Special Operations.Com 

Tales From SOG

"The BB Kid"

Before I put the story online, I sent it to several SOG guys to review and to obtain their honest opinion of what they though of it. The responses were typical of Sgt Masterjoseph's who served with CCN Recon Team Moccasin from Dec 6, 69-Apr 21, 70 at which time he was severely wounded in action.

Date: 2/4/00 6:44:50 PM Central Standard Time
From: Sgt Robert P. Masterjoseph

Bob,
I read and enjoyed "The BB Kid". I think you should put it out as is. It is typical of SOG and SF behavior. It is not 'hero shit', nor are you a glory hound, but rather the direct opposite. I think it is a great story! 

Bobmjoe

Date: 1/29/00 7:17:06 PM Central Standard Time
From: SGM Bert Moore

Please post this on the Tales from SOG. Thanks to Bob Noe and all the others for being the men they were, the salt of the earth. It was hell on the medics 

Bert Moore, Sr SF Medic 
THE BB KID
Now that Bob (Robert) Noe is getting to be well known among our group and runs a webpage for SOG, I though I'd pass on this tale, which pokes a little humor at him, and give him a new call name, which I've always remembered him by.

A little over a year ago, I got a telephone call late one evening at home. This guy was on the phone and was trying to tell me who he was. He started out saying something to the effect, "You don't know me, but weren't you the Senior Medic at the SOG Long Thanh School early to mid 1970?" I acknowledged I was. He asked if I remember ever treating anyone shot with a BB gun and if I did, he was the one that had been shot? He then went on to explain that he had read the book Stolen Valor and decided to apply for VA benefits without providing any documentation to see if what had been written about the blatant problems with the VA were true. He said he was successful, the VA had issued him a VA card without any questions or verification documents, he was seen by the VA, which he said confirms the allegations made in the book. He said he was asked by one of his VA doctor friends, who was in Grad school with him, to consider applying at the VA for employment. Noe said he went to the VA personnel office, but was told he needed a disability rating, which Noe said he told the guy he didn't have any disability rating. The VA personnel guy asked him if he had been shot. Noe said he laughed and told the guy the only thing he had been shot with was a BB gun, which required surgery, but there was nothing in his records to that effect. The VA guy told him that would work and to see if he could find someone to verify it. That's when he looked me up.

I asked him for his name again, and this guy on the other end of the telephone, said "Robert Noe" Suddenly, a flashback occurred. I did remember this guy! Of all the operations I performed, all the guys I treated with gun shot wounds, and all the other injuries I had treated, I remembered "Robert Noe, the BB Kid!" 

The circumstances, which cause me to remember him, were different from all the others. I recall I had been told there was a Sergeant First Class who had been wounded on the Immediate Action Drill for ambush under live fire (using Crossman BB guns). I was wondering what kind of wound he would have being shot by a BB gun, thinking it to be nothing more than a scratch or something, knowing it wouldn't be an eye injury because of the face shields and gloves being used. He had been brought in via vehicle and walked into the dispensary. I was expecting an older, gruffly Special Forces Sergeant First Class, but to my surprise, here was this kid, looking no more than 17 years old cradling his arm (See the picture I've attached, which he sent me taken a couple months after he finished the 1-0 school). 

Inquiring about what happened, Noe said he was on the ambush element and as the enemy patrol element was coming down the trail, the team executed the ambush successfully. As the ambush team was coming out of the jungle for critique, a BB gun had been discharged and he felt a sting to his right arm, which was holding his CAR-15 in a ready position. He said he looked down thinking he had scratched it, but observed a lot of blood flowing from his arm. When he got to the critique point he said, "Who the f..k shot me?" It was discovered someone was using the pump BB gun earlier to shoot and kill the big lizards, and that guy had pumped up the BB gun some 13 times. As the team to be ambushed came up, this guy gave the BB gun to one of the members of the enemy element to be ambushed without discharging it or telling the guy it was pumped up. As the patrol started, the BB gun was pumped up twice more (two pumps maximum allowed). After the completion of the exercise, the guy pointed the BB gun, which had been pumped up 15 times, into the jungle to discharge the gun without realizing Noe was walking toward him.

