Ron Young (US Army officer)

Ronald D. Young, Jr.
Born	1977 (age 39–40) Villa Rica, Georgia
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1999—2004
Rank	Chief Warrant Officer
Unit	Aviation Battalion, 1/227th Company C, Fort Hood, Texas
Battles/wars	2003 invasion of Iraq
Other work	The Amazing Race 7

Ronald D. Young Jr. (born 1977) was a former POW in the 2003 Gulf military action against Iraq who later became a contestant in the reality show The Amazing Race 7. Young is also an Eagle Scout.

Young grew up in Lithia Springs, Georgia and lives in Villa Rica, Georgia. He graduated from Douglas County High School in Douglasville, Georgia, studied mechanical engineering at Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta, Georgia, before joining the Army.

At the time of his becoming a POW in Iraq his father was living in Lithia Springs, Georgia.

Young was among seven POWs who were taken prisoner by Iraqi forces in the 2003 invasion. Back then, he was a Chief Warrant Officer whose Apache Longbow helicopter crashed in Karbala on March 24, 2003. Fellow pilot and Chief Warrant Officer David Williams, 31 from the 1-227 Helicopter Attack Battalion tried to elude capture, but they were taken prisoner by an Iraqi group who took them to Samarra, about 25 miles (40 km) south of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown.

The Iraqi forces kept the two with the members of the 507th Maintenance Company who were earlier captured along with their comrade Jessica Lynch. The 507th POWs included Patrick Miller, Joseph Hudson, Shoshana Johnson, James Riley, and Edgar Hernandez. They were rescued soon after on April 13, 2003.

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