CLOVIS, Calif. — Early in the Iraq war, Jeff and Peggy Hubbard faced the news that every parent with a child at war dreads, the death of son Jared, a Marine killed alongside his best friend.

Last week, they faced another grim-faced officer. This time, it was their youngest, Army Cpl. Nathan Hubbard, 21, based at Hawai'i's Schofield Barracks, dead in a helicopter crash in Iraq.

(Nine other Schofield soldiers died in that crash Wednesday.)

"In all of our minds we have an order of the way things go. The death of a child is out of order," said Tim Rolen, a family friend and pastor who co-presided at Jared Hubbard's funeral on Veteran's Day 2004.

"You now have a family that has lost two," he said. "One doesn't prepare you for another one."

Flags were lowered to half-staff outside homes, stores and municipal buildings Friday all over Clovis, a city of 90,000 next to Fresno.

A third Hubbard brother, Jason, was on another helicopter in the same Schofield unit and was at the crash site. He accompanied his brother's body on a flight out of Iraq and returned home Friday to be with his family.

The family has been told that, if he requests it, Jason Hubbard will be discharged or given noncombat duty under an Army policy governing sole surviving siblings and children of soldiers killed in combat, Rolen said.

The military does not track families with more than one child serving in Iraq or cases in which casualties have resulted in a service member's discharge or change in combat status, said Lt. Jonathan Withington, a Department of Defense spokesman.

Nathan was barely out of high school when a roadside bomb killed Jared and Jared's best friend. Nathan tattooed his brother's initials on his arm, described him as his hero and enlisted to pick up where his brother left off.

With a yearlong tour of duty almost behind him, he was making plans to meet his buddies in Hawai'i when the Black Hawk helicopter carrying him and 13 others had mechanical problems and crashed during a night flight. There were no survivors.

Jason Hubbard, 33, had resigned as a Fresno County sheriff's deputy to join the Army at the same time Nathan did. At their request, the two were assigned to the same unit, the 3rd Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division based at Schofield.

Jason was riding in another helicopter when the Black Hawk went down. He told his wife by phone that he was part of the crew assigned to search the wreck, according to Rolen.

Buchanan High Principal Don Ulrich remembered Nathan Hubbard, a 2004 graduate, as a happy-go-lucky student and junior varsity wrestler who made friends easily.

"It is very difficult to comprehend the loss this Buchanan family has endured. All we can do is support Nathan and his brothers' commitment to serving their country and keep the family in our prayers," Ulrich said.

The Hubbards — who also have a daughter, Heidi, 31 — asked for privacy. Jeff Hubbard is a retired Clovis police officer, and a officer was posted outside their door. Capt. Drew Bessinger, a longtime friend whose son grew up with Jared Hubbard, said the family's double tragedy had unsettled the most hardened veterans.

"It's difficult for us, even though we are people who deal with disturbing situations on a daily basis."

Rolen said Jeff and Peggy Hubbard had conflicting emotions when Nathan and Jason enlisted six months after their brother's death. The parents were proud, but wanted to make sure the sons were doing it for the right reasons and understood the risks, he said.

"Any parent who has lost a child in this manner would say, 'Be sure.' This is a family that is strong on commitment," he said.

In an interview with The Fresno Bee after enlisting, Nathan Hubbard said he knew the danger but did not worry about dying.

"My brother — my parents' son — will always be in our hearts, and we'll always remember him and we'll always think of him and all that, but we've got to move on, and that's what we are doing," he said.