thedrifter
06-20-08, 08:20 AM
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa (June 20, 2008) -- People are defined not by the situations they find themselves in but by how they handle those situations. This is what Medal of Honor recipient Donald Ballard stressed during his visit to Okinawa June 12-14.
Ballard, one of only three living corpsman awarded the Medal of Honor, toured military bases on Okinawa delivering words of encouragement and enjoying a sense of camaraderie among sailors and Marines alike.
Ballard was awarded the Medal of Honor on May 14, 1970 by then President Richard Nixon in recognition of his actions in Vietnam.
The main purpose of his visit to Okinawa was an invitation to be the guest of honor during the 110th Corpsman Ball June 13 at the Butler Officers' Club.
"When I was asked to come out here, I jumped at the chance without hesitation," Ballard said. "Coming back here is like coming back to a family reunion, because you're all my family."
The Missouri native enlisted in the Navy as a dental assistant in 1965 with hopes of becoming a dentist. But because of an abundance of dental assistants, "they told me I was going to be a 'corpsman'," Ballard said. "I had no idea what that was supposed to mean. But they sent me to surgical school and told me I'd be sent to a medical battalion-in the rear with the gear, so I figured I'd give it my best shot."
Ballard was studying orthopedic and general operations at Surgical Assistant School when he received news that would
drastically change his military career and his life.
"They spent a lot of money sending me to surgical school so I thought that's what they'd do with me at a hospital in the rear," Ballard said. "But they didn't need me there; they needed me out on the front lines. So all of a sudden I was a line corpsman with 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines. I had no desire to go into the Marines, I mean, I joined the Navy for a reason-and that was to stay out of the Army," he said.
However Ballard's attitude changed as he became attached to the Marines of M Company, 3rd Bn.
"After serving with Marines for a while, there became a bonding that was a closeness that I'd never experienced, and I fell in love with the Marine Corps," he said.
In 1967 3rd Bn., 4th Marines, was sent to Vietnam where Ballard was wounded during a firefight and subsequently awarded the first of three Purple Hearts.
But despite the hardships, his toughest lay ahead.
On May 16, 1968, just after medically evacuating two Marines for heat exhaustion, Ballard's battalion was ambushed by North Vietnamese troops brandishing automatic weapons and grenades. The unit incurred heavy casualties immediately. Earlier in the day the ambush occurred, the area had been heavily bombed by U.S. forces leaving several large craters in the ground. In a desperate effort to find cover, Ballard moved a group of wounded Marines into one of the craters and began medical treatment. While treating a Marine for a leg wound, a grenade rolled into the crater under the Marine's other leg and exploded. After recovering from the blast, Ballard continued treating the Marine, and while applying a tourniquet, saw another grenade tossed into the crater.
"They knew where we were at, we couldn't see them, but they could sure see us," Ballard said. "It hit me in the helmet, landed on my shoulder and fell down to the ground. So I picked it up and threw it back. Looking back it was pretty stupid on my part, but I didn't have many choices. I was able to throw it away just before it went off," he said.
Immediately, Ballard returned to treat the wounded Marine when he heard another Marine yell "Doc, grenade!"
"I turned around and there was another grenade between us, it would have killed all six of us, I had to spin around to grab it and when I did I thought the thing was going to kill us, I really did," Ballard explained. "So I grabbed the grenade and pulled it under my flack jacket thinking that it would absorb the shock and maybe I'd live through it, but at least maybe it would save the other Marines."
With the grenade tucked under his flak, Ballard said he had a moment of clarity about what he was doing.
"If you have time to think, you've got time to react," he said. "So I rolled up onto my patient and I flung the thing away, and as soon as I released it, and got some air to it-it detonated."
Ballard said that his Medal of Honor citation does an OK job of summing up the event, but does not paint a completely accurate picture of what happened.
"If you read my citation, it says that I jumped on the grenade and then calmly arose to treat my patients," he explained. "I didn't calmly do anything; I moved as fast as I could. That was the scariest thing in my life. Sometimes you're just faced with situations that you have to deal with to the best of your ability - you just have to do what you think is right at that time - that's all I did."
Ballard later returned to the United States after being wounded again near the end of 1968 and was assigned to the "blue side" - a unit away from Marines. Ballard said he was not able to make the transition.
"That's the reason I got out of the Navy," he said. "Because they would not leave me on the 'green side.'"
It was at this time Army recruiters approached Ballard with an enlisted to officer program enlistment incentive.
Ballard knew he wanted to make the military a career so he decided he would "join the Army after all," he said.
Ballard retired as an Army colonel from the Kansas National Guard in 2000 after 35 years of service.
The scope of Ballard's experiences and career provided a very memorable experience for those present at the ball.
"We simply couldn't have asked for a better guest of honor to speak at our ball than a corpsman who won the Medal of Honor," said Petty Officer 3rd Class Jorge Talavera, a hospital corpsman with 3rd Medical Battalion, 3rd Marine Logistics Group. "It was amazing to have the once in a lifetime chance to meet a true hero and listen to him impart the wisdom he has gathered from all of his life experiences."
