Announcement for the Burial Ceremony for Jim "Patches" Watson in Arlington

[Dan Arnes]

Received several emails on this, thought I'd post for all.





The Arlington National Cemetery burial date for Navy SEAL James "Patches" Watson is Friday, April 11th 2014. You must be at the Admin building by 1:15PM for the 2PM service. Please feel free to share this information.

Chief Watson is an original plank owner of SEAL Team TWO and, as one of the original "men with green faces," served three tours in Vietnam. For his valor, he earned sixteen combat decorations, four of which are Bronze Stars, all with Combat "V". His twenty year Navy career included twenty-five training schools, eleven years on the SEAL Teams, including serving as a CIA-sponsored adviser to the Provincial Reconnaissance Unit (PRU) Program in South Vietnam. These units investigated and attacked covert communist operations in South Vietnam. He also served with the Vietnamese LDNN (Lien Doi Nguoi Nhai), Vietnamese SEAL counterparts trained by the U.S. in eleven missions into Cambodia.

Original info on his passing received 10/26/2013:
Jim+Patches+Watson.pdf

More:
https://navysealmuseum.com/uncategorized/in-memoriam-board-member-chief-james-patches-watson-point-man/

Dan

[kid purington]

Thanks for post Dan....I very much enjoyed crossing-trails with "Patches"...will not be able to be in Arlington for Burial Ceremony...Hope Seawolves near can attend...

[Dan Arnes]

Received an email from Author Ralph Christopher and got his permission to post a story he relayed to me:

Thanks Dan,

I spent a couple of days with Patches at his home in Fort Piece, FL while writing River Rats and he feed and took care of me. I met him in Nam but since he wore Blue Jeans and black Pajamas I thought he was CIA, but did stop long enough to take a picture with his LDNNs but I was not sure who they were at the time. SEALs were a silent bunch and never announced their presents. He was staying at the Green Beret base on the Cambodian Border and working for Admiral Mathews going into Cambodia during the Cambodian Incursion. Dempsey Bumpass took Patches in on his STAB on one of his missions. Det 9 Seawolves also took him in several times and they shot up the communist base in Cambodia pretty good.

Patches claimed to have captured the only Chinese General during the war and brought him back to Vietnam from Cambodia where the General ran a VC training camp. He said they did not get any Intel from the general but a little from his aid. They rushed the general to Saigon and he was in the front door and out the back in a matter of days and traded back to China for two CIA guys that North Korea was holding. Patches Watson was also Dick Marcinko’s (Rogue Warrior) point man which is the tittle of the book written about Patches. He was a warrior till the end and a hard charger about everything he did.

I have added a little on the fact that Det-9 worked with him in Cambodia. I speak of him in River Rats and tell a little of that story.

Ralph

[Mike Worthington]

Patches tells this story in his book  "POINT MAN"  RIP BROTHER

[dave johnson]

Im going to try a make it. I ask my wife to check on rooms. she worked  at holday inn  last time it was 39 a night.  Her father is buried in Arlington also