BY MEGAN REICHGOTT ASSOCIATED PRESS

A Marine pilot from northeastern Illinois was killed in a helicopter crash in Kuwait at the start of the war, his family said Friday.

Capt. Ryan Beaupre, 30, of St. Anne, about 60 miles south of Chicago, was the pilot of a CH-46 helicopter, according to his 31-year-old sister, Alyse Beaupre, who said the family was notified early Friday morning.

Military officials confirmed a CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force crashed Thursday, killing eight British and four U.S. Marines, officials said.

Mark Beaupre, the father of Ryan Beaupre, "told me that when he heard about this helicopter going down-- this was yesterday evening-- he had a premonition. He was just nervous and on edge," said Rev. James Fanale, the priest who heads the family's church.

"Then the dog started barking at 3 in the morning, and Mark said, 'There they are."'

At the door was a delegation from the Marine Corps to notify the family of Beaupre's death, Fanale said.

"Ryan's dad is on our parish council," Fanale continued. Recently, "we were asking Mark if he heard from Ryan, and he said, well, he had three letters. But Ryan said (in one of his letters), 'There are so many guys here who have wives and children lined up to use the phone. I'll let them go first, and I'll be in touch as soon as I can."'

Describing the captain, Fanale said: "He was an extremely joyful person. He was the kind of kid that when he came home, he would visit every single relative and friend. People loved to see him. He was just a kind of ray of light, a ray of sunshine."

A memorial mass was celebrated Friday morning at St. Anne's Catholic Church, the family parish. "Everybody said he was the kind of son everyone hoped for, friendly, generous, bright and devoted to the military," Fanale said.

Another family friend, Rev. Ron Murphy of the First Baptist Church of St. Anne, said: "We're a small community of 1,300. What happens to one family happens to all of us. The whole community knew Ryan, one of our finest."

Murphy said the captain was a pilot in a helicopter that went down with eight commandos and four crewmen, including him.

Marine officials in Illinois and at Camp Pendleton, Calif., where Beaupre was based, could not immediately confirm that he was among those killed in the helicopter crash that killed 12 in Kuwait.

The helicopter crashed at 7:37 p.m. EST-- Friday morning in Kuwait-- about 9 miles away from the border with Iraq, military officials said. The cause of the crash is under investigation, the officials said, adding that hostile fire had not been reported in the area.

Ryan's sister said her brother was a graduate of Bishop McNamara High School and Illinois Wesleyan University. He had been in the Marine Corps since 1995. His mother is Nicky Beaupre; he also leaves two other siblings, Kari Leisure, 28, and, Christopher Beaupre, 22.