One of them, Army Sgt. 1st Class Kelly Bolor, 37, was a Maui native and a graduate of Lahainaluna High School. He was a reservist assigned to the 137th Quartermaster Company based in South El Monte, Calif.

The other, 2nd Lt. Jeremy Wolfe, 27, was a 2002 gradaute of Hawai'i Pacific University, where he majored in business administration. A native of Menomonie, Wisc., Wolfe was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, 101st Airborne Division out of Fort Campbell, Ky.

Both soldiers were among 17 who were killed when the Black Hawks they were in came under fire over a residential neighborhood in Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city.

Bolor’s identical twin, Keith, said today that his brother was extremely proud of serving in the Army. The twins, along with brother Rocky, were graduated the same year, and all three joined the military right out of school. There were two other siblings in the close but financially strapped family.

"We all grew up without a dad," Keith Bolor said. "My mom was on welfare, and she stayed home with the little ones. We were struggling."

They knew there would not be money for college, so the Army was a choice that offered both education and career, said Keith Bolor, the oldest twin by six minutes. Keith chose the reserves, however. Brother Rocky is still in the Army with an assignment on O'ahu.

Kelly Bolor served in the Army for four years with assignments in Kentucky and Alaska, where he regaled family members with stories about eating his first moose and squirrel. Just after he joined the reserves, he was sent to the Persian Gulf War.

Being twins, Kelly and Keith Bolor were extremely close. They were the boys who looked so much alike, they could trade places but when they got caught, their teachers pinned name tags on them.

And each knew when something was not right with the other.

"Me and my brother, we would feel each other’s pain," Keith Bolor said. "Sometimes we would call each other simultaneously and one would beat the other guy and say, Wow, I was just trying to call you."

Kelly Bolor was married and lived in Whittier, Calif., where he was a government employee. His wife is also named Kelly and the family would refer to them as "Kelly Boy" and "Kelly Girl." They have a 3-year-old son, Kyle.

He was activated last December and left for Iraq in January. Kelly Bolor was to come home next month for the holidays and his son’s birthday.

His death hit the family hard.

"At first, everone was in disbelief," said Conrad Bolor. "Everyone had a sense of hope that it wasn’t him. And then uncles were getting mad and were in denial. Are they sure, are they positive? It is just hard to accept."

At HPU, friends and teachers of Jeremy Wolfe are struggling, too. Wolfe was "an all-star student" in Jack Karbens’ accounting class. Wolfe also was a member of the ROTC program at the University of Hawai'i, he said.

"He was just a brilliant guy who was trying to learn more things," Karbens said today. "He was totally dedicated to becoming part of this helicopter program in the Army."

Wolfe included Karbens in e-mails he sent in October, not long after he arrived in Iraq. Wolfe was a flight platoon leader who was excited to be there, Karbens said.