Timothy Louis Ryan

Timothy Louis Ryan, a music major in college, joined the Marines to play percussion in the U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps, an elite ensemble also known as The Commandant’s Own. Judith Ryan said her son loved traveling with the corps to Paris and all over the United States.

He also found a new love in the Marines: flying. This was something of a surprise to his mother.

“He said he would love to fly things, but when he was a kid he said he would like to be a chef, too, so who knew?” she said.

Ryan, 30, of Aurora, Ill., was one of four Camp Pendleton Marines who died May 19 when their CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter went down in the Shatt al Hillah Canal shortly after takeoff. It had been on a resupply mission in support of civil-military...