1975: Grissom student recounts escape from Ethiopia

March 19, 1975: Eleven-year-old Patrick Richards was safely in the United States after his family was evacuated from Ethiopia. Patrick and his parents, Arthur and Patricia, had been living near the city of Asmara, where Arthur worked for a top-secret satellite communications post. A civil war broke out in the country. Arthur was injured and airlifted to a military hospital in Frankfort, Germany. Patrick and Patricia were able to pack a few belongings before taking shelter at a military base in Asmara. They then flew from Addis Ababa to Athens to Rome before joining Arthur in Germany for a week. Now, Patrick was set to spend the rest of the school year with his grandmother, Mrs. Jessie Richards, in McCausland. He was enrolled in the sixth grade at Virgil Grissom Elementary School. Patrick vividly recounted his recent adventure to The NSP.