the Marines and the community," said Stephanie Starks, 46, owner of the Tahitian Bytes Cafe, a coffee shop near Camp Pendleton. "Even if you don't know one of the guys, it's very personal because they're ours."

"It's like part of your family," said Carol LaPierre. Her daughter and son-on-line are both Marines. "You feel for all the other mothers."

Her daughter Melissa McPherson said she knows her husband, now in the war zone, could be killed, but, "You don't sign up for the Marine Corps to serve fries."

The accident occurred as U.S. Army and Marine units, joined by their British counterparts, surged across the Kuwaiti border into southern Iraq on Thursday and Friday, working at first to secure the region's oil wells.

The Marines use the Sea Knight, a bus-like helicopter with two large rotors, to fly troops from ships at sea or base camps to forward positions. The helicopter is from the Vietnam-era and has been beset in recent years by mechanical troubles that have forced more frequent inspections and driven up operating costs.

Lt. Col. Ben Curry, a British Royal Marines spokesman in Kuwait, told Sky News that the British servicemen were from 3 Commando Brigade.

CBS News and CBSNews.com are respecting the Pentagon's wishes to not publish the names of casualties until their families have been notified, or 72 hours have elapsed since the deaths.