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| Doc Whitten |
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| MAY 15-67 |
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| THANK YOU DOC... For as many as 28 years I thought about what I might say if I were to ever come face to face with the man who saved my life so many years ago. I suppose I'd just say to him, THANK YOU DOC! That was how we/ I referred to him at the Tiger Papa 3 compound. He was "DOC" He was the man who'd be there for us if we were ever wounded during a routine patrol. The man I knew and eventually befriended at Papa3, portrayed that confidence. While he wasn't a large man physically. He was very large in the eyes of the Marines. For like me, I'm sure each and every one of those Marines new that their life could/would depend on his ability and skills as a Naval Corpsman. Yet in my eyes I always saw him as a Marine. Sometimes he'd have that Corpsman pin on his fatiques. Otherwise I saw a Marine. He had the ability to use any and all of the weapons in our arsenal. His job took him out on patrol on every night ambush as well as many of the day patrols. He was asked to work and treat the Vietnamese civilians from our many hamlets as well as the Popular Force troops we worked with. I don't know that I'd want his job? But it was good to know he was with us on patrol. Because in the case of Doc John Whitten. You not only had a Corpsman on patrol, but you also had another Marine. What gives a man the courage and strength to move from wounded to wounded soldier in the mist of a fire fight. When bullets are flying! Most soldiers {who are willing to tell the truth] will tell you they'd like to be hunkerd down and shooting back. So how do you move between the bullets and treat wounded soldiers with complete disregard for your own life? I think he felt that God had put up shields. Shields that would reflect incoming bullets. As he couldn't be wounded himself. As he'd be needed to treat the others. And isn't it the truth. For on that night of May15, 1967. Fourteen Marines and one Navy Corpsman came under attack by some 90 Viet Cong. The siege of Firebase Tiger papa 3. How any of us walked away from that attack is an amazement to me. But surely many of us would not be alive had it not been for a man named Doc Whitten. For an account of the events of that night as told by Doc Whitten please go to the following address. http://www.capmarine.com/cap/papa/papa3/may15-67/may15-67.htm Twenty eight years from that night. I received a letter in the mail from a man who'd heard about a book about Tiger Papa3. That letter was to confirm that I was the same person and that the story was about our compound. It was less than a year later that we'd have a reunion at DOC"s home in Austin Texas. Only months after that reunion. It was Doc's fate to be transferred by his employer to a town just minutes from my home. It was my good fortune to not only be reunioned with the man who'd saved my life so long ago. But to now have him as a neighbor. I am truly blessed. You see, after all these years he is still very much the same as he was back then. He is still strong and confident. He is still a leader. If you ever have the pleasure to meet him. He will change you life. For his personallity has a way of bringing out all the good qualities in people. I'm still proud to call him a Comrad, a Friend, but more importantly a Brother. ONCE MORE I"D LIKE TO SAY..."THANKS DOC!" Tom "Skin"Flynn/CAC VietNam Tiger Papa 3/ IIIMAF |
| Port Richey, | Florida | 34668 |
 vbp@gate.net |
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