VanDeGiesen, 29, graduated in 1998 from North Attleborough High School, where he was a star quarterback and a Boston Globe All-Scholastic. He became part of the first varsity football team in decades at Saint Anselm College, where he graduated in 2002. He joined the US Marines and realized his dream to become a helicopter pilot. He and his wife, Megan, had a daughter, Avery, who celebrated her first birthday last spring, while he was serving in Afghanistan, and they were expecting their first son soon. VanDeGiesen died Oct. 26, 2009, in a helicopter crash while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, the US Defense Department said. Two helicopter crashes on that day killed 14 Americans. Van De Giesen was assigned to Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 169, Marine Aircraft Group 39, Third Marine Aircraft Wing, I Marine Expeditionary Force, based out of Camp Pendleton, Calif.