Patrick Patton
One night last December, Kenosha police officer Patrick Patton, ’09, worked several hours of overtime gathering evidence and analyzing the scene of a crime. Unfortunately for Mr. Patton, he was scheduled to take an examination at Carthage the next day.
As it turned out, Mr. Patton still scored well enough on the exam to win a full-tuition Transfer Scholarship.
“I was shocked,” he said, when he learned the results. “I worked close to 16 hours before that exam.”
But Mr. Patton was used to getting a job done under difficult circumstances. The criminal justice and sociology major served 10 months in one of the most hotly-contested areas of Iraq as a U.S. Marine in 2004 and 2005.
“We were in the most unstable zone,” Mr. Patton says of his service in Iraq’s “Sunni triangle” north of Baghdad. “Our first month, we knew we were going to get hit with mortars about the same time every day.”
Mr. Patton, 24, is a Kenosha native who joined the Marines in 2001, right after graduating from high school and shortly before the terror attacks of Sept. 11. He served six months of active duty, then was assigned to reserve duty. He was recalled to active duty in May 2004.
“My job was explosives disposal,” Mr. Patton reports on his tour of duty. “The biggest problem there is roadside bombs, my job was to find them and dispose of them.”
Mr. Patton lost hearing in his left ear while on a patrol, when a vehicle hit a bomb that killed four Marines. He says there were 13 fatalities in his company of 200 Marines.
Accounts of the war have often noted that advances in medical care have allowed many soldiers to survive wounds that would have been fatal in earlier wars. Mr. Patton says that level of care begins with training.
“Every one of us, before we left, took in-depth EMT training,” he says.
During his stay, Mr. Patton’s company established regular patrols, and set up machinery for Iraq’s first free elections in early 2005. In the city of Lutifayah, they started medical clinics and arranged to have the water system rebuilt.
“We went in with the intention of establishing a military presence,” he says. “We also did a lot of community relations. We established a police department, and turned Lutifayah into a functioning community.”
The area where Mr. Patton served was mainly populated by Sunni Muslims, who had generally supported Saddam Hussein, the deposed dictator, who was also Sunni.
“Most of the people didn’t want us there,” he says. “We would hear that it was easier under Saddam, because you only had to worry about keeping him happy. Others were happy to see us.”
Mr. Patton says service in Iraq can be very frustrating, as violence continues despite efforts to rebuild infrastructure and help residents.
“It’s tough for guys to feel that we’ve done justifies the losses,” he says.
One pleasant memory for him was a visit to his area by legendary broadcast journalist Dan Rather, who was working on a documentary about those serving in Iraq.
“It didn’t seem like he was as interested in getting a story as in voicing support for us,” Mr. Patton says of Mr. Rather, a onetime Marine. “He brought 10 boxes of cigars, so everybody got one.”
At Carthage, Mr. Patton admits the contrast between college life and his service in Iraq can be disconcerting at times.
“People here talk about how hard school is, how they can’t wait for the weekend,” he says. “There are guys over there who haven’t seen their families for a year.”
During a Heritage class on Asian culture, history and literature last spring, Mr. Patton was asked to lead a discussion of the war by Arthur Cyr, who taught the class.
“He’s a leader in every way,” says Mr. Cyr, director of the A.W. Clausen Center for World Business, director of the international political economy program, and professor of political science. “Student reactions confirmed that to me. He brings a real-world dimension to the discussion, and direct experience with violent aspects of life.”
Mr. Patton says fellow students “had a lot of questions. Everyone wants to compare what they’ve seen on TV” with the experiences of a veteran.
One aspect of the war Mr. Patton discussed was the important role of paid private contract employees. The number of contract employees, who perform a wide variety of functions, exceeds the number of U.S. combat troops.
“Those people aren’t in military uniforms, they’re not in military vehicles,” he says. “They don’t have the rules of engagement that we do. They don’t spend time with the communities that we do.”
Mr. Patton has not been sent back to Iraq, but he did a three-week foreign assignment in June 2007, as part of a platoon of 40 U.S. Marines who gave training in urban warfare to Dutch marines en route to assignments in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“Obviously the Marines thought highly of him” to include him in the training group, Mr. Cyr says.
Mr. Patton urges Carthaginians to be aware of the war and related issues, such as the care of wounded veterans.
“The one thing you hope is that they’re not forgotten,” he says of the wounded. “Show an interest, voice an opinion. You can do it respectfully.”
So far, Mr. Patton believes opponents and supporters of the war have usually done that. He says his grandfather, a career Army veteran, recalls the cool reception many Vietnam veterans received. But he believes clueless, oblivious ignorance of the war may be the worst response of all.
“That’s even more disrespectful,” he declares. “It’s as if you don’t even care. Support the troops, we’re going to do whatever our country asks of us.”
In Kenosha, Mr. Patton will continue carrying out a variety of police duties including bicycle patrols at special events and monitoring activity at taverns. After he graduates from Carthage, he hopes to earn a law degree.
“Carthage is very fortunate to have him in its student body,” says Mr. Cyr.