Long before Navy Lt. Cmdr. A. Jason Bayer took to the skies as a jet pilot, he was a daredevil.

“He would hide in the dryer when we played games of hide-and-seek,” said Beth Kitchen of Carson City, who was Bayer’s baby sitter when he was 8 years old.

“He was not beyond jumping on furniture,” Kitchen said. “I was often terrified that his mother would come home and think I was not doing a very good job.”

It was that kind of moxie that led Bayer to serve — and to be ready to volunteer.

Bayer, 34, was killed in a Navy HH-1 helicopter crash last Thursday near Lake Isabella, Calif., leaving behind an infant daughter and pregnant wife. He was one of two crew members killed when the chopper went down about 120 miles north of Los Angeles. Petty Officer Charles Chaco, 22, from Agat, Guam, also died.

Bayer, who was one of Carson High’s top graduates in 1986, volunteered for the ride-along at the last minute when another crew member became ill.

“That sounds like him. Somebody needed something and Jason jumped to it,” said Bernadette Garcia, a friend of Bayer’s since their college days at the University of Southern California who now works for Southwest Airlines.

Carson High classmates who grew up with Bayer remembered him as a good friend to have, especially after he earned the Dean’s Scholarship to USC and began a four-year stint as the manager for the USC football team.

“For our birthdays and at Christmas, we’d all get USC football stuff,” said Michael de la Torre, a former Carson classmate who is now a teacher at Sparks High. “One year we got Rose Bowl tickets. Another time we got tickets to see USC play Oklahoma. They were great seats. Marcus Allen and O.J. Simpson were sitting right in front of us.”

Bayer also secured a souvenir for one of his coaches at Carson High, who was a former player at the University of Notre Dame. Now that coach says he’ll cherish his gift from Bayer even more.

“Notre Dame was playing USC on the (west) coast and Jason snagged a Notre Dame football during the pregame warm-ups,” said Jim deArrieta, who now runs deArrieta Insurance Agency in Carson City. “After the game, he sent it to me. That’s always been a special thing to me.

“Now, it takes on a whole different meaning.”

Sports were of great interest to Bayer, especially as a child, friends say.

Bayer made a name for himself in Little League baseball, where as a 12-year-old he was named an all-star for the Carson National League.

“He had the highest batting average in the league,” said Dane Farnworth, a 1986 Carson High graduate now living in Pueblo, Colo.

Through his childhood, he and his sister, Jessica were raised by their mother, Merry Ann Bayer. She and Bayer’s father, Carson City attorney Arthur Bayer, divorced when the children were young, friends said.

Merry Ann Bayer was an English and journalism teacher at Carson High School. She died of cancer in 1999 after a long struggle, friends said. Jessica and Jason later sponsored a scholarship at Carson High in their mother’s honor. Jason gave an impassioned speech about her during the ceremony dedicating the scholarship, friends said.

“Those kids and their mom just really stuck together,” said Charlie Kitchen a longtime friend of the family and broker/owner of Charles Kitchen Realty. “They are an expression of their mother’s love. She raised those kids and had two fantastic kids.”

Added Sparks High teacher de la Torre: “She had the biggest influence on Jason, more than anyone. He just loved her, respected her. She was always there for them.”

Jason’s mom, however, became a tough teacher when Jason was a student in her freshman English class at Carson High.

“He was a straight-A student,” de la Torre said. “The only A minus Jason ever got was from his mother. He was supposed to write a paper and Jason said he didn’t feel like it, so he got an A minus.

“When he was a senior that A minus was the difference with him not becoming the valedictorian of the class, although he did graduate in the top five,” de la Torre said.

Bayer’s volunteer spirit, which ultimately led to his death, seemed to blossom at Carson High, said former coaches.

Bayer was a defensive back on the varsity football team as a senior in 1985, former head coach Paul Paul Croghan said.

“He ran hard and was a good tackler,” Croghan said. “He was on most of our special teams and dislocated his elbow when we played at Reed High.”

Bayer was taken to the hospital but returned to watch the fourth quarter of the game with his elbow in a splint.

The injury ended his season but Bayer would not give up.

“I was the kicking coach,” deArrieta said. “He wasn’t a kicker but came over to me and asked, ‘Coach, can you show me how to kick? I just have to get into the game.’ ”

DeArrieta said Bayer became pretty good, too. Croghan didn’t think Bayer got his chance to kick an extra point or field goal because that season “was a lean year and we didn’t score much.”

Although Beth Kitchen said Bayer dreamed of going to outer space as a child, his real desire was to become a jet pilot and, later, an astronaut.

“During our freshman year (in college), I went down to see him at USC,” de la Torre said. “He had this Navy recruiter’s card on his desk. I asked him what it was for and he said, ‘I want to fly jets.’”

His dream of being an astronaut was also rekindled at USC, his friend Garcia said. His boyhood dream of space flight followed him throughout his career, Garcia said, adding Bayer now has his chance.

“Jason wanted to be an astronaut and always told me so,” Garcia said. “So now he’s up there. Flying in the stars. I just flew in from Florida And since 9-11, people get really terrified flying. But I felt a calm, knowing Jason is up there watching after me. If I could ever choose anyone to be my guardian angel, it would be Jason.”

After graduating from USC with a degree in sports medicine, Bayer was accepted into the Navy’s Aviation Officer Training Candidate School in Pensacola, Fla., de la Torre said.

“I remember him telling me that his graduating class had the highest scores ever up to that point,” de la Torre said.

From there, Bayer went to Primary Flight School in Corpus Christi, Texas, then to Intermediate Flight School in Kingsville, Texas, and finally to Advanced Flight School in El Toro, Calif.

Bayer was selected to fly the F/A-18 fighter attack jet and in 1994, he became a pilot on the USS Independence aircraft carrier, based in Japan.

After three years on the USS Independence, Bayer became an advanced flight instructor for the Navy. In 1999, he was transferred to the base at China Lake. He and his family were in the middle of moving to Lamore Naval Air Station when he was killed.

Today, friends and family will gather in Carson City to honor Bayer. Garcia, however, doesn’t think Bayer would want any show of sadness or remorse at his memorial.

“He told me years ago that when he died, he hoped he would have put away a couple of thousand dollars so people could have a party at his funeral,” Garcia said. “He said that he would want people to remember him and the happy times.”