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7 years tomorrow will mark the passing of Stayton Firefighter and Spc. Ryan D Walker – US Army. Spc. Walker was KIA in Iraq on 1/5/2006. Ryan will never be forgotten and are thoughts and prayers remain with his family, and all of those brave men and women serving domestically and abroad. Ryan Walkers legacy will forever live on.
Army Spc. Ryan Doran Walker of Pendleton dedicated his life to serving others as a combat medic and a paramedic.
"Ryan chose a special path that made him a caregiver, a lifesaver," said Maj. Gen. Raymond Rees, the adjutant general of the Oregon National Guard.
Walker was killed Jan. 5, six days before his 25th birthday. He was in a convoy of eight Army vehicles and two armored buses approaching the scene of a roadside explosion that had hurt other soldiers near Karbala, Iraq.
Walker was an Eagle Scout and Pendleton high school wrestler who rode the school bus until he was old enough to have his own pickup truck. He went on to Chemeketa Community College, earning an associate degree in firefighting, then went to work as a paramedic for the Stayton Fire and Ambulance Service.
Ryan knew his family worried, and so he tried to reassure them by telling them he was Superman and nothing could happen to him.
Going off to war was a family tradition. Walker's father was a Vietnam veteran who served in the Navy; his grandfather fought in World War II; his great-grandfather in World War I and earlier warriors in the Walker clan had taken part in the Civil War.
Ryan Walker's wartime job was to heal.
To watch a special CNN editorial about Ryan, click HERE
