Marine Sgt. Jayton D. Patterson

Died January 15, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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26, of Sedley, Va.; assigned to 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; killed Jan. 15 by enemy action in Babil province, Iraq.

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Camp Lejeune Marine dies in Iraq explosion

Associated Press

SEDLEY, Va. — A Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune died in an explosion in Iraq over the weekend, his family said.

Sgt. Jayton D. Patterson, 26, of Sedley, Va., spoke with his parents Friday night just hours before he was killed on patrol by an improvised explosive device.

The Department of Defense announced the death Tuesday and told the family Saturday.

Patterson, who was attached to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, was deployed in mid-June last year. He had been assigned to Camp Lejeune’s 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment.

He was due to return home in a few weeks. His wife, Stephanie, had received a package of things from him on the same day he was killed in Iraq’s Babil province.

The couple had a 15-month-old daughter.

“We got four phone calls from him the whole time that he was there,” Patterson’s father, Frank, said Monday. “But for some reason, I guess God wanted him to talk to us Friday night.”

Both of Patterson’s grandfathers served in the Navy. He told his parents he was also called to enlist.

He spent his first four years in the Marine Corps in Washington, where he was part of the White House security detail. Patterson had a firsthand look at the wreckage of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, his father said.

Frank Patterson said his son was full of hope during their final conversation.

“He said ‘Daddy we’re doing some good things over here for these people,”’ Patterson said. “He died a proud American.”