He trained at Chanute field as airplane mechanic and attended Gunnery School in Las Vegas. He was assigned as a Waist Gunner.on a B-17 bomber crew in the 8th Air Force, 546th Bombardment Squadron, 384th Bomb Group, flying out of Grafton Underwood Royal Air Force Station in England.

He was credited with flying 22 combat missions. His first mission was to Breman German on Oct 8, 1943. His last was on April 9, 1944, a mission to bomb a fighter plan factory at Marienberg, Germany.

On return, approaching the North Sea, the plane was hit with two bursts of flak. Then the fuel tanks were hit and the aircraft was in flames. All ten crew members exited safely; one member drowned when his parachute landed him in the Baltic Sea. The other nine were all taken prisoner by German troops. Patrick had a serous leg injury from the flak when he was captured, near Keil.

Over the next year, Patrick's POW diary chronicles the following camp itinerary. "Schleswig Laz April 9, to Wismar Laz; July 21 to Dulag Luft Frankfurt; Oct 7 to Oburursen to Weltzer to Kefheide; Oct 16, Stalag Luft 4; Feb. 7, 1945, to Barth Luft I."

He recorded that he was liberated by Russian troops on May 1, 1945 at 22:15 hours.

Patrick had married Zelma Epperson on Dec. 7, 1941, before the war. After the war, he returned home, and together they raised two children, a son and a daughter.