Marine Maj. David Yaggy was known for giving “exceptionally generous” Christmas gifts before being deployed overseas.
“He did it, because it might be his last,” said his older brother Alex.
Although he had no scheduled deployments, this past Christmas turned out to be his last.
David Yaggy, 34, was training another Marine pilot Friday in a single-engine plane when it hit the side of a mountain 60 miles from Birmingham, Ala.
His student, 2nd Lt. Alexander Prezioso, also died.
The Navy is still investigating what caused the midday crash and would not release any information.
David Yaggy and his three siblings grew up in Sparks in Baltimore County and had dreamed of joining the Marines and becoming pilots ? which David Yaggy did when he graduated from the University of Richmond in 1996.
Yaggy had served for 11 years and was a decorated combat veteran, having served two tours of duty in Iraq and one in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2005. He earned 10 air medals for strikes and other combat awards for flying a UH-1N Huey helicopter.
Yaggy leaves behind a wife and an 18-month-old daughter in Pensacola, Fla.
He had been working on his master?s in business administration and planned on leaving the service soon to work in aviation.
“He was robbed of all the benefits of his hard work,” Alex Yaggy said.
Yaggy was one of the instructors based at the Naval Air Station-Whiting Field in Milton, Fla., and trained Naval aviators for combat.
“As an instructor, he was an experienced Naval aviator, having spent so much time in the forward theater and in combat,” said Jay Cope, spokesman for the Naval air station.
Prezioso, of Florida, was training for a long-range flight in a T-34 Turbo Mentor from the air station to Savannah, Ga., when the crash occurred.
It is the third fatal crash in that aircraft taking off from Whiting Field, Cope said.
A memorial service for Yaggy and Prezioso is planned for Thursday in Florida.
Yaggy was the secondlocal military veteran to die this past Friday. Army Staff Sgt. Collin Bowen, of Nottingham in Baltimore County, succumbed to injuries sustained Jan. 2 from a roadside bomb explosion in Afghanistan.
Alex Yaggy and his wife were living in New York in 2001 and witnessed the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
“When I saw the first tower go down, I knew David would be going off to fight,” Alex Yaggy said. ” … It?s very hard, because he wasn?t killed in combat, so we can?t be angry at anyone.”
