Why

was born in an old wooden two-story hospital in Carrollton Georgia in 1949. Some years later it burned to the ground. For the first eleven years of my life I lived in Bremen Georgia. I was the oldest child of Alvin and Doris Patterson. Dad and Mother got married soon after Dad returned from Europe in 1946 where he'd served as a .30 machine gunner in the Tenth Mountain Division during World War ll. He was involved in three major battles and received a Presidential Unit Citation and a Bronze Star for saving the lives of many of his company after they were pinned down by a German machine-gun nest. Risking his life Dad ran for high ground carrying his machine gun and belts of ammo which would normally have been a two-man job. He was able take out the machine-gun nest allowing the company to advance up the mountain they were trying to take control of. Keep in mind that he was a nineteen-year-old country boy from Georgia who had never been out of Carroll or Haralson counties until just a few months before.