His arrival at CCN created quite a furor. The word quickly spread that we had just received a MIlitary Intelligence Officer with a Ph.D. that was not going to work in the Command Staff. This guy wanted to run recon missions. This was the most hazardous assignment in all of MACV-SOG! Visions of a small, studious, "Poindexter" type of soldier with delusions of grandeur, quickly came to mind. Nothing could have been further from the truth! Doc was athletic, muscular and savvy. A man that quickly won the respect and admiration of everyone he met.
Doc Watson had the intellect of a scholar, the soul of a poet, and the heart of a warrior. A man with an affable manner, a ready sense of humor, a natural curiosity and an adventurous nature. Always ready to be the mediator in a dispute, but ready and able to jump into the fray if a confrontation could not be avoided. I am glad that he was my teammate.
I remember spending long nights, talking about the future. Doc had some big plans for the future. Plans that would change things in the way that the Army did business. It's interesting that Doc never got to see these plans to their fruition but, his ideas, eventually were put into action. Doc was a man ahead of his time; a visionary. For example, he envisioned a time at the end of this war where the men who had fought it would return with problems and he believed the Army should have a unit in place to help men deal with these problems. Essentially, Doc put his degree in Psychology to good use and forsaw "PTSD" and wanted to see men who suffered from it taken care of, he always was one to put the needs of his fellow soldiers first.
Doc's body was never recovered. They found his body in a STABO rig on the side of a cliff, he was confirmed dead but before his body could be taken out enemy pressure forced the rescue team to leave. When the team went back the second time to try to reclaim his body, it had been removed.
I wish we could have done better by him. I wish we could have brought him home. I wish his family had been able to say good-bye to him. But most of all, I miss him.