Ballard, one of only three living corpsman awarded the Medal of Honor, toured military bases on Okinawa delivering words of encouragement and enjoying a sense of camaraderie among sailors and Marines alike.
Ballard was awarded the Medal of Honor on May 14, 1970 by then President Richard Nixon in recognition of his actions in Vietnam.
The main purpose of his visit to Okinawa was an invitation to be the guest of honor during the 110th Corpsman Ball June 13 at the Butler Officers' Club.
"When I was asked to come out here, I jumped at the chance without hesitation," Ballard said. "Coming back here is like coming back to a family reunion, because you're all my family."
The Missouri native enlisted in the Navy as a dental assistant in 1965 with hopes of becoming a dentist. But because of an abundance of dental assistants, "they told me I was going to be a 'corpsman'," Ballard said. "I had no idea what that was supposed to mean. But they sent me to surgical school and told me I'd be sent to a medical battalion-in the rear with the gear, so I figured I'd give it my best shot."
Ballard was studying orthopedic and general operations at Surgical Assistant School when he received news that would
drastically change his military career and his life.
"They spent a lot of money sending me to surgical school so I thought that's what they'd do with me at a hospital in the rear," Ballard said. "But they didn't need me there; they needed me out on the front lines. So all of a sudden I was a line corpsman with 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines. I had no desire to go into the Marines, I mean, I joined the Navy for a reason-and that was to stay out of the Army," he said.
However Ballard's attitude changed as he became attached to the Marines of M Company, 3rd Bn.
"After serving with Marines for a while, there became a bonding that was a closeness that I'd never experienced, and I fell in love with the Marine Corps," he said.
In 1967 3rd Bn., 4th Marines, was sent to Vietnam where Ballard was wounded during a firefight and subsequently awarded the first of three Purple Hearts.
But despite the hardships, his toughest lay ahead.
On May 16, 1968, just after medically evacuating two Marines for heat exhaustion, Ballard's battalion was ambushed by North Vietnamese troops brandishing automatic weapons and grenades. The unit incurred heavy casualties immediately. Earlier in the day the ambush occurred, the area had been heavily bombed by U.S. forces leaving several large craters in the ground. In a desperate effort to find cover, Ballard moved a group of wounded Marines into one of the craters and began medical treatment. While treating a Marine for a leg wound, a grenade rolled into the crater under the Marine's other leg and exploded. After recovering from the blast, Ballard continued treating the Marine, and while applying a tourniquet, saw another grenade tossed into the crater.
"They knew where we were at, we couldn't see them, but they could sure see us," Ballard said. "It hit me in the helmet, landed on my shoulder and fell down to the ground. So I picked it up and threw it back. Looking back it was pretty stupid on my part, but I didn't have many choices. I was able to throw it away just before it went off," he said.
Immediately, Ballard returned to treat the wounded Marine when he heard another Marine yell "Doc, grenade!"
"I turned around and there was another grenade between us, it would have killed all six of us, I had to spin around to grab it and when I did I thought the thing was going to kill us, I really did," Ballard explained. "So I grabbed the grenade and pulled it under my flack jacket thinking that it would absorb the shock and maybe I'd live through it, but at least maybe it would save the other Marines."
With the grenade tucked under his flak, Ballard said he had a moment of clarity about what he was doing.
"If you have time to think, you've got time to react," he said. "So I rolled up onto my patient and I flung the thing away, and as soon as I released it, and got some air to it-it detonated."
Ballard said that his Medal of Honor citation does an OK job of summing up the event, but does not paint a completely accurate picture of what happened.
"If you read my citation, it says that I jumped on the grenade and then calmly arose to treat my patients," he explained. "I didn't calmly do anything; I moved as fast as I could. That was the scariest thing in my life. Sometimes you're just faced with situations that you have to deal with to the best of your ability - you just have to do what you think is right at that time - that's all I did."
Ballard later returned to the United States after being wounded again near the end of 1968 and was assigned to the "blue side" - a unit away from Marines. Ballard said he was not able to make the transition.
"That's the reason I got out of the Navy," he said. "Because they would not leave me on the 'green side.'"
It was at this time Army recruiters approached Ballard with an enlisted to officer program enlistment incentive.
Ballard knew he wanted to make the military a career so he decided he would "join the Army after all," he said.
Ballard retired as an Army colonel from the Kansas National Guard in 2000 after 35 years of service.
The scope of Ballard's experiences and career provided a very memorable experience for those present at the ball.
"We simply couldn't have asked for a better guest of honor to speak at our ball than a corpsman who won the Medal of Honor," said Petty Officer 3rd Class Jorge Talavera, a hospital corpsman with 3rd Medical Battalion, 3rd Marine Logistics Group. "It was amazing to have the once in a lifetime chance to meet a true hero and listen to him impart the wisdom he has gathered from all of his life experiences."