He Borrowed Chute : Survivor an Ex-Marine and Sky Diver

Eugene Hasenfus, believed to be the lone American survivor of a C-123 cargo plane shot down over Nicaragua, was described Tuesday as an ex-Marine who “goes looking for adventure” and who several weeks ago dropped in on his brother in Wisconsin to borrow a parachute.

His family and friends said Hasenfus was a laid-off steelworker with three children who likes to hunt and fish and had never shown any interest in politics.

Tuesday, his stunned family was trying to learn how he came to be at the center of an international incident when a plane reportedly occupied by him and three other people was shot down by Sandinista troops near the Costa Rican border.

Parachuted From Plane

Two Americans and a Nicaraguan died in the crash, but Hasenfus was caught after parachuting from the stricken plane.

Nicaraguan officials have charged that the men were CIA operatives illegally assisting Nicaraguan rebels, called contra s, in their fight against the leftist Sandinista government. But U.S. officials have declared that the three American crew members had no U.S. government ties and were on a privately sponsored mission for the contras’ cause.

Although the Nicaraguan government initially identified the captured American as Eugene Hafenfuf, family members said they are convinced he is the 45-year-old Marinette, Wis., steelworker.

‘Don’t Know Anything’

But they said they have no idea how he came to be involved in the Nicaraguan civil war.

“We don’t know anything,” his aunt, June Hasenfus, said in a telephone interview. Hasenfus lived in a three-bedroom house on the shore of Green Bay with his wife, Sally, a real estate agent, and their three children, all in grade school, his aunt said. She described the family as “very close.”

“He’s a good, jolly person and helpful in any way he could be,” his aunt said. “He loved fishing, hunting and boating.

“He is a very handsome gentleman,” she said. “He has red hair and the greatest smile you would ever want to see. Blue eyes, some freckles, a real neat looking guy. He must be 6-3 or 6-4.”

She said she last saw her nephew about five or six months ago. “He came over and visited, and my boys went deer hunting with him,” she said. “He would stop in every once in a while.”

Hasenfus worked for Oscar J. Boldt Construction Co. in Appleton, Wis., for 10 years until he was laid off “for lack of work” on Jan. 15, according to a payroll clerk there.

His aunt said she understood that he is still a steelworker, adding that he traveled often in his work. His older brother, William, said, however, that Hasenfus had taken a job with a Florida air cargo firm but declined to name the company.

“It’s a little ironic,” William Hasenfus of Oshkosh, Wis., told the Associated Press. “That was my parachute on his back. He just happened to ask for it when he visited a few weeks ago, and that’s what saved him.”

Both Sky Divers

“We were both sky divers,” Hasenfus also said. “He was going to do some local jumping down there in Miami.”

June Hasenfus and other family members said Eugene never expressed any interest in international affairs.

“It wasn’t his nature to get into politics or things like that,” his aunt said. “There were so many other things more fun to talk about, really, like the deer that got away and the fish that got away--those kinds of stories.”

She said William Hasenfus teaches sky diving and both Eugene and his sister, Sandy, are sky divers. “It was a family kind of thing,” she said.

But his brother, quoted by United Press International, described Eugene as “the type of guy who goes looking for adventure. . . . He was in the Marines about 20 years ago.”

Hasenfus’ wife, Sally, told the Associated Press by telephone, “I don’t know where he is and what he’s doing. I only know what I see on the TV, and I really don’t know any more.”

According to a service record released by the Pentagon, Hasenfus served in the Marines from 1960 to 1965 and was assigned to Camp Pendleton, Calif. He was trained as an air delivery specialist, meaning that he was a parachute rigger for equipment drops, the Pentagon said. He did not serve overseas.

Hasenfus’ sister, Sandy Coppens, reached by telephone, said she did not know whether family members would try to go to Nicaragua to see Eugene.

“At this point, we haven’t made any plans to do anything,” she said.

She and other family members said they are still trying to learn what happened.

“This has come as kind of a surprise to his family,” she said.

Remarked June Hasenfus: “I heard it this morning, and they didn’t pronounce his name right, and my prayers were it was the wrong person. But it was too close to Hasenfus not to be right.”