Patrick O. Williamson
Profile
Age: 24
From: Broussard, La.
Assigned to the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.
Incident: Army Sgt. Patrick O. Williamson died Oct. 27 in Arghandab Valley, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an IED. Also killed were Sgt. Fernando Delarosa, Staff Sgt. Luis M. Gonzalez, Sgt. Dale R. Griffin, Sgt. Issac B. Jackson, Spc. Jared D. Stanker and Pfc. Christopher I. Walz.
Died: October 27, 2009
2 Louisiana soldiers among 18 honored by Obama
By Janet McConnaughey
The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — Two Louisiana soldiers killed in Afghanistan were among 18 fallen service members honored Thursday by President Barack Obama at the Delaware air force base where their bodies were returned home to the U.S.
The bodies of Sgt. Patrick Williamson, 24, of Broussard, and Pfc. Brian Bates, 20, of Gretna in suburban New Orleans, were on the plane met early Thursday by the president at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
“Brian met the president. And that’s all that matters. I know he would like that,” his wife, Enjolie Bates, said in a telephone interview from Lakewood, Wash. She said Bates loved his job and the Army.
“He liked the idea of fighting for his country. He thought that’s worth it. He believed in it,” she said.
He planned to make the Army his career, said...