Meg Jones

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Boot camp for Marine Corps recruits lasts 13 weeks, but Jake Patterson washed out after only five.

The Marines will only say that Patterson was prematurely discharged because the "character of his service was incongruent with Marine Corps' expectations and standards," Maj. Brian Block, in the Marines' communication directorate, said by email.

That could mean a lot of things, but what exactly he did to get booted from the Marines is unclear.

Before the day prosecutors say he killed Denise and James Closs and abducted 13-year-old Jayme Closs, Patterson had a checkered work history.

He tried to get a new job while lying about his military service just last week — on the same day Jayme escaped his home in remote northern Wisconsin after 88 days in captivity, according to an Associated Press report.

Officials with Saratoga Liquor Co. in Superior said Thursday that they received an online job application from Patterson around midday on Jan. 10.

According to the application supplied to the Associated Press by the company, Patterson was trying to land a night position at the company’s warehouse. Company officials said they wouldn’t have hired him due to his lack of experience, the AP reported.

On the résumé Patterson submitted in his application, he describes himself as an “honest and hardworking guy. Not much work experience but I show up to work and am a quick learner.” He notes he worked as a “laborer” from April 2018 to November 2018, but Saratoga officials redacted the employer’s name in the provided résumé.

Patterson states he served in the U.S. Marines for nine months from April 2017 to December 2017. The Marines said his brief service was two years before that.

His only known employment outside the military was one day three years ago at the turkey processing plant in Barron where the Closses were employed, and two days at a cheese plant last fall. He quit the cheese plant job in early October about the same time he first saw Jayme at a school bus stop and decided to abduct her, according to the criminal complaint.

Had he wanted to quit the Marines after a few days, he probably wouldn't have been able to do so.

What is known about Patterson's brief military stint was that he visited a Marine recruiter in Rice Lake to enlist and showed up at Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego on Sept. 14, 2015.

There are two boot camp locations for Marines, in San Diego and Parris Island, South Carolina. The Mississippi River is normally the dividing line for the location of a recruit's boot camp with men enlisting west of the Mississippi sent to California and those east of the river to South Carolina.

However, men recruited from Wisconsin, Michigan, the Chicago metropolitan area and New Orleans are sent to San Diego. Female Marine recruits train only at Parris Island.

Patterson was one of 34,581 people sent to Marine recruit training in 2015 and he was one of 2,295 discharged before graduation. Reasons for discharge can range from medical conditions to "failure to adapt to our lifestyle," Cpl. Naomi May of Marine Recruiting Command said in an email.

During the five weeks he was at Marine boot camp, Patterson would have taken classes on the Marine core values, negotiating an obstacle course, first aid, martial arts, military drill, inspections and physical conditioning.

"It's 'Full Metal Jacket' but without all the hazing and swearing," Block said, referring to the 1987 movie of Marine recruits training for Vietnam.

By all accounts, Marine boot camp is extremely challenging and difficult. Recruits are trained physically, mentally and morally, learning the Corps' core values of honor, courage and commitment.

The first half of boot camp, in essence, is tearing people down and the second half is building them up, said Tim Baranzyk, commandant of the Marine Corps League's Badger Detachment in Milwaukee. He doesn't know Patterson but has followed Jayme Closs' abduction in the media.

"Even in boot camp Marines don't act like this. They're not taught to go out and try to crucify somebody like this," said Baranzyk, who served in the Marines 1966-'69 including almost 13 months in Vietnam.

"Someone in that Marine unit must have known something about this kid was dangerous and washed him out," Baranzyk said in a phone interview. "Just think if this kid had made it through and he's in charge of a unit (in a war zone) and he exhibits these behaviors? Then people would have died or maybe a whole unit would have died."

Patterson was booted out of the Marines on Oct. 20, 2015, at the lowest rank — private. The only other information the Corps released on Patterson was this:

Military Occupational Specialty: none

Awards: none