Army Staff Sgt. Ryan S. Ostrom

Died August 9, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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25, of Liberty, Pa.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 109th Infantry Regiment, Pennsylvania Army National Guard, Williamsport, Pa.; died Aug. 9 in Taqaddum, Iraq, of injuries sustained earlier from enemy small-arms fire in Habbaniya, Iraq.

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Student remembers Pa. National Guard soldier as a mentor

Associated Press

When Broc Repard was playing junior high basketball, Ryan S. Ostrom was his coach. But he was so much more.

“He taught people skills as much as he taught basketball,” said Repard.

“He was a good leader and a good person to look up to. And he had that special smile we used to see in the locker room.”

Ostrom, 25, of Liberty, Pa., died Aug. 9 from small-arms fire in Habbaniya. He was assigned to Williamsport.

“He was a soldier you could give a task to and know it would get done. You could just look at him and know he was a leader,” said Staff Sgt. Craig Stevens.

Ostrom captained his high school’s soccer and basketball teams and won a Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association sportsmanship award. He was a Youth Leader of Tomorrow candidate.

A 1999 high school graduate, Ostrom would have started his senior year at Mansfield University this fall, studying chemistry. Professor Scott Davis said Ostrom was one of the few science students who aspired to be a teacher.

“He would have been a good one,” Davis said.

He is survived by his father, Scott Ostrom, mother, Donna Ostrom and stepmother, Anice Ostrom.