Waiting for help

Patterson had to climb over the top of the plane to release a life raft, which provided safety for about 45 minutes until the men were rescued. During that time, he ripped off his T-shirt to make a compress to stop an injured man’s leg from bleeding.

“He was cut clear to the bone,” he said.

There wasn’t time to be scared about the harrowing descent.

“It’s part of the ball game,” he said matter-of-factly. “The secret is you’ve got to know what you’re going to do in an emergency.”

Bombing run

Patterson’s other brush with disaster came during a bombing run in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Theater. His plane was hit by enemy ground fire after dropping its payload, but Patterson reached safety with no ill effects.

He finished his deployment in the South Pacific in 1945 by doing anti-submarine patrol.

“We were looking for Japanese subs that didn’t get the word the war was over,” he said.

Patterson was discharged from the Marines as a captain in 1946, but stayed in the volunteer reserves after that.

Today, his home on Hillside Avenue in Klamath Falls contains mementos of his days in the service. There are plenty of photographs, some showing a handsome young pilot in flight suit. A model of his aircraft, the TBM, hangs from Patterson’s living room ceiling.

“It was a nice plane,” he said. “It could carry a 2,000-pound bomb or four 500-pound bombs.”