Bob Patterson was raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina, close to Fort Bragg, so a military presence was a common thing for him growing up.
He had a large family, four sisters and an older brother, and his parents struggled to make ends meet. His father was a carpenter, and his mother stayed home to raise their children. At a young age, Bob provided a lot of help on his family’s tobacco farm, including plowing fields with a mule because the family could not afford a tractor. I am sure he learned early on to cast his eyes through the ears of that mule on the end of the furrow in order to plow straight.
Bob was a good student, though noted for some schoolyard scuffles. After a senior-year argument with a rival over his girlfriend, Bob decided he would best them by joining the Army. In 1966, as the war in Vietnam was becoming more intense, he dropped out of high school to enlist.
Initially, he was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division and got his first Article 15 for being AWOL. He snuck off Fort Bragg to meet with his girlfriend, and missed his accountability formation the next morning. He spent the rest of his time at Bragg on restriction and pulled extra assignments.
After completing infantry and jump school, he was transferred to the 101st Airborne Division’s 17th Cavalry Regiment in preparation for deployment to Vietnam. While at Fort Campbell, he “earned” his second Article 15 for insubordination — after being told by a senior officer to repair his loud car muffler before bringing it back on base. He decided, “No one is going to tell me I can’t drive my car,” and he persisted until the noise caught up with him.
His 17th Cav unit was deployed to Vietnam in December ‘67. He recalls that the moment he set foot in country, his crew was subject to a Viet Cong mortar attack on the airfield. In the early months of 1968, he was assigned to both convoy escorts and search-and-destroy missions.
On 6 May of that year, then SP4C Patterson was a fireteam leader of the 34-man 3rd platoon, tasked with clearing enemy NVA soldiers from an area near La Chu village. He suspected this day was going to be tougher than expected when he realized that, in addition to his platoon and all of Troop B, two additional Troops would be moving with them.
Just after noon that day, as they neared the village, they were confronted by a much larger NVA battalion. His platoon sergeant, George Simmons, was severely wounded early after first enemy contact, and his lead 3rd Squad was pinned down under heavy machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades from two enemy spider hole bunkers above their position.
He recalls: “It’s strange to hear things go whistling over your head. We had very little cover to get down behind — a little tree here, a mound of dirt over there.” That would be precisely why the NVA chose that location for an ambush.
The next two hours were chaos, and he was functioning on muscle memory and training. He says: “The platoon sergeant being shot is the last thing I remember. Everything else is just a blank blur.”
What his fellow soldiers recall clearly is that Bob and two of his soldiers courageously moved forward through a field of intersecting fire in order to take out the two enemy bunkers. Only then did he realize three other enemy positions were firing on them. After taking out the first two bunkers with grenades, he moved forward into the remaining lines of fire and destroyed the other positions, taking out a total of five enemy bunkers, killing eight NVA soldiers, and removing their weapons.
He says, “The next thing I knew, it was 5 o’clock that afternoon, and I was in a 500-pound-bomb crater.” Taking cover there with several injured soldiers and one KIA, after nightfall, he and others emerged under cover fire from Cobras overhead to continue assaulting the enemy positions. His actions enabled his platoon and others to advance into the enemy’s defensive positions, forcing them into retreat.
Days later, Patterson was awarded a Silver Star in the field. He was confused by how fast the award was made, recalling: “I was thinking to myself, ‘Why did I get this? I didn’t do anything.’ And that’s when we found out that we had actually gone up against a reinforced regiment.” He stowed the medal in his rucksack and carried on.
The rest of his tour was filled with rinse and repeat — more convoy escorts and search-and-destroy missions. But there was no firefight as intense as the one when they routed that NVA regiment. Completing his tour in December ‘68, Bob returned home. In September 1969, he found out his Silver Star was upgraded to a Medal of Honor. A month later, President Richard Nixon would present Bob and three other legendary soldiers, CPT James Sprayberry, CPT Jack Jacobs, and MAJ Patrick Henry Brady, their Medals in a White House ceremony.
Then-21-year-old Patterson recalls he was disappointed he did not get to wear his jump boots!
Bob’s Medal of Honor citation further details his actions:
When the leading squad of the 3d Platoon was pinned down by heavy interlocking automatic-weapons and rocket-propelled-grenade fire from two enemy bunkers, Sgt. Patterson and the two other members of his assault team moved forward under a hail of enemy fire to destroy the bunkers with grenade and machine-gun fire. Observing that his comrades were being fired on from a third enemy bunker covered by enemy gunners in one-man spider holes, Sgt. Patterson, with complete disregard for his safety and ignoring the warnings of his comrades that he was moving into a bunker complex, assaulted and destroyed the position.
Although exposed to intensive small-arms and grenade fire from the bunkers and their mutually supporting emplacements, Sgt. Patterson continued his assault upon the bunkers which were impeding the advance of his unit. Sgt. Patterson singlehandedly destroyed by rifle and grenade fire five enemy bunkers… His dauntless courage and heroism inspired his platoon to resume the attack and to penetrate the enemy defensive position.
Watch Bob recount the actions of his unit that day here.
During his remaining active-duty years, he served as a drill sergeant at Fort Bliss, Texas, having attained the rank of Command Sergeant Major. He served in the first Gulf War before his retirement in 1991. Bob then worked for the Veterans Administration, serving other Vets until his retirement in 2010. He met his wife, Linda, while at the VA, and she said he was so humble that it was only after they had dated for six months that she discovered he had been awarded a Medal of Honor.
He and Linda moved to Pensacola, Florida, where they currently reside with their family. As with many recipients, he often speaks to groups of students about the values associated with the Medal of Honor recipients: Courage, Sacrifice, Patriotism, Citizenship, Integrity, and Commitment.
He says today that wearing his Medal comes with a heavy burden of responsibility he did not anticipate: “[I am] wearing it for everyone who was there, particularly for those who didn’t come back. Everything I do, before I do it, I will stop and think if it is going to embarrass that Medal. Is it going to bring any kind of disgrace on it at all? If it is, then I won’t do it. And so it — it kind of controls you in what you do. And that’s probably a good thing because I would have gotten into some scrapes or done some things that I shouldn’t have done had I not had it.”
In October 2024, Bob joined other Medal of Honor recipients with a rare public presidential endorsement — for Donald Trump.
CSM Robert Patterson: An ordinary man faced with extraordinary circumstances, he summoned the greatest measure of courage to place his life in imminent peril to save others. Your example of valor — a humble American Patriot defending Liberty for all above and beyond the call of duty — is eternal.
“Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
Live your life worthy of his sacrifice.
(Read more Profiles of Valor here.)
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776
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