Navy medics get pep talk from Medal of Honor recipient

Navy medics get pep talk from Medal of Honor recipient

By Corinne Reilly
The Virginian-Pilot
© November 30, 2010
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.
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Navy medics get pep talk from Medal of Honor recipient