Upon examination, it was determined the "BB kid" had been hit in the right forearm with the round embedded into the muscle tissue between the ulna and radius bones. I, SFC Bert A. Moore, along with the assistant medic, SGT Paul E. Klaus, performed surgery and removed the steel BB caliber (4.5 mm) and removed all damaged tissue involved. During the operation, Noe said he was getting dizzy watching me digging around in his arm. I told him "Well, don't look, look up if you have too!" About a minute later, Noe told me he was still getting dizzy, sort of chuckling. I asked him to stop looking. He said he couldn't help it because looking up caused him to look into the overhead reflective light mirror, which acts sort of like a magnifying glass, enlarging the view. A drain was inserted for a few days and the wound was closed upon his return from the field training recon mission. The BB Kid was scheduled to go on recon with his team and insisted on going against my medical advice. In fact, this was one of the other reasons I remember him. I had informed Noe that he would be awarded the "Purple Heart," which got an immediate response of "F..k you, you ain't going to put me in for a Purple Heart for getting shot with a BB gun, I'd be the laughing stock of Vietnam." When I told him he couldn't go on the recon, he became upset, saying he was going. He left and went to see the Commanding Officer who called me. I advised the commander that Noe should not go because of the open draining wound and potential of infection in the heat and jungle environment, and wounded men should not be allowed to go because they needed every bit of their abilities to be concentrated on the mission at hand and not be worried about an injury. Even though this was a training mission, they were going into an area with "Live Shoot Back Targets." There had been several SOG guys killed in action on these missions already, so it was more than a normal training exercise. SFC Noe's argument was persuasive to the Commander, or he just pissed the Commander off by being persistant. Anyway, the Commander directed I have Noe sign a release, which I did with the instructions on how he should care for the wound. Noe signed the waiver without batting an eye and went on the patrol.

In addition to the above, there is another reason for this incident to be remembered by me. I was responsible for the development of the Immediate Action Drill, Live Fire Exercise. Being responsible for the exercise, I was deeply involved it its effectiveness, and with Noe being shot, it was something that concerned me regarding the safety issues and stood out as something I'd remember. 

As I told Noe, he was unusual in that I had not ever had anyone refuse a Purple Heart, and most would have been happy not to go on the recon patrol until their would healed, especially, someone going to the Commander to go so against my stern medical advice.

