John Wayne and Bubba
Retired Game Warden Milton “Bubba” Vincent spent 15 of his 35 years as a Texas Game Warden as a full-fledged card-carrying member of the TPWD covert operations unit, fondly referred to in previous Possum Cop columns as “the dark side.”
Now, you might think that, when asked about a time during his career when he was really scared, he would tell a tale from his dark side days; maybe something about a shotgun in his face or a bad run-in with a bunch of bikers at a bar.
You’d be wrong. In 1979, Bubba was wearing the blue badge of a field game warden in Newton County.
One cold December evening during deer season in an area near the Sabine River known as “Devil’s Pocket”, he was faced with a choice. It had already been a long day.
He could call it quits and head back to the house, or he could park his patrol car on the last piece of solid ground available and hike about a mile-anda- half through the mud to a remote hunting camp rumored to be full of outlaws.
He chose the latter. It was dark by the time he got there, but for a game warden, darkness is a friend. From the shadows of the pines, he watched for a while to get some idea of who he’d be dealing with.
He saw 10-12 men milling around and four deer hanging. Several deer rifles were leaned against nearby trees.
He was close enough to see that the deer weren’t tagged, and the men were al ready deep into the beer and the whisky.
There were no cell phones back then. The brick-sized portable radio he carried was useless, and no one knew where he was.
He saw an old man sitting in a chair. After watching for about 10-15 minutes, Bubba made his presence known.
Walking in amongst them, Bubba said, “State Game Warden. How y’all doing tonight?” Nobody said nuthin’.
Bubba said, “I need to take a look at y’all’s deer,” and that’s what he did.
None of them were tagged.
Still without saying anything, the men moved close to their rifles. Bubba was at the center of their circle.
Finally, the old man broke the silence, saying, “You’re either the stupidest &*^%$#, or you have the biggest set of %@!!$ of anybody I ever knew.”
He continued, “You came in on us, ALONE?”
This wasn’t good. He knew he was in a bind and didn’t really know how to go about getting out of it. From somewhere, he came up with, “What makes you think I’m alone?”
The men looked around and laughed. The old man said, “You’re the only one here.”
Without missing a beat, Bubba said, “No. I’m here with Mr. Smith, Mr. Wesson, and six of their friends.”
Now, for those of you at home doing the math, you’ll notice that Bubba was - short of a really fast reload - about four-to-six friends short of being able to cover everybody.
You gotta do the best you can with what you have, though, and that’s what he did.
The old man chuckled. He must’ve appreciated Bubba’s bravado, because tensions soon eased. Bubba wrote four men for untagged deer before happily hiking out of there.
By the time Bubba got back to his car, the temperature had dropped significantly. It was COLD, but he was dripping with sweat.
He tried to catch his breath, and said to himself, “What in the hell did I just do? That was stupid!”
He was nervous… shaking – everything he wasn’t doing when he was back at that camp.
The four guys who were ticketed paid their fines without any problems. About a year later, that old man got word to Bubba that he appreciated the way Bubba had treated them that night. Indeed, Bubba treated them with respect, handled his business, and got the heck out of there.
John Wayne once said, “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.”
Bubba, and just about anyone who has ever worn a badge, knows that to be true.
