FLOWERY BRANCH — As a Hall County firefighter, Major Patterson has treated his share of injuries stemming from car wrecks and other traumatic situations.

So, when he climbed aboard a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter in Iraq earlier this year, as part of the Army National Guard, the surroundings had changed but not much else.

"For me, it was more or less doing pretty much the same job, just in a different vehicle wearing a different uniform," he said.

Patterson, 24, a Jefferson native, serves as a flight medic with a National Guard unit out of Dobbins Air Force Base in Marietta.

During his most recent deployment, a 12-month stay in the war-torn Middle East country, he helped with many types of calls, ranging from nonemergency transports of minor injuries from remote bases to blasts caused by homemade bombs and gunshot wounds.

"We covered the whole western region of Iraq," Patterson said during an interview last week at the fire station off Martin Road and Atlanta Highway.

"Any casualty that needed to be transported, we got them ... and we'd typically take them to the hospital in Baghdad. We saw everything, from someone breaking a finger playing basketball to combat casualties."

The experience was challenging but not new. He had been deployed once before — for 18 months in Iraq, attached to an infantry unit out of California.

"My experiences here at the fire department greatly influenced everything from techniques to preparing me to deal with injuries," he said.

"As a flight medic, we operate on our own. In here, we have a lot of people for backup and to check each other's work in the back of an ambulance."

Also, serving in a war zone, "we got shot at a lot from the ground," Patterson said. "Small-arms fire, RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades). Eventually, that just becomes a job over there. You expect it to happen, but nonetheless you sit back and think about it.

"It's a very different environment: They don't like you over there."

Patterson's start in public service began at an early age.

At 16, he was serving as a junior volunteer firefighter in Jackson County. When he was 17, he graduated from home school and enrolled in the emergency medical technician program at Lanier Technical College in Oakwood.

A year later, in 2003, Hall County Fire Services hired him.

And then he joined the Army National Guard in 2004, becoming a sergeant in 2007.

Patterson couldn't point to particular influences in his life other than his mother working as a nurse and a best friend becoming a volunteer firefighter.

"I've just always wanted to be involved in public safety," he said.

The Hall County Board of Commissioners presented Patterson with a proclamation Sept. 10 honoring his service.

"I would like to thank the administrative and training division for all of their support over the past year. I would also like to thank my fellow firefighters for their thoughts and prayers. It is great to be back home and back on shift with everyone," he said at the time.

Patterson said the service abroad wasn't the "hard part."

"It was being gone from friends and family," he said.

"I don't want to pat myself on the back or anything, but I know my job and I'm fairly good at my job, so that aspect wasn't the difficult part. As far as friends and family ... they were very supportive the whole time."

Patterson has until August 2010 to decide whether he wants to re-enlist for another six years. At this point, he is fairly certain he will.

"The military life has its downfalls, but it also has its positives. I enjoy what I do. It's service to my country. That's what I've chosen for my life, I guess," he said.

What the future holds for his civilian life isn't certain.

However, Patterson said, "I don't like to sit in one spot and not improve myself. I'm always looking to improve myself, both in the military and the civilian sector."