Saluting a hero: Honoring Pat Payne
Thomas Patrick Payne was a South Carolina high school senior 19 years and one day ago when he watched the Twin Towers burn and fall on live TV. He resolved then to defend America and enlisted in the Army after graduating the next year.
A true warrior, he became a Ranger and joined Delta Force, the most elite of the Army’s special operations teams, fighting in Iraq and later in Afghanistan, where he caught a piece of shrapnel that he still carries in his leg. He was one of the soldiers who swooped in to rescue Pfc. Jessica Lynch when she was held by Iraqi forces in 2003.
A dozen years later, on Oct. 22, 2015, Sgt. 1st Class Payne was a group leader on another hostage rescue, this in an ISIS-control swath of Iraq. At risk of imminent death were 75 hostages, with graves already dug.
Descending from helicopters with our Kurdish allies, the raiders were under fire as ISIS terrorists fought back. After freeing the caged hostages from one building, Payne headed to a second building, bolt cutters in hand. The structure was burning and starting to collapse. Ordered out, Payne went forward and saved the rest of the hostages.
