By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – The camaraderie of veterans in the United States military is something that is well documented over the years.
But how many veterans can say they loved their time in the military so much that they tried to enlist three times?
Richard Patrick Ryan of Slidell has that story to tell, and it was out of a true love for his service time that he enlisted at the age of 17, re-enlisted at the age of 24, and most incredibly of all, attempted to re-enlist at the age of 87.
“Yes, that’s really true,” the personable 92-year-old said with a laugh. “After Katrina, I wanted to help so I actually went to the enlistment office and said I wanted to re-enlist. The man there asked me what I could do, and I told him I could take his job.”
Needless to say, he wasn’t allowed back in the military, but he looks back on 92 years with satisfaction after serving 21 years in the U.S. Navy, and having seven children that have made him proud to this day.
“My life has been wonderful,” he said. “I’m satisfied—no regrets. And the time with the Navy was something I’ll always remember for all the great men I got to know.”
Ryan joined the Navy at the age of 17 right out of Fortier High School in New Orleans. His parents owned Sunshine Cleaners in New Orleans, but Ryan said he couldn’t wait to join the military for one important reason.
“When I was in high school we had a lot of parties and one time we invited some soldiers who were in town. The girls went crazy for them and I thought that was a pretty good deal.”
Ryan said there was no threat of war when he joined in 1939, and even though he was stationed on a battleship that was patrolling the Atlantic Coast, keeping their eye out for German submarines, none of the soldiers thought war was imminent for the United States.
“When war broke out in 1941 I got sent to flight school, but I hurt my left hand and they wouldn’t let me pilot anymore,” he said. “That was disappointing, so I got put in the gunner spot as a machine gun specialist.”
That would be the start of hundreds of missions he flew with his unit throughout Europe, and then in the Pacific when he was sent to the west.
Ryan was a part of a key victory for the Americans in the war as he was flying missions off the aircraft carrier the U.S.S. Card, during their first assignment in the Atlantic Ocean.
“We captured a German sub and it became the sub that helped the U.S. break the German code in the war,” he said. “We all got Presidential Citations for being a part of that.”
He was hopeful of heading home after more than a year flying missions near Europe, but the military wouldn’t let it happen and kept him in, shipping him from the U.S. back across the seas to the U.S.S. Tripoli on the western front near Japan.
“We flew missions for more than another year there with the Carrier Aircraft Service Unit 21. I lost a lot of good friends during that time,” he said as tears welled up in his eyes. “That’s the part of war I don’t like to remember.”
The war ended and Ryan survived it all, coming back to New Orleans and getting a job at the Algiers Repair Base. He worked there for one year and decided he wanted to go back in the Navy.
“I loved the men, the work and the style of life in the Navy,” he said.
Ryan had little to prove to get his military job back, and that’s just what he did as he applied for a job at the Naval Air Station on the New Orleans Lakefront. As he walked into the office and applied to join the Navy for a second time, the lieutenant on duty told him he would have to go down in rank to return.
“I was an Aviation Machinist 2nd Class and he told me I couldn’t have that rank,” he said.
About that time, an officer came into the office from the hangar that could be seen from inside. He told the lieutenant there was a plane they couldn’t get to start.
“I told them I would get it to start,” he said. “The lieutenant told me to try, so I went outside and used an old trick I used to use on the plane, since most of them were from World War II. I got the plane to start and they hired me back in the Navy at 2nd Class.”
Ryan met his first wife while in the Navy, marrying a dancer he met at the Casino Royale. He said that his first attempt to take one of the dancers to dinner didn’t go so well, but he persisted and later married her, and had seven children—six boys and a girl.
“She refused my first offer for dinner so I asked what she was doing the next day and she told me I wouldn’t want to come with her to where she was going,” he recalled. “When I asked what it was, she said she was going to church, so I decided to go, and that was the start of us dating.”
The marriage lasted 25 years, then five years later, Ryan married the woman who would become his wife for 39 more years, until she passed away in June of 2012.
After the military, Ryan worked a host of other jobs, including some time flying as a commercial pilot before he came to the North Shore in the 1960s. He continued to work until the age of 80 and now likes to stay busy with new projects. His latest idea?
“I bought a can of goat’s milk at the store and now I’m reading some books about getting some goats for their milk, and to hook them up to a little wagon that little kids can ride in,” he said. “My dad had one when we were small and I’d love to do that again.”