Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Kraig Vickers of Maui was looking forward to coming back to Pearl Harbor when a Chinook helicopter crashed in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing him and 37 other U.S. and Afghan military members.

At the beginning of this year, Kraig was promoted to senior chief, the second-highest Navy enlisted rank, after 15 years in the service.

"He was supposed to come back to Pearl Harbor in May 2012, and he was looking forward to staying in the Navy for 20 years," his father, Bob Vickers of Kokomo, Maui, said Monday. "He was looking at three years at Pearl Harbor and then one more year. After he retired from the Navy, he wanted to move his family back to Maui, build their home and go from there."

Vickers had told his family on Maui that he wanted to be buried near the beach should the worst happen. But it could take weeks before Vickers’ body comes back home.

Vickers’ two brothers — Mark and Vance — and his wife, Nani, were in Delaware to meet Vickers’ body at Dover Air Force Base, Del., tonight.

No services have been scheduled yet on Maui.

"Right now the Navy is overwhelmed with so many caskets," Bob Vickers said. "It could possibly take a couple of weeks before the bodies are disseminated to the various states."

In a statement issued over the weekend, U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye said, "Kraig Vickers served his country with honor and distinction. His brave efforts in defense of our great nation must never be forgotten. His sacrifice is a grim reminder that every day, very brave men and women are fighting and dying for our country. These soldiers are fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and sons and daughters. My thoughts and prayers remain with Kraig’s family and loved ones during this very difficult time."

Kraig Vickers played middle linebacker and was the Maui Interscholastic League’s defensive player of the year on the undefeated Sabers football team before he graduated in 1992. He would have turned 37 on Thursday.

Vickers was working security with his brother, Mark, at the Westin Maui Resort & Spa when he joined the Navy in 1996 at the age of 22, his father said.

"He wanted to do things that were out of the ordinary, like parachuting and scuba, and that’s what the Navy offered," said Bob, who was an Air Force sergeant who specialized in munitions when he was assigned to the former Hickam Air Force Base.

Kraig wanted to be a Navy SEAL but decided instead to specialize in ordnance and became a member of a Navy Bomb Disposal Team attached to a SEAL team based out of Virginia, Bob said.

"Once he went through boot camp, he kept advancing through jump school, scuba school and photography school," Bob said. "He loved it. He just loved it."

Kraig was the tallest in the family at 6 feet, 1 inch. But as a boy he was so clumsy that Bob nicknamed him "Uncle Dingles."

So it surprised Bob that his son wanted to work with explosive ordnance.

"It was a rush for him, one of those on-the-edge type of situations," Bob said. "He loved that. He ate it up. I told him, ‘You have to be top notch, cannot be clumsy.’ So he honed his skills. He definitely impressed me."

On trips back home from the Navy, Vickers loved free-diving and scuba-diving in waters off of Maui and told his family that he wanted to be buried next to the ocean when he died.

"He beat us to the punch," Bob said. "Normally the parents go before their children. He did an end run and got there before us. Right now our prayers are for the families that lost their loved ones: Give them the strength that we receive from Jesus."

Vickers leaves behind wife Nani, a former Pearl City High School and University of Hawaii basketball player who is seven months pregnant with their second daughter; son Noah "Kala‘i," age 7; daughter Mali‘e, 4; parents Bob and Mary; brothers Mark, Vance and Robert, Jr.; and sister Michelle.

Nani, who grew up in Pearl City and lives in Virginia Beach, Va., is "hanging in there," Bob said. "She realizes she has to be mindful of the children. But her son keeps asking about his dad."

Kraig and Nani met online in 2002 when he was stationed at Pearl Harbor and Nani was living on Oahu and working part time to help troubled kids attain their high school equivalency degrees, Bob said.

Kraig could not contain his excitement over Nani.

"He said, ‘Dad, you’ve got meet this girl. She’s the one,’" Bob said. "I said, ‘Kraig, do you know how many times I’ve heard that from you?’"

Bob was surprised that Nani, who is 6 feet 2 inches tall, was taller than his son — and that Nani had captured Kraig’s attention.

"Kraig was more than a rascal," Bob said. "He was very popular with everyone."

But in 2003 Bob presided over their wedding at Nanakuli Ranch on Oahu.

"The Lord used Nani to bring him back to the straight and narrow," Bob said.