A follow up, when the recon element was inserted. We received a message later in the evening that one of our team had made contact with "Chuck." They were inserted directly on top of an underground Viet Cong Transportation Battalion Headquarters element and the enemy immediately engaged the team. Two pickup birds and chase had been rigged out for extraction, but daylight was fading fast and a night extraction was not practical. The team reported they had evaded the enemy and taken up a defensive position in two bomb craters for the night and would be able to hold off. The next morning prior to daylight it was an unusually cool Vietnamese morning, and we all knew the birds had one chance to get in and one chance to get out because of fuel for distance travel. The pilots and "peter pilots" pre checked their "birds" and asked for gun support. We took off from Long Thanh and traveled to the extraction location. While inbound, the team reported observing the enemy moving in closer and they began taking fire and were returning fire. As we approached, we then spotted the red smoke coming from the vicinity of a bomb crater in the midst of trees. I was on the Chase ship as the Medic and observing and listening to the action on FM. I could see from my advantage point, green tracers cutting through the thin, broken morning fog. A couple of gunships (Cobras) spotted human figures moving toward the team in the broken ground fog and fired up the area, which caused firing to stop. The main recovery aircraft started its descent into position to pick up the team by slings and I saw the stabo rigs come out of the belly of the bird. The bird was only on position for a few seconds and then started to pull out a couple minutes later with four team members hoisted out of the crater without incident. Two red smokes were then thrown by the remaining team members and identified by the pilot of the second slick, the second ship then hovered into position and dropped its slings, as the helicopter was hovering, a wind picked up and drifted the smoke over the team's position and was being stirred up by the prop blast, as the smoke was beginning to clear, I again observed the sudden burst of green tracers whizzing all around the hovering chopper 100 feet above the ground. The Cobras moved back in blasting the area up. The commo between the team and choppers became high pitched with the team trying to make themselves heard over the helicopters, gunfire from the gunships, and team. The hovering slick suddenly, without warning, stared moving forward and upward. As the helicopter climbed and cleared the trees, I noted one of the members on the strings was slumped in the rig. Flying close as we could to the team, his posture was very unusual and not typical of someone riding a rig. My anticipation was high that he was seriously wounded or dead, and I need to get him down as soon as possible to check his condition. I opted to take the chance to sit the chopper down in the old abandoned 1st Cav Div firebase named "Black Horse," to inspect the team and patient. After setting down, I rushed to the injured man, thinking he was perhaps already dead because he had not moved after being put down. When I got to the man, I identified him as the guy who had been shot with the BB gun because of the dressing on his right arm. He was doubled over with both hands between his legs, not moving one muscle, his eyes were opened and he sure wasn't smiling. I saw The pain in his face as I approached, I was about to find out where the round had hit and try to stop the bleeding, face white, looking down and can't talk is the signs of shock. As I started to examine him, he was able to speak in a broken manner telling me he had his "nuts" crushed. There's nothing that can be more painful than a nut in the web gear. After talking to the team, it was determined Noe was the last to be hooked up and before he could properly adjust the straps, the helicopter started taking fire so it did not go straight up but started moving in horizontal direction for a moment before climbing putting pressure on the straps so they could not be adjusted Noe was not permitted the time to reach down between his crouch and pull the straps away from his family jewels. (He shouldn't have been so stubborn and stayed behind, but that's the nature of the guys with SOG). 

No medical service was provided and after a few minutes, Noe was able to get up and move around, a skewed, at which time, we loaded up the guys into the helicopter and headed back to Long Thanh where the helicopters were inspected. Although I don't recall if the slick had been hit, I do recall one of the Cobra gunship had a couple of new ventilating holes.

All in all, Do I remember him? Actually, I had forgotten his name, but remembered him by the nickname I gave him, "The BB Kid". 

(Note: Bert Moore's recall was and still is very impressive. I was amazed that he'd remember the details and me. He sent me a notarized statement of the events regarding the injury within a couple of days after I first called him. Since that time, I worked with him on two stories that have been posted in the Tales from SOG section that were written by SGM Al Friend, a friend of SGM Bert Moore. He and I have discussed the various details of what had happened with the BB gun and extraction since that time over the telephone. A few months ago, Bert was in the Hospital in Houston and I drove down and visited him for about an hour. He filled me in on some things I long forgot or did not know. I do remember him telling me he was going to put me in for a Purple Heart, I was horrified, just think what kind of reputation a SOG soldier would have if he got the Purple Heart for a BB gun injury? I also remember him telling me I could not go on the patrol. I wasn't trying to be brave, just did not want to be recycled through that torturous 1-0 course again. Now as for getting inserted on top of an underground enemy headquarters, I sure do remember that! At the time, we did not know what size or type of unit it was, but we got the hell out of there fast. We could hear the enemy chasing us. As for getting shot at, I recall doing a bit of running and having to lay on our back during the heat of the day to drag our way under bamboo thickets (hot! hot! hot!-needed water!) to put some distance between us and them. Some of the other team member saw the VC and there was some shooting, we all fired, but I have to admit, I never saw the enemy, could hear them, but then that was typical. I must give credit to SFC John Allen (If my memory serves me right, that was his name), RT Instructor and the other men undergoing training with me, they performed magnificently. By the way, I was 27 years old in the photo, just I always looked real young, caused me a number of problems. The Recon Team's photograph and training is posted in the SOG Training section -Remarks by Robert L. Noe).