Navy medics get pep talk from Medal of Honor recipient

PORTSMOUTH

The ambush happened on a wet afternoon in May 1968 in Vietnam's Quang Tri province. Navy medic Don Ballard was 22, one of the oldest in his company of Marines.

They were taking fire when something knocked Ballard's helmet. He was hunched in a crater from an earlier explosion, trying to treat a casualty. He looked down and found a grenade.

He shouted a warning, then hurled it as far as he could and went back to work.

That's when he saw the second grenade. Unsure how long it had been there and how much time he had until it would explode, he threw himself over it. It was the only sure way to protect his patient.

By chance, the grenade malfunctioned, and he survived. He was later awarded the Medal of Honor.

"I didn't have a whole lot of time to think about it," he said Monday, speaking at a conference for Navy medics at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center. "But I made a choice."

Navy medics - or hospital corpsmen, as they're formally called - are often the service's first responders. On deployed ships, they're usually the lone health care worker. On the battlefield with Marines, they can mean the difference between life and death.

Ballard told his audience not to underestimate themselves, and to be proud of what their ranks accomplish with relatively little training.

"You're part of a very elite group," he said. "It's a huge responsibility. If a Navy cook screws up the mashed potatoes, it's OK. If you screw up, it's not."

Ballard is one of two living Navy medics who received the Medal of Honor, the military's highest award for valor. He also has three Purple Hearts, one for each of the times he was wounded during the 10 months he served in Vietnam.

In at least one of the instances, he said, a Navy medic saved his life.

Ballard, now 64, grew up in Kansas City, Mo. He joined the Navy hoping to become a dental technician. But when boot camp ended, he learned he would instead become a hospital corpsman.

Three years later, he landed in Vietnam.

In his talk, he candidly recounted the bloody days he spent there, including the time he was shot and the first time he killed a North Vietnamese soldier. "It immediately changes you."

Ballard said he probably would have died the day he threw himself on the grenade if not for the rainy weather. He believes water caused the grenade to detonate late; when it didn't go off underneath him, he tossed it away like he'd done with the previous one. It then exploded. "I was lucky," he said.

Ballard advised his audience to get as much education and training as possible while in the service, and to try to always put themselves in their patients' shoes.

After being injured himself, he began treating his patients differently, he said. "I understood so much more after that."

After Vietnam, Ballard worked in a military hospital in Tennessee. He spent five years in the Navy before joining the Army, where he served 29 years, some of it as a reservist and in the National Guard. He retired as a colonel in 2000.

Six years later, at age 60, he went back to school to become a funeral director. He now owns a funeral home and cemeteries in Kansas City that serve military veterans.

He is also raising money to build a memorial in Kansas City to honor medical workers who have died in combat.

Corinne Reilly (757) 446-2949, corinne.reilly@pilotonline.com