About Real Heroes Part XI Meeting Robin Moore Robin Moore wrote a number of very popular novels in the 70s and 80s. “The Green Berets” starring John Wayne came out as a movie and a best seller. I read recently the green beret John Wayne wore in the movie sold for $176,000. I wonder how much Robert Howard’s Green Beret would sell for? Howard was the most decorated soldier to come out of the Vietnam War with; one Medal of Honor, two Distinguished Service Crosses, a couple Silver Stars, a couple more Bronze Stars with “V” devices and almost a dozen Purple Hearts. We meet a number of times. At the time, Howard was the supply sergeant at MACVSOG-CCC (I believe he was waiting for a direct commission to captain and for this MH to be verified.) and I was the logistics officer at CCN. Robin also wrote a dozen more war stories and a very successful “French Connection” book/movie package. Robin was talented—he even co-wrote “The Ballad of the Green Berets” with Barry Sadler—I heard a different story where the A-Camp medic who was in Sadler’s camp actually wrote the whole ballad and was killed in Vietnam and Sadler claimed he wrote the song. Robin was an east coast blue blood; he died recently of Parkinson’s. He loved being around the action but far enough away not to get any blood on himself. It was an adrenalin rush for him and he kept a number of ex-Special Forces men around him as hangers-on. One of those men was a good war buddy of mine named Liam Atkins. Atkins and I went through Special Forces training together as enlisted men and then Officer Candidate School. We served together during the Battle for Dak-To and with MACVSOG—a top secret long range reconnaissance unit. Liam was the “real deal” but loved to spread male bovine excrement to anyone who would listen. He would test you with a true action war story thinly coated with male bovine excrement and if you bought it—he would then spread additional very thick coats for the listener. Robin was Liam’s perfect audience. Liam Atkins got in trouble in the military and left to join the Selous Scouts in Rhodesia. Moore was in Rhodesia researching his novel, “The Crippled Eagles” and ran into Liam where they became close friends. During the late 70s, I was serving my farewell tour before retirement as the army liaison officer to the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing in Goldsboro, North Carolina. We flew F4s with an air to ground mission. I developed an extremely good relationship with the Air Force and was enjoying a great tour of duty when I received a telephone call from Liam. He told me he was in Fayetteville (outside of Fort Bragg) with Robin Moore and a couple of friends—one a retired navy SEAL and they wanted to come over to Goldsboro and meet me. Robin had heard of me and was impressed and wanted to meet me. (Remember—Atkins had the ability to spread male bovine excrement thickly.) I was excited and told Liam to come on over to the base. Now, Robin Moore had two camps within Special Forces—one liked him and one did not. Robin got a free pass into SF as a journalist and even was run through Jump School because he said he wanted to do a non-fiction history of Special Forces. The command opened many doors for him and gave him a really wide access other writers and reporters were denied. Robin used the material he gathered to write the fiction book “The Green Berets.” He made millions for himself and stiffed the command on the non-fiction book. But—Robin made a lot of enlisted friends during his “research” picking up huge bar tabs. Moore and Atkins arrived in Goldsboro and holed up in a local hotel. My wife and I hosted a dinner in his honor at the local officer’s club and invited the base commander along with a half-dozen of the senior officers on base and their wives. It was a very good night and the dinner and bar tab was enormous for an army major. The kids ate Fruit Loops for dinner for a couple of days, but we survived. Moore appreciated the gesture. Normally he got stiffed for the bill when he travelled. He paid me back a couple years later by endorsing my novel, “Eagles Cry Blood,” calling it a Vietnam classic. I would like to think he wrote that because the book was good and not because he owed me for a dinner. The next day the base commander invited Moore and his entourage to tour the base and I tagged along. After the tour Atkins invited me to join the group at the hotel for a few drinks. When we arrived and after a few bottles of whiskey the hook came out. Moore asked me if I would be willing to be interviewed concerning my top secret mission in Russia! I looked at Atkins and caught his pleading eyes. Atkins did not have time to brief me on “my” Russian mission. I played along knowing Atkins and his reputation. He still was a war buddy and I would try and help him out—to a limit. I asked Moore what mission he was referring to and the room filled with a couple of gawfs from the “retired operators” traveling with Moore. Robin continued and informed me about “my” mission where I entered Russian air space in an F4 Phantom jet at low levels over Siberia and then the pilot went full military in a climb to 40,000 feet where he turned the aircraft upside-down and I dropped out and I free fell back to earth where I completed my mission gathering data on a top secret Russian nuclear site and then moved ten thousand meters through the Siberian woods (Just the thought of Siberian tigers would have kept me out of there!) to a site where I was extracted by a Fulton Rig! I looked at Atkins and then at Moore before answering him that I was still on active duty and could not even acknowledge such a mission ever took place. Moore told me he understood and we went into some serious drinking where members of his entourage shared war stories for the next couple of hours. Putting combat Green Berets and navy SEALS in the same room with unlimited access to liquor is quite an adventure in story-telling. I left after a few hours making the excuse I had to spend some time with my kids. I was livid at Atkins. He followed me out to the parking lot and begged me not to expose his exaggerated line of male bovine excrement. They were leaving in the morning to go to a marine base in North Carolina where the navy SEAL was going to get his friends to present their story to Moore for a possible book. I refused to even talk to Atkins for a couple years but eventually forgave him. We meet up in Washington DC when I was working for General Dynamics and I brought up the story and asked Atkins if Robin Moore even believed a human being could free fall out of an F4 fighter jet going 800 miles an hour. Atkins shrugged and I shook my head. Moore and I stayed in touch for many years drifting apart when he began suffering from Parkinson’s. Liam Atkins died a couple of years ago, I don’t know from what. He was a character until the end—half amazing warrior and half absolute male bovine excrement.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 09:02:16 +0000
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