Concluding that it was time to “downsize”, in 2007  Patrick and Christine McLaughlin relocated from Cleveland Heights to Gates Mills. They left a stately home that had served them and their three sons well for twenty years. The sons were out of the house and it was now too big and empty. Time to move on.

Gates Mills brought a smaller house, at least temporarily, and a tree filled property with plenty of elbow room. After several weeks the new owners realized that the house was too small. So much for downsizing. They hired all the right folks, navigated the Architectural Review Board, and ripped the back of the house off including the pool house, adding a sizable addition. They filled in the unused pool with dirt and it became the start of Christine’s garden. A garden that has twice appeared on the Gates Mills Garden Club’s garden tour, most recently this past June. Patrick calls it “a magical garden” built almost entirely by Christine’s vision and hard work.

Christine is a member of the Gates Mills Garden Club where she has formed close friendships with like-minded gardeners. Blessed with nine grandchildren, future gardeners for sure, the kids have graced the Garden Club’s July Fourth parade floats passing out candy to the crowds and celebrating America’s birthday.   

Patrick grew up as an “Air Force brat” moving often, changing schools, making and leaving friends behind year after year. His family moved from Orlando to Lakewood mid-way through his junior year and he graduated from Lakewood High School in 1964. Shortly after graduation he signed on as a deckhand on a crane boat sailing the Great Lakes. He sailed again in the summer of 1965, and in between worked days and attended Tri-C in the evenings.

As a full-time college student, Patrick was classified 2-S, deferred from the military draft. As the Vietnam War heated up, the son of a WW II and Korean War veteran, he resolved “that it was my turn to pay dues.”  Patrick walked into his local draft board and had his draft classification changed from 2-S to 1-A (immediately draftable). He volunteered for the draft. “My reasoning was that the draft brought two years of active duty while the Army and Marines required three years, and the Air Force and Navy required four years on enlistment. This way I would serve the country during wartime and, hopefully, make it home with the G.I. Bill in my pocket.”

It did not take long for Uncle Sam to send him the “I need you boy letter” to report for induction physical. He reported, passed the physical, was sworn in as a lowly private in the U.S. Army, and put on a bus headed for Fort Benning, Georgia. Patrick arrived in July 1966 on his birthday. “I can assure you that the Drill Instructors did not have a birthday cake waiting for me.”

Since he volunteered for the infantry and for Vietnam it was not surprising that he was in Vietnam walking point on patrols six months after taking the oath. He soon became a squad leader responsible for fourteen other 11Bravos all with the same objective: “Do your duty, watch out for the other guys in the squad, and board the ‘freedom bird’ at year’s end to get home to the world.”   

1967 was an active year during the war as infantry units engaged in the strategy of “search and destroy.”  According to Patrick, “The Army sent the First Infantry Division (“Big Red One”) to the jungles north and west of Saigon to find and engage the enemy. It was tough fighting in jungles and rubber plantations, particularly in the fall of 1967.”  For those wanting an expansive description of what 1967 was like for Patrick and his guys, he suggests that you read his debut fiction novel entitled Cheerful Obedience (pmmclaughlin.com). “The book is fiction based on actual events.”    

He left Vietnam as a staff sergeant having been offered, but declined, a battlefield commission. His battalion commander in Vietnam, an Army legend who became a 4-star general, described Patrick in a Plain Dealer article as “one of the top combat soldiers” he met in his 34-year career. The legacy of General Richard E. Cavazos has been made manifest as the Army has changed the name of Fort Hood to Fort Cavazos, Texas.

Out of the Army in the summer of 1968, Patrick met an Ohio State coed who    helped him get his head straight and focused on the future.

It was off to Ohio University in 1969. The following year, upon Christine’s graduation from OSU, they were married. They bought a used trailer which was home for two years while Patrick finished at OU. He deferred law school for a year in the nation’s capital to serve as the executive director of NACV, a Vietnam Veterans association, working to improve benefits and health care for returning veterans and their families. He also managed a veteran’s education project for the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges.  

During law school at Case Western Reserve University, even though he had earned his honorable discharge, Patrick joined the Army Reserves and was assigned to a JAG Corps unit. He served for fourteen years, nine of those as a commissioned officer. He concluded his USAR service at the rank of major following his command of an International Law/Claims Detachment. He served during those years with Dave Burke, a long-standing resident of Gates Mills.

Patrick served for over ten years in the United States Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Ohio, the last four years as the United States Attorney appointed by President Ronald Reagan. In the private practice of law, he headed a boutique litigation firm for twenty years.

No longer representing clients, he continues to be active in the profession as the Vice Chair of the 28-member Ohio Board of Professional Conduct presiding over misconduct complaints against lawyers and judges.

Patrick is an inductee into the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame, and the Ohio Military Hall of Fame.

For twenty-five years he has been the President of the Greater Cleveland Veterans Memorial, Inc. (“GCVM”). www.clevelandvetsmemorial.org.   Considered one of his most important accomplishments, under his leadership, the GCVM twice rededicated the Memorial, in 2004 and 2014, adding names of Greater Cleveland (defined as Cuyahoga County) war dead from the Spanish-American War to the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the bronze name plaques surrounding “The Fountain of Eternal Life” on Veterans Memorial Plaza (formerly “Mall A”). According to Patrick McLaughlin, “There are 5,552 names of war dead from 1899 to 2014 on the Memorial in alphabetical order by war. Cuyahoga County has served the nation well in times of war and paid a heavy price. The names of those who gave all for duty, honor, country should never be forgotten.”

   
PMM

13 SEP 24