Frederick Irving Patrick.. Si – First Lieuetnant, United States Army

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Frederick Irving Patrick
First Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Corps
by Shawn Bohannon

Frederick Irving Patrick was born on July 16, 1893, in Decatur, Nebraska. After graduating from William Jewell College in Missouri, he enlisted as a Private First Class in the Aviation Section, U.S. Army Signal Corps on March 23, 1918. Following several months of enlisted service, he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant on November 8, 1918, upon graduation from pilot training at Chanute Field, Illinois.

With the exception of two years in the Philippines, Lieutenant Patrick spent the majority of his military career as a flight instructor at the Primary Flying Schools at Brooks Field, Texas and Carlstrom Field, Florida and at the Advanced Flying School, Kelly Field, Texas.

From 1931-1932, Lieutenant Patrick served as the Operations Officer and Senior Instructor of pursuit aviation while concurrently commanding the 48th School Squadron at the Advanced Flying School, Kelly Field. Upon graduation in July 1933 from the Air Corps Tactical School, Maxwell Field, Alabama as a member of the Class of 1932-1933, Lieutenant Patrick received assignment to Barksdale Field, Louisiana as Operations Officer of the 20th Pursuit Group. He also served as the Barksdale Field Public Relations Officer. He had received promotion to the rank of First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Service effective September 6, 1924.

Lieutenant Patrick met his untimely death on February 22, 1934, during a flight from Barksdale Field to Denison, Texas. Experiencing a throttle control malfunction, Lieutenant Patrick lost his life when his P-26 Peashooter aircraft crashed at an emergency field 10 miles from Denison. Tragically, he had been en route to that city to visit his father on the occasion of his birthday. Lieutenant Patrick’s death was the third air fatality at Barksdale Field. He was interred with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia.

He was remembered by fellow officers as an avid sportsman with a passion for hunting and fishing. He was also known for his athletic abilities, which included football, basketball and boxing. The Shreveport Times newspaper commented: “His death brought to a close of one of Uncle Sam’s veteran fliers, who in his 13 years of flying successfully weathered the early and dangerous types of fighting planes.”

On October 31, 1934, the Barksdale Field Officers Club was formally dedicated “Patrick Hall” in honor of the late First Lieutenant Frederick I. Patrick.

FRATERNITY INFORMATION

Sigma Nu Fraternity General Catalog, 1918 Beta Xi Chapter, No. 43 – Founded January 6, 1894, William Jewell College – Liberty, Missouri New Members 1894 – 1918 165.
Frederick Irving Patrick Attended Cooper College, 2 years; Glee Club; President, Senior Academy, Cooper College.
Civil Service, U. S. Government, St. Louis Missouri.
Traveling Representative, Pittsburg Business College, 5 summers and Cooper College, 1 summer; Private Secretary to President R. T. Campbell, Cooper College, 3 years.
Instructor of Commerce, William Jewell College, 1917.
Enlisted Officer, Reserve of the Aviation.
Member Y. M. C A. , Pittsburg, Kansas, and Sigma Nu House, Liberty, Missouri.
Source: “General Catalogue of the Sigma Nu Fraternity, 1918, Compiled by W. J. Maxwell for the Sigma Nu Fraternity Under the Direction of the High Council.

GENEALOGY

Frederick Irving Patrick was the son of John Wesley Patrick and Amanda Ellen Roach. He had seven brothers and sisters, three sisters and three brothers reached adulthood, one sibling died at an early age (sex unknown.)

Clifton D. Cardin, October 2008

Official Bossier Parish Historian

ARMY MAIL PILOT IS KILLED IN OHIO
Lieutenant Lowry, 50 Miles Off Course, Crashed In Trying To Land In Field
Two Others Are Injured
Dietz Badly Hurt In Maryland
Texas, Not Flying The Mails Also Meets Death
February 23, 1934

One Army pilot was killed, a second critically injured hurt and a third slightly injured yesterday while attempting to push the mail through bad weather.  Several others landed at emergency fields.

