Joe "Tiger" Patrick II

Joe "Tiger" Patrick II (born July 30, 1963) is a Peace Dale, Rhode Island Army veteran. During his almost 10 years in uniform, Patrick served in Operation Desert Storm. After the 9/11 attacks, Patrick volunteered for three weeks at Ground Zero. During the time at Ground Zero, Patrick developed an affinity for firefighters. In 2011 Patrick completed a memorial walk. The purpose was to honor the families and loved ones of those lost, as well as the first responders in the 9/11 attacks.

Walks

In 2011, when diagnosed with a degenerative liver disease that will gradually cause his health to deteriorate, Patrick was inspired to begin walking. He gained weight in preparation for the walk in 2013, and plans to complete one final walk after the war has ended and the memorial panel has been updated one last time. He plans to walk to Washington, D.C. from his home in Rhode Island and present the memorial panel to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. The walk took five weeks. His original plan to walk incognito changed when he created a harness to aid him in the transport of the American flag. He carried three of them, rotating them each day. His intention was to deliver one flag to each of the crash sites. An attempt to present one at the Pentagon was futile. It was then that he called his congressman and made arrangements to have the flag delivered at a later date. After presenting a flag in Shanksville, Patrick was presented with a flag by the Shanksville fire chief to be presented to the World Trade Center.

He met many people along the way who wanted to reward him for what he was doing, but he told them he was not doing it for recognition but, rather, to finish what he had started in September 2011. He finished in time to attend the services that were held on 11 September 2011 in memory of the 9/11 attacks.

Walk for U.S. service members killed in the war

Patrick, carrying a memorial panel that he created, is walking alone across the country, an endeavor that he is calling "Faces of our Fallen". Patrick's journey began in San Diego, California and he plans to conclude at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. The panel displays images of 6,655 U.S. service members who were killed while fighting the global war on terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Patrick began his latest walk on 27 April 2013 with a public display of the mosaic memorial panel that accompanies him cross country. The local Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 5447 Imperial Beach was the starting point for this journey. Patrick selected this start point in recollection of the many Navy Seals stationed at the nearby Naval Amphibious Base on Coronado Island. This Naval Amphibious Base suffered multiple casualties before and during Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation New Dawn. On 29 April 2013 in Imperial Beach County, San Diego, California, Patrick started his cross country journey carrying the panel.

The walk across the United States is projected to take six months and he is listening to music, audio books, and radio broadcasts of the Red Sox games along the way. He rests in the evenings at Firehouses, VFW Posts and American Legions; he calls ahead of time to the fire stations along the way asking them to attend a presentation and for a place to sleep for the night. He reviewed and confirmed the list of U.S. casualties at militarytimes.com and The Washington Post. Joe "Tiger" Patrick says the purpose of the panel is to give a "close up view to those lost" and "to provide people with the opportunity to see the faces behind the numbers," One out of every five was under 22 years of age, one in six was a teenager, 27 were single mothers, one was a Vietnam Veteran, and the oldest to die was a Navy Chaplain. The panel is unfolded and displayed every time Patrick stops and is already outdated by additional casualties of war (as of 4 June 2013 47 names were added).

Causes

Special Olympics

Tiger Patrick has been involved with the Special Olympics for twenty years. He is a coach and coordinator for Special Olympics, Rhode Island. He interrupted his walk for U.S. service members killed in the war to fly back to Rhode Island for a week to attend the state's Special Olympic Summer Games.

Tiger Patrick was announced as the head coach of powerlifting for the 2015 Special Olympics USA Team competing at the World Games in Los Angeles.Team USA page.