New York Newsday – November 16, 2004
GLOUCESTER CITY, N.J. (AP) – A Marine corporal who volunteered to go to Iraq after two combat tours in Afghanistan was killed Monday in fighting in Ramadi, family members said Tuesday.
Cpl. Marc Ryan, 25, was a 1998 graduate of Gloucester City High School, where he was a star athlete and captain of the football team.
Ryan was a third generation Marine. His father and grandfather were in the Corps, and he joined more than four years ago to carry on the family tradition, said his brother Chris, a Gloucester City firefighter.
“He died doing something he loved,” Chris Ryan said.
He said Marc was due to get out in May, but volunteered for a third combat tour, in Iraq, because he was concerned about the number of casualties among his brother Marines, Chris Ryan said.
“He was an amazing man. He’d do anything for anyone,” said his sister, Lauren.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete, but at the family’s request a service was to be held at Gloucester City High School, WPVI-TV reported.
Ryan is the 27th member of the military from New Jersey to be killed in the fighting in Iraq.
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