"He'll always be remembered for that ever-present smile on his face," wrote Ryan's father of the young Vietnam veteran. Ryan and three friends enlisted in the Marine Corps the day after graduating from Lincoln High School in June 1968. He was one of seven men from Tacony to die in Vietnam. Six of the seven, including Ryan, attended St. Leo's Elementary School at Keystone and Unruh streets. The 20-year-old lance corporal was a rifleman and sometime radio operator with Company F of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division. Ryan was killed on a search-and-destroy mission south of Da Nang in Quang Nam Province on Aug. 25, 1969. He was survived by his parents, two brothers and a sister