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Capt. Christopher Pate

(reprinted from OregonLive.com, July 29, 2006)

Fallen Marine pursued life at full speed

Mourners remember Capt. Christopher Pate as an adventurous man full of grit and promise

Saturday, July 29, 2006

DAVID R. ANDERSON

The Oregonian

U.S. Marine Capt. Christopher T. Pate's casket passed through a phalanx of Patriot Guard Riders holding 37 U.S. flags as it neared the end of its journey Friday at Willamette National Cemetery.

A bagpiper high on the hill played "The Marines' Hymn."

Six white-gloved Marine riflemen laid down their M-16s and marched to the back of the hearse.

And a Coast Guard helicopter made two passes over the memorial service -- the second so low that the thumping of the blades felt like a bruised heart.

Friday was for mourning and saying goodbye to the 29-year-old Marine who was raised in Beaverton and died a week ago in Iraq.

But the previous evening, friends and family gathered at Skyline Memorial Gardens & Funeral Home to share stories and celebrate a life full of exploits.

Pate received his first speeding ticket two days after his 16th birthday, loved jalapeno potato chips and didn't tell friends that his culinary specialty -- scrambled eggs and squid -- was a joke until after they ate it.

Pate, who graduated from Oregon Episcopal School, was killed July 21 in Iraq's Anbar province when an improvised explosive device ripped through his patrol. Marine officers told Pate's family that he might have saved the lives of two injured sergeants when he radioed for help before dying.

Pate joined the Marines in December 1999 after graduating from the University of Puget Sound with a business degree. He volunteered for two tours in Iraq. He was engaged to Margaret A. Stearns.

On Thursday, Leslie Patton told how her son, Alex Sutton, and Pate, as 10-year-olds, built crossbows from scratch and made metal-tipped arrows. But Pate was just as intent trying to roll a perfect pie crust, she said.

Sutton said he and Pate were scuba diving in about 30 feet of water near Seattle when Pate pulled out a beer. It wasn't a twist-top, so Pate took the regulator out of his mouth and bit off the cap. He turned the bottle upside down and tried to suck out the beer.

Julie Staton Ellis, a college friend, laughed about a winter trip to Pate's family home in Cedar Mill. Pate persuaded her to join him for a nighttime canoe paddle over a flooded golf course.

"He used to push me to do things beyond what I normally would," Ellis said.

And Pate's mother, Kathy Pate, said it was with Ellis that her only child had been skydiving when he broke his ankle.

But the Marines wouldn't accept a recruit with titanium screws holding his ankle together. So Pate had surgery to remove them. When he handed his father, Jerry Pate, the bill for the surgery, he also gave him the screws.

During boot camp, the injury flared up into a huge blood blister and a doctor told Pate to drop out. He refused.

"You helped me and Jerry create a really admirable young man," Kathy Pate told the assembly.

Friday's memorial service reflected the complexities Chris Pate lived his whole life.

He spoke Spanish, German and was learning Arabic. He studied Eastern religions, but was not religious. And he joined the Marines when everyone expected him to have a lucrative career in business.

Under a gray sky, the Rev. Arvin Luchs, a Methodist minister, quoted the 23rd Psalm: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil."

But Luchs also spoke of the Buddhist concept of enlightenment called Sukhavati, a pure land with fragrant rivers and sweet sounds.

A spit-and-polish Marine honor guard fired three volleys. A Marine presented Jerry Pate with the flag from his son's casket and his son's Purple Heart medal. Three leather-clad bikers from a group that honors fallen soldiers, led by a man who calls himself Bubz, also knelt to address Jerry Pate during the ceremony.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski told mourners that he would have liked to know someone as interesting, with such a life force, as Chris Pate.

"I salute him and call him the best Oregon has to give," Kulongoski said. "He was a wonderful young man and an outstanding Marine."

Luchs urged everyone to safeguard the memory of Pate.

"What is remembered never dies and is never lost," he said. "Our eyes are filled with tears, our minds are numb with loss. We will never forget his bravery or his sacrifice."