Jack Edwin Ryan was a real-life hero, working undercover with the French Resistance during World War II and meticulously planning CIA operations designed to help America avoid all-out war in Vietnam. He rose from an Irish family with roots in public service and law enforcement. The son of a World War I American Doughboy and his French war bride, he spoke their two languages fluently, creating a path to postings abroad. His World War II gallantry with the French underground validated him with the intelligence community, while his father’s political connections reached the highest levels in Washington. Unlike the fictional character, the real Jack Ryan did not survive his service. His family never believed the reported circumstances of his 1965 killing in Saigon and went searching for the truth. Their discoveries led to a game of connect-the-dots that finally answered their decades-old questions.