Rochester native and U.S. Army Sgt. Nicholas "Nick" James Patterson was killed Monday in a vehicle accident, the Department of Defense said Thursday.
Patterson was one of seven paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division involved in the accident when their truck veered off a highway overpass in western Baghdad and fell about 30 feet, according to The Charlotte News Observer newspaper Web site.
The soldiers were riding in a five-ton cargo truck, part of a convoy returning from a raid early Monday morning when the accident occurred, The News Observer said.
The 82nd Airborne classified the wreck Thursday as a vehicle rollover.
Patterson, 24, has been an active duty Army sergeant with the 82nd division since October 2004, the same year he joined the Army. He also previously had been deployed to Iraq.
Patterson was a 2001 graduate of Rochester High School, where he played baseball and basketball.
Patterson is survived by his wife, Jayme Patterson; a 4-year-old son, Reilley; his parents, James and Virginia Patterson, Rochester, and Scott and Jane Holmes, Warsaw; and a father-in-law and mother-in-law, Jim and Jan Saner, Akron.
The families were notified Monday of Patterson's death.
Information for a full obituary should be available next week, according to Earl-Love Funeral Home, Akron.
Services are Wednesday at 2 p.m. at Rochester High School gymnasium.
A visitation is Tuesday from 2 to 9 p.m. at the high school gymnasium.
Patterson is the fourth Kosciusko County-related soldier to die in the Iraq War.
The first was Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David Fribley, who died March 23, 2003.
The second Kosciusko County soldier to die was Indiana Guardsman Capt. Todd Fiscus, Milford, who died in Afghanistan, March 26, 2005.
The third soldier to die was Tippy Valley graduate and Kentucky National Guardsman Staff Sgt. Brock Beery, who died in 2006 in Iraq.
