O’Rourke

Sergeant First Class Ryan O’Rourke
Assistant Team Leader, Black Team
U.S. Army Parachute Team, “Golden Knights”

Personal Statistics

Hometown: Tampa, Florida
School Attended: Henry Bradley Plant High School

Biographical Sketch

SFC Ryan O’Rourke is serving as a Demonstration Parachutist and Assistant Team Leader of the Black Demonstration Team.

Ryan enlisted in 2006. He attended Basic training and Advanced Individual Training to become an Infantrymen (11B) at Fort Benning, GA.

Throughout his career, duty stations have included Joint Base Lewis McCord, WA, serving as an Airborne Ranger on multiple tours, Fort Benning, GA serving as a Multi-Purpose Canine Trainer, as well as a Basic Airborne Instructor, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina as a Test Parachutist until assignment to the United States Parachute Team in 2018.

Ryan has had five tours to Afghanistan and three tours to Iraq. He has been awarded the Army Commendation Medal, Joint Service Achievement Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, Ranger Tab, Expert Infantry Badge, Combat Infantry Badge, Senior Parachutists Badge and Master Military Free Fall Parachutist Badge.

Since learning to skydive in 2015, Ryan has logged more than 1,852 free fall parachute jumps and 45 military static line jumps. He is also a Level 1 Wind Tunnel instructor.

In his free time Ryan enjoys indoor skydiving, long range shooting, hunting and spending time with family.

(from SFC O'Rourke's official bio)

What do we mean when we speak of American Exceptionalism? Are we better than everybody else? No, that’s not it. We’ve got something here that exists nowhere else in the world. It flows from the clear, simple words of our Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

American Exceptionalism is how we end up with exceptional patriots like SFC O’Rourke, who put his life on the line for us in Afghanistan and Iraq. He didn’t have to do it. Maybe we deserve it, maybe we don’t. He’s one of the less than 1% who serve in America’s military. I’m thankful for him and his family who stand behind him, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to live on the bridge between the civilian world and the world of our service members.