Ryan Connolly served in the U.S. Army as a Chief Warrant Officer 3 with the 101st Combat Aviation "Destiny" Brigade, 101st Airborne Division during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. He was a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and was assigned to Fort Campbell since 2016 as an instructor pilot. On April 6, 2018 Chief Warrant Officer Connolly was killed when his AH-64E Apache helicopter crashed during a training mission at Fort Campbell.