MOH Doc Ballard MO State Fair

[river rat]

MO State Fair! By far the Best State Fair I have ever attended. Meet Doc Ballard! Was a true Honorhttp://www.cmohs.org/recipient-detai...d-donald-e.php

[Seajack]

That's awesome!

[agonyea]

What courage, and total disregarde for his own safety!
A great example to follow.










Hospital Corpsman Second Class Donald Everett Ballard, the son of a Navy man, graduated from North Kansas High School on June 1963. He worked in a dental laboratory for two and a half years, before he enlisted in the Regular Navy in December 1965. He received his recruit training at the Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, and attended the Naval Hospital Corps School there before transferring to the Naval Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, for four months. He joined the 2d Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, reporting for duty with the 3d Battalion, 4th Marines, 3d Marine Division for service in the Quang Tri Province, Vietnam, in January 1968.

On 16 May 1968, companies M and I were moving from the Khe Sanh Combat Base to Hill 689 to rejoin the remainder of the 3d Battalion in Quang Tri. As Ballard and two other men who had assisted him in treating heat casualties returned to their platoon from the evacuation landing zone near Khe Sanh, a North Vietnamese Army (NVA) unit ambushed the companies. A heavy barrage of enemy fire caused numerous casualties. Ballard quickly spotted a Marine who sorely needed help and managed to move across the fire-swept terrain to the wounded man without getting hurt himself. After dressing the wounds, he directed four other Marines to carry the casualty to a safer place. While the men prepared to evacuate the wounded man, an NVA soldier suddenly emerged from the bushes, attacking with a Chicom grenade and gunfire. Ballard immediately returned fire, killing the NVA soldier. He warned the other Marines that the thrown grenade was about to detonate and threw himself upon the lethal explosive, which would have killed probably all of them. But, the grenade failed to detonate, and Ballard stood up calmly and continued treating the wounded.

Ballard was wounded three times in Vietnam during 1968. In the first two incidents, he returned to duty with his unit, but after the third, he was evacuated to Okinawa. After two months, he returned to the U.S. to work at the Naval Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and was released to inactive duty in the Naval Reserve. Ballard received the Medal of Honor from President Richard M. Nixon at the White House on 14 May 1970

1970, Ballard received the Navy Medal of Honor from President Richard M. Nixon and General Westmoreland. He then left the United States Navy and enlisted in Army officer candidate school. Westmoreland offered Ballard a direct commission; however Ballard turned it down for personal reasons. Ballard later joined the Kansas National Guard, and served as an ambulance platoon leader, company commander, and was tasked with creating the new 'Medical Detachment 5', a unit which performs medicals on Guard members in order to save the cost of contracting outside medical help, and of which he was the first member and commander.

On April 5, 1998, Ballard was promoted to colonel by Major General James F. Reuger and served as Special Assistant to the Adjutant General until his retirement in 2000. Inducted into the National Guard Hall of Fame in November 2001, Ballard is the only living Kansas Guardsman to have received the Medal of Honor. He is also the subject of a memorial statue at the National Medical War Memorial in Kansas City, depicting Ballard during the action for which he received the Medal of Honor