EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Rex “Chris” Kenyon lived to fly.

He remained in his theater seat for a second showing of the movie “Top Gun” and took his first helicopter flight when he was still a student at El Segundo High School.

As an Army chief warrant officer, he was amazed that he got paid to fly helicopters.

“He used to say, ‘Where else can you work where they give you a $30 million helicopter, all the gas you wanted and all you have to do is fly around?” said his father, Rex Kenyon.

The younger Kenyon, 34, was killed Jan. 16 along with another pilot when their Apache helicopter was shot down during an aerial patrol north of Baghdad. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 4th Aviation Regiment (Attack), Combat Aviation Brigade, 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas.

During a conversation with his father the night before he died, Kenyon talked...