Honoring the Life of Esau Patterson

HONORING THE LIFE OF ESAU PATTERSON -- (Extensions of Remarks - May 21, 2004)

SPEECH OF
HON. JOE WILSON
OF SOUTH CAROLINA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
THURSDAY, MAY 20, 2004

Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Army Staff Sergeant Esau Patterson, Jr. of Ridgeland, SC, who paid the ultimate sacrifice on April 29th in Iraq while on duty defending American families in the War on Terror. is a true hero and will be remembered as a patriot.

I ask all of my colleagues to join me in expressing our deepest sympathy to his family and friends.

I ask that his obituary and an article from The Beaufort Gazette be inserted into the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD.

OBITUARY-ESAU PATTERSON JR., MAY 9, 2004

Staff Sgt. Esau Patterson Jr., 25, of Ridgeland, died Thursday, April 29, 2004, in Iraq.

The family will receive friends from 7 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Bostick Funeral Home.

Services will be at 1 p.m. Monday at Mount Carmel Baptist Center in Ridgeland, with burial in Patterson Cemetery in Ridgeland.

Mr. Patterson was born May 11, 1978, a son of Carrie Mae Osgood Patterson and Esau G. Patterson Sr.
He was a member of Mount Gilead AME Church in Columbus, Ga., where he was a Sunday school teacher. He was in the Army, SSG Battery C, 4th Battalion, 27 Field Artillery regiment 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, Combined Joint Task Force 7.

Survivors include his parents of Ridgeland; his wife, Kisha R. Patterson of Columbus, Ga; two grandparents, Elizabeth Osgood and Henry Osgood of Ridgeland; a daughter, Kesauna M. Patterson of Columbus, Ga; a son, Kaven M. Scott of Columbus, Ga; six sisters, Toneka P. Nelson, Tarsha P. Myers and Jamesha P. Anderson of Ridgeland, Charvia Watkis of Beaufort, Shamone Huggins of Whitehall and Marisa Patterson of Korea.

Bostick Funeral in Ridgeland is in charge.

[From the Beaufort Gazette, May 11, 2004]

FALLEN SOLDIER LAID TO REST

Family, friends remember local man who died serving his country in Iraq (By Michael Kerr)

RIDGELAND.-Esau Patterson Jr. would have turned 26 today.

But instead of a birthday celebration, his family, friends and loved ones gathered Monday at Mount Carmel Baptist Center in Ridgeland, the Army staff sergeant's hometown, to honor and remember a man of God who fell as a hero on the Iraqi battlefield.

Patterson was killed along with seven other members of the Army's 1st Armored Division on April 29 near Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad. He had been clearing explosives from a key Iraqi highway when a station wagon approached and detonated a car bomb, killing the eight soldiers and wounding four others.

"E.J.," as his friends and family knew him, was the only son in a family of six daughters. He left behind his wife, Kisha, 2-year-old daughter Kesauna and 4-year-old stepson Kaven Scott.

His father, Esau Patterson Sr., spoke about a son who had always made him proud before the more than 100 people who gathered in the church

"My expectations of a man are very high," said Patterson, who retired from the Army in 1992 and settled in Ridgeland.
Over the years, Patterson said, he watched his little boy exceed those expectations and become a man.

"That made me proud, and not because he was in the military," he said. "He was a gentleman at all times. He always put other people in front of him. He always carried a smile on his face and tried to do the best."

Family members and friends recited poems, sang hymns and told stories of a wonderful son, brother, father and husband. Patterson was a kind man, friends said, a man who loved his family and his country, a man who gave everything to protect them both.

"I am so proud to say, to have said, I have a family member, a first cousin, fighting for this country," said Roger Patterson, who traveled from New York to attend his cousin's funeral. "I was so proud of that. It was the ultimate sacrifice he gave, and for that I'm proud."

Patterson was more than just a soldier, his family has said. He attended church no matter where he was stationed, taught Sunday school and was always quick to help a neighbor with chores around the house.

Another of Patterson's cousins, Clementa Pinckney, the Democratic state senator from Ridgeland, grew up just a few minutes from the fallen soldier.

"He was always a good man, always with a smile ..... just happy-go-lucky," Pinckney said, standing in the family's cemetery. "His father was a good soldier, and he wanted to be a good soldier like him."

The state Senate adopted a resolution last week sponsored by Pinckney honoring Patterson and his sacrifice.

During the service, Brig. Gen. José Riojas, assistant commander of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division based at Fort Stewart, Ga., presented Patterson's wife with the Bronze Star and Purple Heart that he earned while waging war in the desert.

Soldiers decked out in dress uniforms served as pallbearers, and later fired a three-round rifle volley to honor Patterson as the sound of taps played by a lone bugler echoed throughout the otherwise quiet cemetery.

"You couldn't ask for a better person to protect our country," Pinckney said.