Corporal Patterson's "Homecoming" Ceremony Speech

First off, I just want to say a simple Hello, I've been gone for a while, and I have not seen a lot of you in such a long time. But it is such a good feeling to be surrounded by so many beautiful people who care and support me. You are the ones that motivate me to do what I do, and keep me going.

Thank you to those that have kept it real, my Parents, Sister Tricia, the Edwards, and soccer families, Mr. and Mrs. Mowatt-Smith, neighbors, Pete and boys, sister's friends, Uncle John, Aunt Sheila, Aunt Margaret, Aunt Mary Alice, and the Twins.

For the past 3 years, whenever I come home, people always ask me questions about my job, and what I do for the Marines, and I give them a simple answer, and then I try to avoid it, because I am afraid people will not understand, and no mater how hard I try, I will probably never be able to fully explain why I chose to be a Marine, and why I chose to do, what I do. But I will tell you this, I did not get into this business for the money, or the college benefits, or the medals, ribbons, and nice uniform, although I think it looks pretty damn sexy. I do it for much more than that, I do it for the challenge, the competition, the skill, the adrenaline, and the instinct. We are not the boy scouts, our job was not to be sweet and talk things over, and play the nice guy. We are Marines, and our job is to locate, close within and destroy the enemy. Our job is to stand up to the plate and fight.

Short Story (about discipline from Mom)

Ladies and gentlemen, the point of my story is that in my 20 years of life, I have learned a lot of lessons, and most of them, I have learnt the hard way. But you know, it builds character, and that is what makes me, me, I am Dan Patterson, just an average guy, plain as a button. Success means a lot of things to a lot of different people, to me success is not what kind of job you have, how much money you make, how big your house is, or what kind of car you drive. To me success is how high you bounce, when you hit rock bottom. I have had just as many failures, as successes, you learn from your mistakes, and you feel your fears. Everything happens for a reason, no matter how bad it may seem at the time, no matter how dark your life may seem, it does get better.

Exactly 7 months ago today, I was given a one-way ticket to the Middle East. I had known a couple months in advance, but it still did not seem like it was going to happen for real. Then the day finally came when we got our final orders. I remember sitting in my room packing all my stuff in boxes, and trying to picture myself in combat, but once I was out, there, it was like nothing I had ever imagined. But whatever it was, no matter what happened out there, I knew I had my fellow Marines, who are pretty much family, standing right beside me, and we faced it together. A lot of marines have certain traditions or just habits they do, before they would go into a firefight, or go into a city to take it over. The 2 Marines that I was with, and myself, what we would do, is take a knee, put our hands on each other's shoulders and we would pray together. We would pray for the loved ones, we may leave behind, we would pray that God will understand why we are there, and that He understands our job as Marines.

Often people ask me, how we dealt with the combat stress during the war. Well, we did not deal with it, because we did not have the time to think about it. Things are moving so fast, and we are so busy, it does not even cross our minds. The stress of it all is more of a factor afterwards, when you have the time to sit down and think. I spent 2 months on ship, coming back to California, and I tried so hard not to think about it and I tried so hard to forget a lot of things, but, some things are just unforgettable, you know what I mean. But you deal with it, and right now I am just concentrating all my energy on my life and the future. In any relationship that I have, whether it's between family, my friends, coworkers, girlfriends, whatever, I always try to bring as much to the table as I can, because that is important to me. It is important that the people around me are happy, and just maybe I can teach them a few things. The way I try to do that is possess 5 qualities, and excel in those qualities. I am talking about respect, leadership, loyalty, confidence, and originality. These 5 traits have brought me a long way.

At this time, I would like to take a moment here to answer some of the questions you may have. Please don't be shy, if you have any questions or comments, I just ask that you be honest and say what's on your mind, and if I think the question is inappropriate, then I will let you know.

In closing I once again want to thank everyone for coming out, your time is appreciated, and I hope you all had a good time today, and let me loosen up a little bit, and with that in mind, I put a slide show together about My Life and the last 3 years I've been in the Marine Corps. So enjoy, this is dedicated to all those who have kept it real over the years, and those who have been there for me.