Navy reservist from area dies in Kuwait

U.S. Naval Petty Officer 2nd Class Brian M. Patton called his wife, Amy Hynoski Patton, late Wednesday night to wish her a happy ninth wedding anniversary. Roughly 15 minutes later, Brian Patton, 37, of Nanticoke, died at 9:45 a.m. Kuwait time Thursday in a vehicle crash near Camp Virginia in northern Kuwait, where he was serving with the Naval Operational Support Center from Rochester, N.Y, according to Lt. Cmdr. Doug Gabos of the Naval Reserve Forces public affairs office.

Two other people, one of them in the same vehicle as Patton, were injured and taken to the hospital. The cause of the crash is still under investigation, Gabos said.

Amy Patton said she was told that her husband was traveling southbound when a vehicle that was trying to get around a military convoy traveling in the northbound lane struck the vehicle her husband was in. It is unknown if Patton was the driver or a passenger in the vehicle.

She and her husband’s two brothers, Robert, 36, and Scott, 26, drove to Dover, Del., Friday evening to await the return of his body at Dover Air Force Base. Funeral arrangements are pending.

Patton, who was a Master at Arms, which is a military police officer, was assigned to a law and order detachment after arriving in Kuwait in June, Gabos said. Patton was scheduled to return home in late February or early March.

This deployment was Patton’s second time to serve overseas. He served on active duty in the U.S. Navy when he was assigned to the USS Camden during the first Gulf War from November 1993 through January 1996, Gabos said. He received an honorable discharge from the Navy to raise his oldest son, his brother Robert said.

Even though Patton earned an associate’s degree in criminal justice and a bachelor’s degree in business from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, his heart was still with the military.

He joined the U.S. Navy as a reservist in October 2007 and was eventually transferred to the Naval Security Force in Rochester, N.Y.

“When he got in a position where he was comfortable where he could go back in and serve his country, he thought he should do it,” Robert Patton said.

Amy said her husband served because “He loved what he did. He loved his country and died for his country.”

Brian Patton, a correctional guard at SCI-Dallas, returned home last month from his military deployment for a short vacation.

“Everybody was excited to have him home and nobody thought anything bad would happen when it was time for him to go back,” said his wife, Amy, 32.

He, Amy and their 8-year-old son, Nicholas, traveled to South Bend, Ind., to root for the Notre Dame football team, Patton’s favorite, when he was home for a brief break from Oct. 13 to 30.

“He lost his voice from screaming,” she said explaining how excited he was to attend a Notre Dame football game with their son. Patton had hoped to get involved in coaching youth league teams once he returned from his deployment, she said.

Patton also enjoyed connecting with nature by fishing and hunting deer. Amy Patton said her husband, a former high school football offensive guard and defensive end for the Stockton High School football team in Stockton, Ill., was an all-around sports fan who often played with Nicholas and his stepson, 12-year old Tyler. Patton also has an older son, Brian James, 19, from a previous marriage to Rebecca Haas in Illinois. Patton, who lived in Hanover Township until the eighth grade, moved back to the Glen Lyon area in 1996 to be near his maternal grandmother.

“My youngest son, Nicholas, idolized him. He likes all the teams he (Brian) likes,” she said. Both are fans of the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Cubs and North Carolina Tar Heels basketball team. “He wanted to be like him, do everything like him. He wanted to be a soldier like him.”

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Military police officer Brian M. Patton of Nanticoke killed in crash; probe under way.

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