Thomas F. Ryan, Jr.

Photograph courtesy of Thomas Ryan’s nephew, Cpl. David Jones, USMC.

Thomas Ryan Junior was born in Rensselaer County, New York, in 1927.

He grew up in a family haunted by memories of the Great War. Thomas Ryan Senior, had served with the Army in the trenches in France; he was grievously wounded while overseas, and though he survived to marry Bertha Coonradt and settle in East Greenbush, he never fully recovered from his experiences in uniform. When he died on January 5, 1940, his demise was attributed in part to his old war wounds.

Much to his mother’s relief, Thomas Junior was too young to enlist when Pearl Harbor was attacked on January 7, 1941. Instead, he continued on with his studies at Columbia High School in his hometown, celebrated the marriage of his older sister Dorothy to a dashing Army lieutenant named Roland Gagnon, and helped to look after his younger sisters Margaret and Arlene. But as time and the war went on, and more and more boys from New York’s Capital Region joined up and went overseas, Thomas Ryan grew less and less satisfied remaining at home. On October 26, 1943, Ryan took the oath to serve in the Marine Corps, and was whisked away to Parris Island, where he joined the other boots of the 8th Recruit Battalion.

Private Ryan did well in boot camp; he qualified with the M1, earning the right to wear the Maltese Cross of a sharpshooter. He was packed off to Camp Lejeune for additional training, then joined the 49th Replacement Draft bound for the West Coast, where he received his first assignment: duty with the Third Provisional Marine Detachment, an administrative unit attached to Fleet Marine Force headquarters. It was far from combat, but it was at least active duty.

Not long after his arrival in Hawaii, Ryan received sad news from home. His brother-in-law, Lieutenant Gagnon, serving with Company E of the famous 442nd Regimental Combat Team, was killed on August 31, 1944 while crossing the Italy’s Arno River. Ryan had little time to mourn; he was too busy qualifying with the Browning Automatic Rifle, receiving a promotion to Private First Class, and transferring from the administrative unit to a front-line rifle company – Charlie Company, First Battalion, 24th Marines.

For the next five months, PFC Ryan’s home was Camp Maui, Hawaii. He worked hard to fit in with his rifle squad, some of whom had been with the company since before he’d enlisted and had seen action on Namur, Saipan, and Tinian. Conditioning hikes, mock assaults, and combat training defined most days, with the occasional weekend liberty providing a welcome relief. In January, 1945, the training came to an end, and PFC Ryan boarded the USS Hendry with the rest of his battalion and sailed off for parts unknown.

Ryan got his first glimpse of Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945. Fortunately, his battalion was in reserve for the 24th Marines and were spared the disaster that befell the first waves of Marines, but by 1600 hours he was aboard a small landing craft headed for the smoking beaches. Charlie Company was ashore by 1700, and picked their way to a designated marshaling area, ducking the occasional shell or rifle bullet and staring wide-eyed at the remnants of 2/25th Marines who had been devastated in the assault. Once again, Ryan’s company was lucky; they drew a defensive assignment 200 yards behind the front lines, and spent their first night on Iwo in comparative safety.

Charlie Company would spend the next two days in reserve, but under fire. By the time they were ordered to replace Baker Company on the front line, ten of their number had been wounded and five were dead. Their casualty rate nearly doubled in a single day as they led a successful 200-yard attack on February 22, and by the end of February 23, they had encountered not only enemy mortars and machine guns, but elaborate bunker systems and dangerous little terra cotta mines with the power to take off a Marine’s leg. Battalion HQ decided that Charlie Company had earned another rest, and assigned them to the slightly less dangerous job of mopping up bypassed positions.

On February 24, Thomas Ryan joined a combat patrol to search out Japanese holdouts. His team moved out into the lowlands near the beach, prowling along the coast along the Boat Basin.

Japanese positions on Iwo Jima were often difficult to spot, with multiple entrances and interlocking fields of fire. “Mopping up” was no easy task; in many cases, the Japanese were only discovered when a Marine went down dead or wounded. A furious squad-sized battle would develop, with the Americans trying to get close enough to the enemy position to hit it with a flamethrower or satchel charge. As a BAR gunner, PFC Ryan’s job would be to keep a base of fire on the emplacement, allowing the demolitions men to get up close. This maneuver, called “corkscrew and blowtorch,” was extremely effective, but also incredibly dangerous – and in one encounter on February 24, Charlie Company learned just how dangerous the cornered Japanese could be. Corporal Carl McNeally was killed outright, four other men were wounded, and one Marine snapped under fire and had to be evacuated for combat fatigue.

Two of the wounded Marines were evacuated to the USS Hendry – the ship that had brought them to Iwo five days before. The doctors looked them over; PFC Joe Willey had been shot in the right arm, but would pull through. PFC Thomas Ryan, on the other hand, had been shot in the head. He was rushed into surgery, but despite the best efforts of the medical staff, died of his wounds on the night of February 24, 1945. The following morning, he was buried at sea.

Today, Thomas F. Ryan is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.