Rumbling off the airstrip at the old McClellan Air Force Base, they head out on missions as far away as the Galapagos Islands. They search for lost boaters, help with law enforcement, even rescue birds.

Thursday afternoon, Coast Guard plane 1705 took off with seven crew members for a routine mission: help find a boater who got into trouble trying to return to Catalina Island in a 14-foot dinghy.

The C-130 Hercules plane, a workhorse considered one of the military's safest aircraft, left McClellan around 3 p.m.

Four hours later, with the plane flying through dark skies 900 to 1,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean off the San Diego coast, disaster struck.

The aircraft collided with a Marine Corps helicopter on a training mission out of Camp Pendleton with three other choppers off San Clemente Island.

A passing pilot reported a fireball, and suddenly nine people – seven in the Sacramento-based plane and two in the AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter – were in the water.

Despite a massive air and sea search that began shortly after the crash, no survivors or bodies had been found as of late Friday.

"We have every hope that we'll be able to find survivors," Coast Guard Capt. Thomas Farris said in San Diego on Friday evening. "I have sufficient belief that I'm continuing the search and rescue phase."

Officials said it was the first crash involving the Sacramento-based unit, which has been in operation at McClellan since 1978.

Authorities declined to release names of crew members from either aircraft, but the name of one Sacramento-based crewman, Danny Ray Kreder II, surfaced Friday afternoon after word swept through the small Texas high school Kreder graduated from in 2005.

Kreder, an outgoing 22-year-old, lives in a Roseville-area apartment complex.

Kreder was raised in Elm Mott, Texas, a community of about 800 or 900 people near Waco. He graduated from nearby Connally Independent High School, where his stepfather works as a mechanic, said Dean Kirkpartrick, transportation and food services director for the school.

Kirkpatrick told The Bee he was with Kreder's stepfather Friday morning when officials came to inform him that Danny Ray Kreder was on the C-130.

"They called his stepdad this morning, and they brought his mother by here, and they went home," Kirkpatrick said. "He was at work when we found out this morning about 7:15."

Kirkpatrick said the couple left for a flight to California, where urgent search efforts are under way to find Kreder, his six crew mates and the two occupants of the Marine helicopter.

"I've known Danny for a long time," Kirkpatrick said. "He's just an exceptional kid, liked doing stuff outdoors, fishing and hunting.

"I remember when I came here and began as a rookie bus driver out there on his route. He would always be the one to show me the route and where to stop to pick up kids. He would get the kids to get under control," Kirkpatrick said.

Kreder is the eldest of three boys, Kirkpatrick said, and loved working on cars and was into stock car racing.

"His mother and stepdad just got back from visiting him two weeks ago; they had a real good trip and everything," he said.

Coast Guard officials said the search would continue through Friday night, and the Coast Guard's commandant, Adm. Thad Allen, flew to the Sacramento-based unit Friday to offer support to the roughly 200 people who serve there.

"We have been and continue to actively search for survivors," Allen said in a message sent to all members of the guard. "Two Navy surface vessels were on scene almost immediately after the accident.

"Several Navy and Coast Guard aircraft, along with a Customs and Border Protection helicopter, are flying sorties in the area while multiple cutters, including the Blackfin, Blacktip, Edisto, Petrel, George Cobb and Jarvis, are conducting surface searches."

Coast Guard officials in San Diego were in charge of the search, and the unit in Sacramento was ordered to "stand down" for seven to 10 days to focus on personal issues and taking care of each other.

Call The Bee's Sam Stanton, (916) 321-1091. The Bee's Kim Minugh and researcher Pete Basofin contributed to this report.