[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 73 (Friday, May 21, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E929]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  HONORING THE LIFE OF ESAU PATTERSON

                                 ______
                                 

                            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. Jose 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.

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