Phoenix Marine died in Nepal while fulfilling life mission of helping others

Jake Hug was under a tarp at midnight in a remote mountain wilderness of quake-shattered Nepal. But neither the conditions, nor the significance of his mission as a U.S. Marine stopped him from finding a phone and calling his mom on Mother's Day.

Half a world away, his mother Andrea and father Jim Hug were in the bedroom of their North Phoenix home. Andrea picked up. Jake wanted to talk to his dad, too. Jim initially declined. It was Mother's Day, after all. Andrea put the call on speaker.

The father was glad he relented. It was the last time they'd ever speak to their son.

"Had I known that was the last time I was going to talk to him, I wouldn't have resisted," Jim Hug said. "I would've said so much more."

At 12:30 a.m. this Sunday, Andrea and Jim were woken up by two Marines in their dress blues at their front door bearing the news that their eldest son was found dead.

Marine Lance Cpl. Jacob "Jake" Hug was found in the wreckage of the UH-1 "Huey" helicopter Saturday after an intense search of the mountains northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal's capital.

Confirmation of their son's death ended two days of sleepless, nervous vigil.

"We had been praying like crazy since Friday when they found the helicopter," Jim Hug said. "We were holding out hope."

The crew was delivering food and other supplies to victims of the two earthquakes that shook the country earlier this month.The chopper went missing Tuesday with six Marines and two Nepalese soldiers aboard.

Hug and the others were taking tarps, rice and other supplies to remote locations that had been devastated by the quakes, his father said. Hug, a combat videographer, also was taking footage of relief efforts for the Defense Department.

Jake was part of the U.S. humanitarian effort after two earthquakes that have killed more than 8,000 people and destroyed 600,000 homes during the past three weeks.

"They were selfless individuals dedicated to the mission here in Nepal," a Pentagon official said in a statement.

Hug had been based in Okinawa, Japan, and was on temporary assignment in Nepal for about a week before the helicopter disappeared.

Jake spent his 22nd birthday in the Himalayan kingdom on May 6. The last message Jake's uncle John Hug sent to his nephew was, "Happy birthday and I love you."

John said he never got a response, but hoped his nephew saw it before the helicopter crash.

Three years ago, Jake Hug joined the Marines because he wanted to do good in the world, John Hug said, his eyes red from grief.

His uncle, a veteran of the Arizona National Guard, tried to talk him out of joining the Marines, but Jake was headstrong.

"He wanted to be a Marine," John Hug said, his voice shaking. "That's what he wanted and there was no talking him out of it."

John Hug said that Jake was on a humanitarian mission when he went to Nepal, and that he would've done anything to help people in need.

His uncle said that Jake wanted to enlist in the Marines so that he could one day afford to go to college debt-free.

The U.S. relief mission was deployed after a magnitude-7.8 earthquake hit Nepal on April 25, killing more than 8,200 people. A magnitude-7.3 quake struck the country on Tuesday, killing at least 117 people and injuring about 2,800.

His helicopter went missing Tuesday while delivering rice and tarps in Charikot, the area worst hit by that day's quake. It had dropped off supplies in one location and was en route to a second site when contact was lost.

Jake was also on assignment to take photos and video of the U.S. military relief effort in Nepal for the Defense Department. His work appears on a Pentagon photography website.

"He always loved media," Jim Hug said with a proud smile. "It's what got him through high school. He loved photos and videos and he was more than excited when he found out he got into the program, which is very selective."

Jake was a quiet kid, his uncle John Hug said, he always had a book to read and loved spending time with his youngest siblings, twins Carter and Sydney, 7.

"Carter and Sydney clung to him like glue," John Hug said. "He was their role model, he took care of them the most out of his other siblings."

When Jake joined the Marines just after his 2012 graduation from Barry Goldwater High School in North Phoenix, Carter and Sydney were only 4 years old.

"They don't really know what's going on," Jim Hug said about his youngest children. "It helps that Jake has been gone for a while, but they have a ton of memories of him. They just don't understand the loss yet."

Andrea gave birth to Jake when she was just 16, which created an incredibly strong bond between the two, said Jim Hug.

"You've never seen a mother and a son so close," Jim Hug said. "Like on Mother's Day-he would've done anything to get that phone call out to his mom, and he did."

Jim Hug adopted Jake when he was 13, he said. Jake was part of a big, close family. He had five brothers and sisters, many cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Hug is an Arizona native but several of his family members live in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Omaha, Nebraska.

Jake had been home for a month in December, his uncle said, where he got a chance to see the majority of his family and spend time with his little brother and sister.

"He was just a sweet kid," John Hug said. "He would do anything for his family."

John's daughter, Grace, 11, said her cousin loved his family.

She remembered one time, very clearly while sitting on her father's lap, when John and Jim threw Jake and all the other kids into the pool one summer.

"He just laughed and tried to get them back," Grace Hug said.

John Hug said he couldn't have asked for a better person in his family.

"He was the best brother, nephew, son and cousin that anyone could ever ask for," he said.

Jake's uncle Tim and brother Zach took to Facebook to voice their grief Sunday.

"I miss you so much it's unfathomable," Zach Hug wrote. "God man you were one [of] the most kindest, selfless and thoughtful people I've been lucky to encounter and now I'm never gonna see you again."

But it was Carter, Jake's youngest brother, who echoed the thoughts of the entire family.

"Carter told me yesterday, 'everyone keeps saying Jake's not alive but I don't believe them,' " Tim Hug wrote on Facebook.

On Sunday afternoon, a Marine dressed in his formal green uniform with a crisp white hat came to the front door of the Hug family home with a green bag to discuss Jake's funeral services.

Though the Phoenix man's father is deeply saddened by the loss of his son, he can smile knowing he got the chance to hear his son's voice one last time only a few days before he died.

"I love you, dad I miss you," Jake told his father in his last phone call home on Mother's day. "Bye dad, see you soon."

Republic reporter Yihyun Jeong contributed to this article.