Army Pfc. Ryan A. Martin

Died August 20, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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22, of Mount Vernon, Ohio; assigned to the 216th Engineer Battalion, Ohio Army National Guard, Hamilton, Ohio; killed Aug. 20 when an improvised explosive device exploded near his vehicle near Samarra, Iraq.

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Ohio soldier killed in Iraq buried

Associated Press

LOUDONVILLE, Ohio — As the crowd of mourners thinned out, the father crouched and pressed his forehead to his son’s metal casket, then buried his head in his hands.

“He was a great man, a great American, a great hero. He stood up for his country,” Thomas Martin said Monday after funeral services for his son, Pfc. Ryan Martin, who died in Iraq.

“There’s no greater honor than serving your country and dying a hero.”

Martin, 22, of Mount Vernon, died Aug. 20 when a homemade bomb went off near the Humvee he was riding in near Samarra, Iraq. Lt. Charles L. Wilkins III, 38, of Columbus, also died in the explosion.

Both men served with the Ohio National Guard’s 216th Engineering Battalion. Two other Guard members were injured in the attack.

Martin’s funeral service was held at the Loudonville United Methodist Church. His body was then taken 15 miles to a cemetery in the Knox County countryside.

Solemn schoolchildren and aging veterans stood along the funeral route with American flags and their hands over their hearts.

Martin, who graduated from Mount Vernon High School and loved sports and fixing cars, was buried at the top of a hill not far from where he once lived.

Scott Annett, 22, of Mount Vernon, found little solace in the funeral for his friend. “The war shouldn’t have ever started to begin with,” he said. “He died for no reason.”

Another friend said Martin initially was excited to deploy to Iraq, but that enthusiasm had cooled by the time he came home on leave in July.

“He didn’t really want to go back,” Adam Hayman, 24, of Mount Vernon told The Columbus Dispatch, “but said that he would for his country.”