One was a lifer.

The other was eager to return to college and resume his engineering studies.

Both were U.S. Marines who were aboard a CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter that crashed Thursday night nine miles from Kuwait’s border with Iraq. All aboard – four U.S. Marines and eight British Marines – died.

Capt. Jay T. Aubin, 36, and Cpl. Brian M. Kennedy, 25, leave family members, including their mothers, in Maine.

Aubin grew up in Skowhegan and was a pilot based in Yuma, Ariz.

Kennedy’s mother, Melissa Derbyshire, lives in Port Clyde.

Kennedy graduated from high school in Illinois and attended college at Purdue and Texas Tech. He was a hydraulics engineer stationed at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

His stepfather said Friday that Kennedy wanted to return to college to study engineering.

Aubin’s mother said she had a sense of foreboding even before she received word that her son was one of the four U.S. Marines killed in the crash.

“We knew, for some reason we just knew,” said Nancy Chamberlain of Winslow, who was aware from the television news coverage that a chopper was down.

Her son served four years in the Marines before leaving for college at the University of Southern Maine.

“To be a pilot – that’s all he really wanted to do,” said Aubin’s cousin, Colby Willette, 24, of Portland. “He was a lifer and he really believed in everything he was doing over there.”