St. Charles soldier killed in Iraq

ST. CHARLES, Mo. -- A 32-year-old Missouri soldier who died in Iraq knew from a young age that he wanted a military career, his family said.

Army Capt. Travis Patriquin, a 1992 graduate of Francis Howell North High School, served with the 1st Brigade, First Armored Division in Tikrit, Iraq. A Defense Department report on his death was pending, but his family issued a statement Friday saying he died Wednesday.

His father, Gary Patriquin, described his son as hard-working with a gift for picking up languages. He could speak Arabic, Spanish, two Central American Indian dialects and Portuguese.

"Travis has always been outgoing," Gary Patriquin said. "He always seemed to help the underachiever."

Gary Patriquin said his son was assigned to Iraq in January of this year, but he already had served there on special forces missions because he spoke Arabic fluently. He worked so well with local tribes that one, the Alduresha, adopted him as one of their own and gave him the name "Wissam," which means "warrior" in English.

"That was Travis," Gary Patriquin said. "He was a very outgoing person."

His parents, Gary and Connie Patriquin, live in Lockport, Ill., near Joliet.

Travis Patriquin's wife, Amy, and their three children, Emily, 7, Harmon, 5, and Logan, 1, live in Bonstadt, Germany.

Travis Patriquin was born in St. Louis and grew up in Bellefontaine Neighbors. In 1984, his father took a job in the Chicago area, and the family followed to Lockport in 1985. But Gary Patriquin said his son had trouble adjusting in Illinois, so he came back to the St. Louis area to attend high school.

Gary Patriquin said his son worked hard to earn letters in track and football at Francis Howell North, and he enlisted in the Army after graduating, he said. Even as a young boy, he said, his son wanted to be a soldier and was fascinated with survival training in activities such as Boy Scouts.

"He was amazing," his father said. Walking on a wire between trees 60 feet off the ground was a thrill to his son, he said.

During boot camp, he said, Travis showed so much leadership potential that he was drawn into Ranger training and the special forces.

Much of his special forces work is classified, his father said, but he knows his son served in Central America around 1993 or 1994. After returning to Fort Campbell in Kentucky, he said, his son decided to take his language skills to the next level by attending the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif.

Patriquin went on to attend officer school at Fort Benning, Ga., and then was stationed in Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C. The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, sent Patriquin to Afghanistan, where he received a Bronze Star after fighting behind enemy lines. He then was stationed in Germany.

Funeral arrangements are pending. The service was expected to be held in the St. Louis area.