Submitted photo

Richard Patterson AUSTINTOWN — In 1967, Richard Patterson took a full course load at Youngstown College while working at William B. Pollock Company as a machinist.

“If you didn’t go full-time, you were draft eligible. There were no student loans, so I had to work to pay my way,” Patterson said.

Faced with trigonometry and calculus, “I saw the handwriting on the wall.”

When a friend from Boardman High School was killed in Vietnam, he decided to join the fight. “We grew up in the days of Hopalong Cassidy and the Lone Ranger, and I said we’ve got to do something about it,” Patterson said.

He visited several recruiters before landing in the Marines.

“My dad was in the Navy, so I went to the Navy (recruiter’s office) and there was nobody there. I went to the Air Force — no

See Full Page