Joseph P. Hylan, NDIA operations director.

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* The National Defense Industrial Association lost a dear friend and colleague when Director of Operations Joseph P. Hylan suffered a heart attack and passed away in the Atlanta airport while returning from the Expeditionary Warfare Conference on Oct. 26. He was 55.

Hylan came to the National Security Industrial Association in 1995, which later became NDIA after a merger with the American Defense Preparedness Association. He managed eight of the 28 divisions in the association.

He enlisted in the Marine Corps at age 18. After completing the Platoon Leaders Program at the Pennsylvania Military College in 1971, and receiving a BS in Business Administration in 1974, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and assigned a military occupational specialty as a field artillery officer. He served in a variety of Fleet Marine Force and staff assignments including tours at Force Troops, Pacific, 29 Palms, Calif., the 3rd Marine Division in Okinawa, Japan and the 2nd Marine Division in Camp LeJeune, N.C.

He also held such diverse billets as logistics officer for a refugee camp at Camp Pendleton following the fall of Vietnam; commanding officer of a recruiting station in New Jersey; deputy camp commander of Camp Fuji, Japan, and two tours at Marine Corps Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He received an MBA from Averett University in 1994.

He's survived by his mother Margaret, 92 of Norristown, Pa., a younger brother Bernard--and two sons, Joseph Patrick, 17, and Jack Binion, 15, who live with his former wife Jan near Quantico, Va.