As a 4-year-old boy, Sean Elliott took his Christmas gift — a model C-130 plane he loaded with his toy soldiers — to bed with him each night, cradling it in his arms.

On Monday, Marine Capt. Sean Endecott “Puffin” Elliott died when a variant of the same aircraft he was co-piloting fell from the skies over a Mississippi bean field, exploding and killing all 16 service members aboard. The former San Diego County resident was 30.

U.S. Marine Corps pilot Sean Elliott died on Monday when his KC-130T transport airplane crashed in rural Mississippi on a flight to Arizona. (courtesy photo)

He leaves behind his wife in North Carolina, Catherine, and his family in San Juan Capistrano.


“He did that for a long time,” said his father, John Elliott, referring to the bedtime ritual. “He kept taking it with him to bed. He slept with it like you would a teddy bear. A big plane, in the bed. A silly plastic thing, with the toy soldiers inside. It went to bed with him every night for quite a long time.”

His mother, Cynthia Elliott, added: “When he was 8, 9 years old, we took him and his brother, Erik, to the air show at Miramar. And he said that was a huge influence on him. He was so enamored with the aircraft and the military.”

A 2009 graduate of UC Davis, Sean Elliott majored in civil engineering, rose to become the house manager of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and starred on the Aggies’ alpine ski team.

A prep standout in tennis, the 6-foot 2-inch Elliott was renowned nationally for a booming serve and a scorching stroke. At 16 years old, he broke four Pete Sampras rackets at the throat while practicing.


“He was a huge hitter,” his father said. “I remember this one pro broke his strings hitting with Sean. He said, ‘I can’t believe that I’m hitting with a high school kid and he just broke my strings!’”

Unlike younger brother, Erik, however, Sean Elliott didn’t turn pro. Instead, he was selected by the Marine Corps for Officers Candidate School in 2008.

“He was always looking out for others, starting with me but then continuing to his fraternity brothers and his Marines,” Erik Elliott said. “He put his friends ahead of himself.”


Sean Elliott graduated from the Marine school two years later and was assigned as the operations duty officer to the “Raiders” of Miramar-based Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 352.

After flight school, he in 2012 became a co-pilot on the Lockheed Martin KC-130J Hercules variant of the air cargo transporter for the Cherry Point, North Carolina-based Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 252.

Elliott got his Marine Corps call sign “Puffin” because he refused to hunt the nesting and defenseless birds during a stopover in Iceland.

“Sean got all upset. Red-faced,” his father recalled. “So the Marines didn’t know whether to name him ‘Steamer’ or ‘Puffin’ because he got so steamed up about saving puffins. Well, ‘Puffin’ stuck.”


His near-constant companion was his doberman dog, Nibbler.

Marine captains and KC-130J pilots Sean Elliott (left) and Orlando Samudio conduct a formation flight near Moròn Air Base in Spain on March 25, 2015. (1st Lt. Danielle Dixon / U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe)

A joint Marine and Navy probe into the cause of the Monday accident in Mississippi’s rural Leflore County continues. The $37 million KC-130T, designated Bureau Number 16500, went down about 900 miles west of Cherry Point, where the flight originated.

It was bound for Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Arizona and was crewed by members of the Newburgh, New York-based Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 452.


The aircraft also carried six Marines and a Navy corpsman from Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command’s elite 2nd Marine Raider Battalion on what military officials have characterized as “routine, small-unit predeployment training” at the Yuma installation.

The special-operations team’s gear contained small-arms ammunition, but officials have stopped short of saying that it contributed to what witnesses said was a midair explosion, according to the Special Operations Command.

Services for the deceased Elliott are pending.

“He brought light and happiness to so many peoples’ lives,” Cynthia Elliott said.


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