Specialist Jesse Ryan Buryj was born in Canton, Ohio, on December 7th, 1982 to Steve and Peggy Buryj. He was a brother to big sister Angela.

Jesse lived his whole life in Canton and would say with pride he was a “Canton City Kid”.

Jesse graduated from McKinley senior high school where he majored in criminal justice in 2002. During high school he was also a member of the Canton city police youth corp. Jesse joined the Army his senior year. He became a military police officer. He also earned his wings as a paratrooper. He was stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington. He deployed to Iraq in February of 2004. His goal in life since the 3rd grade was to be a Canton police officer.

Jesse died as the result of friendly fire on May 5th 2004 in Karbala, Iraq.

Jesse was the sweetest son a mom could have. He was also the funniest person I ever met. He lived his life to the fullest. Most importantly Jesse was a man of God and an inspiration to all who knew him.