Metropolitan Library System

Ryan A. Conklin enlisted in the U.S. Army at age seventeen, following 9/11, and joined Angel Company. As a turret gunner with the famed 101st Airborne "Screaming Eagles" and a member of the famed "Rakkasans" regiment-the most decorated regiment in the U.S. Army-he endured hellish conditions in the war-torn city of Tikrit, Iraq.After he returned to the States, he became a cast member on The Real World: Brooklyn in 2008. That came to an end when he...