Honoree: Patrick L. Griffin, Jr.

Hometown: Elgin, SC
Branch of Service: Air Force
Rank: Staff Sergeant
Player: Nathan Franks
Staff Sergeant Patrick Griffin, Jr. 31, of Elgin, South Carolina, was assigned to the 728th Air Control Squadron out of Eglin Air Force Base. He died May 13, 2003, near Diwaniyah, Iraq when his convoy was ambushed while in route to Baghdad.
SSgt Griffin attended Dryden High School in New York where he was on the baseball, football and wrestling teams.
During that time, he started dating his future wife, Michelle, whom he’d known since she was 8 when they became next door neighbors. They were married in 1997, and the next year SSgt Griffin joined the Air Force. They had two children – Corey and Makensie.
SSgt Griffin joined the Air Force primarily for the education benefits but ultimately decided to make it a career. A data systems technician, he was promoted to staff sergeant in February 2003 and deployed to Iraq in April.
In 2019, SSgt Griffin’s son Corey followed in his father’s footsteps and graduated from the Air Force Basic Military Training. “I joined the Air Force to honor my dad,” Corey said. “I even decided to become a part of security forces because that was his first job.”