CHEYENNE — Whenever Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Zorn could lend a hand, he didn’t hesitate.

“Anybody who needed any kind of help, he’d help them,” said Laura Oliver, who knew Zorn since he was a student in her church youth group. “No matter what it was — starting a car, or whatever the case may be. Ryan was a dependable person, I can tell you that.”

Zorn, 35, was killed Monday near the city of Talifar in northwestern Iraq when his armored vehicle overturned. A resident of Wright who grew up in Upton, he was the 25th serviceman with ties to Wyoming to be killed in Iraq since 2003.

A communications expert with the 311th Military Intelligence Unit of the 101st Airborne Division, Zorn had been helping Iraqis to develop their own communications and intelligence operations, said his mother, JoAnn Zorn. He was serving his third tour of duty in Iraq.

“He loved his country, and he loved serving his country, and that’s what he lived for,” said JoAnn Zorn.

That included acting as Santa Claus for others in his unit. In December 2005, during his second tour in Iraq, he called his parents after noticing some of the service members he worked with weren’t receiving Christmas presents or mail from back home.

“He asked his dad (Myron) and I to take money out of his savings account and buy gifts,” JoAnn Zorn said. “He didn’t want them to know it was coming from him — he wanted us to put our names on it. And that way, they would have a gift to open on Christmas.”

When Ryan’s parents mentioned his request to friends, six families volunteered to each “adopt” a serviceman in his unit, and shipped care packages with movies, candy, baby wipes, clothes, baked goods and Christmas hats.

“They kept sending all these boxes over to Iraq, and (Ryan’s) commander finally said, ‘You got to get to opening some of these, Ryan.’ Because he didn’t have any room to hardly crawl into his bed,” JoAnn Zorn said.

“And then that’s when Ryan said, ‘They’re not for me. These kids have been adopted out, and it’s all for the soldiers over there,’ ” she said.

Many who knew Zorn said both his family and his Christian faith were very important to him.

When deployed, he would rarely go for long periods without calling his mother. And when he returned home, he would play with his two nieces, giving them presents and telling them stories about his experiences overseas.

Kay Johnson, a neighbor and friend of Zorn’s, said she never saw him lose his temper when home. He was always open and friendly, she said, with a broad smile and a great sense of humor.

“For me he was still a little boy,” she said. “He just was excited about stuff. He always showed me pictures of the new vehicles that the Army had.”

Born in North Dakota, Zorn graduated from Upton High School before joining the Army. He is survived by his parents and a brother, Todd, all of whom live in Wright.

Despite the hopes of his family and friends, Zorn never married, saying he didn’t want to find a wife only to be redeployed to a war zone, Johnson said.

“We just wanted Ryan to meet a nice, wonderful, young lady and have some babies,” she said. “But that’s not a possibility now.”

Contact capital bureau reporter Jeremy Pelzer at jeremy.pelzer@trib.com or 307-632-1244.

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