He was a navigator in the ill-fated Iran hostage rescue attempt on April 25, 1980. He was killed when two of the planes used in the mission collided in the desert in Iran.
He is buried in Section 46 of Arlington National Cemetery with two other crewmembers, Harold Lewis and Joel Mayo, as they were individually unidentifiable.
Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.
Reviewed by: Michael Howard