'He's everybody's hero': Military procession to honor Navy corpsman killed in plane crash

Ryan Lohrey, a Navy Hospital Corpsman, was among 16 killed when a military plane crashed in a Mississippi field July 10, 2017.

Barbara Lohrey chuckled when she spoke Tuesday of the "devilish" little boy who would beg her to read him a story.

Together, she and her grandson, Ryan, would curl up on the couch and read "The Little Engine That Could." 

"He was a loving little boy," she said. 

As a man, a Navy corpsman who received a Purple Heart, Ryan Lohrey was no different. "Ryan didn’t walk out into a room that he didn’t have a smile and greet everyone with kind words and thoughts," Barbara Lohrey said.

Ryan Lohrey was killed July 10 when a KC-130T military refueling tanker crashed in a Mississippi soybean field. Fifteen Marines on board also were killed. 

A 2005 graduate of Shenandoah High School in Middletown, he was 30 years old.

His body will arrive at Indianapolis International Airport on Thursday. A military funeral procession will begin about 6:30 p.m. and head east on I-70 before traveling through Middletown and ending at the Sproles Family Funeral Home in New Castle, according to his obituary

The July 10 military flight originated at the Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point, N.C., and was transporting personnel and equipment to the Naval Air Field in El Centro, Calif., according to a Marine Corps statement. The crash remains under investigation. 

Barbara Lohrey told IndyStar that the family — and much of the Middletown community — is still in shock. 

"Ryan was my hero," she said. "He’s everybody’s hero."

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The father of two had been married for just over a month at the time of the crash. 

He had waited two years after graduating high school before joining the Navy, Barbara Lohrey said, and had dreams of becoming a SEAL. When that didn't work out, he became a hospital corpsman. 

Lohrey had been deployed twice, according to his obituary: from October 2010 to May 2011 during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and from July 2016 to January 2017 during Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq. 

He was the recipient of a Purple Heart, two combat action ribbons and a NATO medal, among other awards and decorations, according to a news release

Ryan's mother, Teresa Lohrey, told IndyStar that her son would balk at the attention his story has received in the days since the crash. He would rather have seen such attention on those he served with — his team. He was set to be deployed again in January. 

She said it was hard to find the words to capture the heartbreak.

"I'm just lost," she said. 

Her mother-in-law, Barbara Lohrey, said it's Ryan's kindness she will remember most, the life he lived and the way he loved those around him.

"It’s just hard to realize that he’s gone," she said, her voice straining, "that he’s not going to come popping through the door … saying, ‘Hi, Grandma.'"

She said support from the community has been comforting. 

"It shows you, you know, with all of this disheartening terror and stuff that’s going on in the world, there are still many, many people that are still good," she said. 

Call IndyStar reporter Holly Hays at (317) 444-6156. Follow her on Twitter: @hollyvhays.