Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician Senior Chief Petty Officer (Expeditionary Warfare Specialist/Freefall Parachutist) Kraig M. Vickers 36, of Kokomo, Hawaii was assigned to an East Coast-based Naval Special Warfare unit. He died Aug. 6 in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed. Chief Petty Officer Vickers was a Navy Bomb Disposal Specialist and had served for 15 years. He leaves behind his wife and their three children. Those who knew him say he was a fearless, intelligent, and easygoing family man. When he was a Maui High School football player, no one could match Kraig Vickers' intensity on the field. But off the field? "You couldn't find a nicer guy," his former coach remembers. "He played middle linebacker, so he was really smart, the quarterback of the defense; and when he put on his helmet, no one could match his intensity and aggressiveness," coach Curtis Lee told the Maui News. Vickers, who would have turned 37 on Thursday, graduated from high school in 1992 and attended Evangel College in Missouri on a football scholarship. "He decided college wasn't for him," and returned home, his father, Robert Vickers, said. After stints in tree trimming and working as a hotel security guard, he became a certified scuba diver and decided to join the Navy in 1996. He lived in Virginia Beach, Va., with his wife Nani, who is seven months' pregnant with their third child. "He wanted to be buried near the ocean," his father said. Kraig is survived by his wife, Nani; daughter, Makahea; son, Kala'i; daughter, Malie; unborn baby girl; parents, Robert "Bob" Sr. and Mary; brothers, Robert "Rob" Jr., Mark (Leidele), Vance (Liana); sister, Michelle (Curt) Yarborough; maternal grandmother, Alice George; paternal grandmother, Agnes Daniluck; father and mother-in-law, George and Annette Flores, Jr.; nieces and nephews.