Lieutenant Duward O. Lowry of Milwaukee, attached to First Pursuit Group at Selfridge Field, crashed to his death in sparsely wooded country about fifty miles south of Toledo early yesterday while flying from Chicago to Cleveland with a mail load.

His plane was demolished and the mail bags were scattered for some distance behind the place at which the wrecked machine came to rest.

With black skies, rain and miserable flying conditions to hamper him, Lieuenant Harold Dietz, flying from Newark to Richmond, crashed into a pasture near Marion Station, Maryland, about six o'clock last night.  He was rushed to the McCready Hospital at Crisfield, suffering from a fractured skull and internal damages.

Dietz had left Newark Airport at 4 P.M. after flying to the West had been suspended for several hour because of bad weather over the mountains and increasing storm conditions from the West.

Near Uniontown, Pennsylvania, Lieutenant Charles P. Hollstein, on his way to Washington from Cleveland with the night mail, crashed in making a forced landing. He suffered superficial face injuries, but after reporting at Uniontown walked back into the hills to his plane and returned with the mail to send it on by train.  He had been fifty miles off course when he crashed.  Hollstein attributed his accident to a faulty radio.

Just before Lowry's crash in Ohio Charles Thurston, a farmer, heard the plane just over the roof of his house, near Deshler.  He opened a window and heard themotof cut out. Then he heard the impact of the plane on the uneven ground. He promptly notified the town authorities in Deshler who called Toledo.  Apparently Lowry, fifty miles off his course, had attempted to hand and was moving fast when his plane struck.  It plowed an erratic course along the ground and came to a stop on the edge of a creek.

Lowry was 30 years of and a graduate of the University of Michigan. He completed his course at the Army's advanced flying school at Kelly Field and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Air Corps Reserve and assigned to active duty with the First Pursuit Group Selfridge Field.  That same year he received a commission in the Regular Army.  His mother, Mrs. Dorothy Lowry Reisdorf, learned from a newspaper headline of the accident, according to the Associated Press.  “Good as they are,' she said in Detroit, “those Selfridge Field Fliers shouldn't have to fly at night tnrough Winter storms over unfamiliar courses that it took months for commercial pilots to learn.”

Lowry's was the first death since the Air Corps actually undertook to carry the mail.  It was the fourth death, however, in connection with the mail service.

Lieutenant H. M. McCoy, who left Newark about noon yesterday, was forced to land in two hours at Dishtown in the Alleghenies due to engine failure.  He was unhurt and turned the mail over to the post officer at Woodland.  For several hours officers at Newark were badly worried for him.

Another Army pilot was killed yesterday, but he was not engaged in mail flying.  Lieutenant Frederick I. Patrick lost his life near Dennison, Texas, his home, when his plane spun into the ground from an altitude of 200 feet.  Patrick had been assigned to Barksdale Field at Schrevesport, Louisiana.  He had been flying since 1918.

TWO ARMY FLIERS ARE BURIED

WASHINGTON, February 26, 1934 – Funeral services for two of the army aviators killed since the Air Corps took over carrying the mail were conducted this morning at Arlington National Cemetery.

Second Lieutenant Durward O. Lowry, who was killed while carrying the mail near Dreshler, Ohio, on February 22 was buried at 11 o'clock.

Services for First Lieutenant Frederick I. Patrick, who was killed near Denison, Texas, on February 22, while en route to his station, were conducted an hour previously.

PATRICK, FREDERICK I
1ST LT AIR CORPS U S ARMY

  • DATE OF DEATH: 02/22/1934
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 6  SITE 9646
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

PATRICK, CLARIE W/O FREDERICK I, LT, AC, USA

  • DATE OF BIRTH: 06/19/1880
  • DATE OF DEATH: 06/19/1953
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 6UN 1  SITE 9646
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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