A Valley family held a local memorial service to honor Sgt. Alec Langen, a son, husband, and hero lost too soon.
ABC15’s Christine Stanwood was invited to the private memorial event on Monday.
During the service, Caryn Langen, the fallen sergeant's mother, said, "When I looked at my phone, my last text that I had received from him was just a day prior and it said, 'get some sleep I love you.' So baby boy, get some sleep, I love you, too."
Caryn says, "Alec did the job he loved and we know that he left us in a way he wanted to go — alongside his brothers."
Sgt. Langen was among five Marines killed in a helicopter crash earlier this month near San Diego.
Langen’s father, Steven, said his son was following in his footsteps, but still paving his own path.
"Ever since he was three, he was like, 'I want to do what daddy did,'" Steven told ABC15. “I did the same thing. I was in the same helicopter, same everything from 1986 to 1995."
"Being a Marine to Alec was everything. Steve pinned his wings on him when he finished training," said Caren. "He idolized his father."
Shortly before his death, Langen got married in a small ceremony in Sedona.
“It was the best day of my life and I just remember how happy he was,” Casey Langen, his wife, told reporters.
She described him as a "loving and selfless person."
They were planning a move to North Carolina so he could pursue his career as a flying instructor and she as a nurse.
“Our plan was to go over there and get a big house and get a couple dogs and start a family,” she said.
The United States Marine Corps held a separate memorial for the five Marines, which took place in hangar 4, home of the HMH-361 “Flying Tigers.”
The family says any donations in Alec's memory can be made to the Wingman Foundation.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
