Army Maj. Ryan J. Plank currently is deployed in Iraq to support the mission of Operation Iraqi Freedom.Operation Iraqi Freedom is the official name given to military operations involving members of the U.S. armed forces and coalition forces participating in efforts to free and secure Iraq. Mission objectives focus on force protection, peacekeeping, stabilization, security and counter-insurgency operations as the Iraqi transitional governing bodies assume full sovereign powers to govern the peoples of Iraq.
Members from all branches of the U.S. military and multinational forces also are assisting in rebuilding Iraq's economic and governmental infrastructure, and training and preparing Iraqi military and security forces to assume full authority and responsibility in defending and preserving Iraq's sovereignty and independence as a democracy.
Plank, an orthopedic surgeon with six years of military service, is assigned to the 86th Combat Support Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq.
He is the son of Jeff W. and Jodene R. Plank, Brookview Drive, Warsaw.
The major graduated in 1994 from Warsaw Community High School, and received a bachelor's degree in 1998 from Notre Dame, South Bend. He earned a master's degree in 2002 from Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis.
