Donald Hill Noble grew up in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where his father was an off-and-on military officer and Wyoming rancher. His father served in the military during World War II and as a West Pointer, helped establish the 10th Mountain Division that went on to fight the Germans in the Alps.
Coming from a long line of veterans from before the Civil War and on both sides of his family through the Confederate and Union armies, it was only natural for Noble to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Sadly, in his third year at the academy, his father died of a heart attack, and in the same month, his mother suffered a major stroke. Noble was forced to leave the academy to help his ailing mother. Six months later, having been forced to give up his West Point appointment, he put his mother into a total care nursing home and enrolled at the University of Vermont, where he completed his degree in math and science.
Being a member of the ROTC and a Distinguished Military Graduate, Noble was then commissioned as a second lieutenant in the regular Army.
With the Vietnam War raging, and knowing he was heading into the conflict, Noble decided to get as much solid training under his belt as he possibly could. From his Basic Infantry Officers course at Fort Benning, Noble became a paratrooper (Airborne) and a U.S. Army ranger, graduating from the rigorous and demanding U.S. Army Ranger School. His next stop was for courses at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
“If I was going to Vietnam, I wanted to be as prepared as possible,” he explained.
Noble was deployed to Vietnam as a member of the 5th Special Forces Group, heading a 12-member Special Forces “A” Detachment. It was heavy combat from day one of his arrival, first in Nha Trang on the South China Sea and then in his TAOR (tactical area of responsibility) along the Cambodian border.
During his first tour, Noble’s team was involved in most of the major engagements with the III Corps, a corps of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Two months after entering the country, Noble was wounded by grenade and mortar fragments to his legs and side. Refusing to be evacuated from the battlefield, he was finally taken to a combat hospital by the Vietnamese airborne ranger commander. While in the hospital, he was awarded the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, a Bronze Star for Valor and the first of his two Purple Hearts.
Noble was moved to the 93rd Evacuation Hospital in Bien Hoa, but after 30 days, he was deemed by hospital personnel as too much trouble to deal with. The 5th Special Forces commander let Noble return to his team, though a bit worse for wear.
It came time for Noble to rotate back to the States, but he refused and extended his time for a second tour, feeling his men needed him. He felt that to leave would be to put everyone’s life in greater danger. He was a seasoned captain now, battle-tested and trusted, and he knew the ropes.
During Noble’s second tour, the Tet Offensive had begun, and Noble and his team were in the thick of it. At the very end of this tour, he and his team were involved in a joint operation with the ARVN; Noble’s team was the lead element in engaging the North Vietnamese Army. The combat was intense, and after two days, Noble and all of his team members had been wounded, several seriously. Nightfall was coming quickly. Noble was able to get all of his wounded team on evacuation helicopters, but unfortunately, there was no room for him. Badly wounded with bullets in both legs, a bullet in the arm and a serious head wound, Noble elected to stay behind by himself that night, keeping both legs in tourniquets and administering shots of morphine to himself.
“I knew I could hopefully get out the next day and I had an M-60 machine gun, my AR-15, and both frag and smoke grenades,” he recalled. “If I could just make it until daylight, I would be good.”
Amazingly, two helicopters were there to get Noble in the morning.
Noble was awarded his second Purple Heart, a second Bronze Star for Valor and the Silver Star by General William Westmoreland for this action. This time, however, his wounds were so severe that he began a years-long journey of healing through the international medical evacuation process, ending up at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
After leaving the military, Noble enrolled in graduate school at the University of Florida. He earned his master’s degree in business, but it wasn’t easy; because of his wounds, he required several surgeries while attending school.
“I would go a semester, then take a semester off for surgery and then go back again,” he recalled. “It was a struggle.”
With his degree in hand, Noble was hired by Exxon in Houston, Texas, along with other military veterans, as an oil fuel auditor. From there, he was hired by the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency in New York City alongside 15 other Vietnam veterans. “It was an interesting class of guys,” he said.
After working at several other advertising agencies and running his own business for a while, Noble settled down at the Stony Lonesome Group, an equity group with whom he has been for the past 10 years. The company partners with military veterans who are entrepreneurs.
In gratitude of his service and sacrifice, the Library paid tribute to Don Noble at a ceremony on September 21 as part of its Hometown Heroes initiative.
The Library’s Hometown Heroes initiative aims to honor local veterans from the Arthur Ellis Hamm American Legion Post 834 on a monthly basis, with a culminating ceremony scheduled for January 2020.
During the ceremony, held at the Westhampton Beach Fire Department and attended by fellow Legionnaires, library representatives, family members and public officials, Noble was presented with proclamations and an American flag.
A resident of New York City, Noble spends his weekends in his Remsenburg home, which he has owned for 20 years, and is involved in local veteran organizations, including the American Legion Post 834 and VFW Post 5350. He has been married to his wife, Jean, for four years.
Photos courtesy of the Westhampton Free Library