“You Don’t Pick Special Forces, Special Forces Picks You”: Adventures Of A Special Forces Medic Who Was “Born To Treat Patients”

Doc Padgett was born in 1945 in Illinois. His father was a technician for the water company and his mother was a housewife who later became a dietician. His twin sister died at birth. As a boy, he enjoyed playing baseball, wrestling, reading military history, watching war movies, and playing Soldier. He was “an average kid,” and after graduating from high school, he attended the Illinois State Normal College to become a teacher but dropped out. He enlisted in the Army in 1965, having heard about Special Forces and wanting to go that route. When he told the recruiter that he wanted Special Forces, the recruiter said, “You don’t pick Special Forces, Special Forces picks you,” but he could guarantee Airborne School. He completed Basic Training at Ft. Leonard Wood, where he became the Platoon Guide, and Advanced Infantry Training (AIT) at Ft. Gordon. He enjoyed his training, especially the weapons. Airborne School at Ft. Benning was great, and he recalls “we were expected to excel.” Near the end of Airborne School, a Special Forces Recruiter addressed the class, and Doc took the day-long aptitude test. Special Forces training at Ft. Bragg followed, and he volunteered to become a medic because he wanted to help others in the name of his country. Basic medical and the specific Special Forces Medic training (300F1) was at Ft. Sam Houston, and it was a very good and intense course. He had to study hard, and while the WAC barracks nearby proved too much of a distraction for some of the students, Doc buckled down to learn all he could. After graduating from Ft. Sam (only 5 out of 55 completed the course), he had On-the-Job-Training at the hospital at Ft. Gordon, where he “won the hearts and minds” of the Doctors. Unconventional Warfare training and the capstone, Robin Sage, followed, with live patient training as his final exercise. Initially he felt “unsure with my scalpel,” but encouragement from the Special Forces Medic who was grading him helped him overcome that hesitancy. He was then assigned to 7th Group for pre-mission training in weapons, language, and patrolling techniques. He deployed with seven other Special Forces Medics, and when they arrived in Pleiku, the assignment personnel were going to parse them out to conventional units. A quick call to the Special Forces Sergeant Major solved that issue, and he was assigned to the Camp at Bong Son to replace an outgoing medic. Shortly after arriving at Bong Son, a severe case of dysentery sidelined him for a few days, but he soon recovered. He describes a sapper attack on the camp that was stopped with a judicial application of fougasse. He describes one infiltration that was led by a 16-year-old girl who had been a laundry girl in camp. She was injured, and when doc treated her he noticed the hatred in her eyes, indicating her intense determination to kill Americans. When the Special Forces Camp at Bong Son was closing, it became LZ English, and Doc’s team went to the Ha Tay Camp, where the Special Forces occupied the heights and US Artillery were down in the bowl. There, he had a bunker for a dispensary. When he tried to occupy the bunker, a cobra greeted him. He tried to evict the cobra with CS gas, but that only made the snake angrier. He told one of his Montagnards about the issue and a mongoose was immediately produced. The mongoose, after the CS dissipated, got the cobra, and Doc was able to occupy the bunker. He states “the first duty is to the team,” but he also treated the indigenous troops who served with them and their families who often lived in the outer camp. He also conducted Medical Civil Action Patrols, offering medical care to nearby villagers. Once, at the Cung Son Camp, he treated some Montagnards who all lived in a traditional long house. One woman came to be treated and she was covered with buboes, indicating the presence of the bubonic plague, spread by rat fleas. He quickly sent word back to his higher headquarters and got an immediate response, including a medical task force, drugs, and vaccines to combat the plague (the team had all had the plague shot, but he made everyone get a booster). He orchestrated burning the long house and killing all the rats that fled the fire. New quarters were built with a concrete floor to try and mitigate further infestations. He describes trying to be ready for anything, but he reflects, “You can’t be prepared for everything,” and in an aid bag full of IVs, trauma equipment, medicines, and bandages, once he was caught without a simple band aid. Most frequently he needed drugs to reduce fevers and combat diarrhea. Once, while assigned to SOG, he had a premonition and added copper sulfate to his kit. Shortly after, he was able to use that to extinguish white phosphorous burns. He then worked with the Mike Force (Mobile Strike Force), who were often the ones called when other Special Forces needed to be rescued. He was then stationed in Thailand for a year, running a dispensary with eight beds, a lab, and even an x-ray machine, where he treated Thai in rural areas, mostly for malaria and parasites. He felt that his medical facility and the team that supported him were cover for a secret operation. He worked hard to learn the language and spoke Spanish, Thai, and Vietnamese, and his language abilities once saved his life. While getting a cup of coffee, he overheard two Vietnamese discuss a plan to kill the Americans, and he was able to arrest them and confront them in Vietnamese about their scheme. He felt that he was “born to treat patients,” even in SOG, and he enjoyed his time in the jungle, loving the “beauty of it.” Dehydration was a constant problem and he developed “Dr. John’s Special Drink,” a boiled liter of water with a mixture of lime juice, sugar, and salt. All told, he spent close to three years in Vietnam, but in 1970, he realized “we were not interested in winning,” so he decided to return to the United States in 1971. It was heartbreaking watching South Vietnam fall. Shortly after the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, he flew to Orote Point, Guam, where Vietnamese refugees were being held in refugee camps, to vouch for the Vietnamese he had worked with as a medic. Before he left Vietnam in 1971, he ran into Tom Coles, an ex-SF Medic who was working at Dr. Pat Smith’s Minh Quy hospital in Kontum. Coles wrote a letter of introduction for John to attend the University of Washington to become a PA (Physician’s Assistant) while he was in the Special Forces Reserves in 12th Group in Seattle. In the 1980s, PAs became Warrant Officers, and SFC Padgett exchanged his stripes for Warrant Officer bars. In 1992, CW3 Padgett was commissioned as a 1LT, and he retired as a Major (Promotable) in 2005 due to Agent Orange related cancers. Before retiring, he deployed to Iraq hot on the heels of the invasion with a Civil Affairs unit, where he served as the Public Health Officer in Baghdad from 2003-2004. In 1991, he earned a PhD, served as a full professor, and started a PA School in Henderson, Nevada. He served as the Executive Director of the Special Operations Association Foundation, and he and his wife Vicki work for Refugee Relief International, training medics in combat trauma care. He describes returning to Cambodia in 1995 as a Civil Affairs Officer with the first US units to reenter that country. His mission was helping the Cambodian military fix the deplorable state of their military hospital. Now, he attends reunions yearly to see old friends. Reflecting on his service in Vietnam, he says, “I was in it for my country,” just as his ancestors served in the Revolution, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, and WWII (his father). His two sons have continued the tradition of service, one retiring as an MP CSM and the other serving in Special Forces. John wishes he could have been more effective during his service.