It is all About Love

In this episode of the Growing Our Future Podcast, host Aaron Alejandro interviews Lieutenant Colonel Don "Doc" Ballard, a Medal of Honor recipient and Vietnam War hero. Doc shares his upbringing surrounded by military veterans, emphasizing the values of caregiving, community support, and gratitude.

Despite humble beginnings, Doc started his own business at 14, teaching him the importance of hard work and entrepreneurship. Doc joined the Navy to fund his education and found himself in Vietnam as a corpsman, where he displayed unwavering dedication, compassion, and bravery in treating wounded Marines. The episode provides a powerful glimpse into the life of a true American hero, highlighting his resilience, camaraderie, and commitment to saving lives on the battlefield.

This episode offers a glimpse into the life and experiences of Col. Don "Doc" Ballard, a Medal of Honor recipient, and underscores the sacrifices and challenges faced by those who serve in the military during wartime. The discussion highlights the importance of gratitude, the value of positive relationships, and the courage of those who dedicate their lives to their country.

Story Notes:

* Shared Values and Positivity

* Transition to Military Service

* Becoming a Corpsman

* Being Out in the Field

Learn More at:

https://mytexasffa.org/

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Welcome to the Growing Our Future podcast. In this show, the Texas FFA Foundation will take on a journey of exploration into agricultural science, education, leadership development and insights from subject matter experts and sponsors who provide the fuel to make dreams come true. Here's your host, Erin Alejandro.

Speaker 2: 0:30

Well, good morning, good afternoon or good evening or whenever you may be tuning into the Growing Our Future podcast, I tell you we just love this podcast and the opportunity to reach out to our friends and subject matter experts and have them join us and just share. I love it because it's just a conversation, we just talk. But what I'll tell you is, if you'll listen to these conversations and you hear from these great guests that we have, they're what I call seeds of greatness. There are things that they're going to say that if you put them in your life and you plant them in your nurturum, they're going to grow incredible things. Like I always say, if you want to know what the future is, grow it. That's what this podcast is about.

Speaker 2: 1:16

Today we are honored and I mean literally honored, honored to have a very special guest. I'm going to say this he's a guest, but I'm also proud to say he's also my friend. It's not very often you get to meet a true American hero and today's guest is one of those. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you, colonel Don Dock Ballard and, most importantly, this man is a Medal of Honor recipient. Dock, thank you for joining us.

Speaker 3: 1:56

Well, thank you, lieutenant Colonel, don't matter until the paycheck comes in. There was a day that I would have been more angry if somebody called me a Lieutenant Colonel, because I was that too. You know what I'm saying, but I'm not trying to correct you, I just like to get. I want to get an attaboy for the effort that I put in to making full bird, you know.

Speaker 2: 2:19

I want you to get that attaboy and I'm glad you corrected me and you know me well enough to know I've given you permission to do so.

Speaker 3: 2:27

It wouldn't have mattered. I don't need permission.

Speaker 2: 2:31

That's why I like this guy. All right, dock. So we're going to start off and everybody that's on this show gets the same first question. All right, here we go, dock. What are you grateful for today?

Speaker 3: 2:48

Wow, that's a powerful question. The most gratefulness I have, I think, is just growing at the time that we have that we've experienced here in the last 50 years, knowing that the country is developing into different things and knowing that we've got good people that are trying to make a difference, trying to keep country on the right course. There's a lot to be grateful for. I'm blessed. You know there's. I don't know that I could single out one thing. I love family, I love country, I love friends and I certainly love America. You know it's.

Speaker 3: 3:37

You know what I used to be grateful for is being diminished all the time. You know it's being. We're losing some of the reason to be grateful in this country, unfortunately, but I still believe in my heart that Americans want to do the right thing for the right reason, and so that's what I'm grateful for is that I surround myself with the people that want to do the right thing for the right reason, because I believe life is about choices and you know we pick our friends most of the time and acquaintances. We don't always get to pick who we associate with, but I do my best to be thankful for my friends that like minded, you know, trying to accomplish the same like minded achievements for this country.

Speaker 2: 4:30

Well, I'm right there with you. There's what is that saying? Your vibe attracts your tribe, and you know, I think that to your point. You know I like to be around positive people. I don't know if you agree with them, but I like to be around them. They're still positive, you know, and I like a good discussion.

Speaker 2: 4:49

You learn things, but I like what you said and I really appreciate that because you know, when I think of our country and I think of all the liberties, the blessings, you know, I was talking to a bunch of kids the other day and I asked them I said how many of you like to be able to choose what sports you play, or what food you want to eat, or what job you have, or whether or not you go to church? And everybody's like, yeah, I like all that. I said. Don't ever forget that, because that is the beauty of liberty, that is the beauty of the incredible gift that our forefathers sought, fought for and folks like you ensured that we had. So I just want you to know how much I appreciate that, because I'm grateful for all those things to thank you.

Speaker 3: 5:36

Thank you For sure. You remind me of a lot more than I should be thankful for, but I pretty well summed it up. I think it's around positive people, you know, not the do-gooders, the people that mean well and do good, you know, but their efforts where their heart is.

Speaker 2: 5:56

I think you and I talked about this recently on a phone call. But I know that people that are grateful, people that are grateful, tend to be happier, they tend to be more energetic, they tend to be more hopeful. So, to your point, I like hanging around people like that.

Speaker 3: 6:14

It's a whole lot better than being around the negative people that the naysayers and the people that are always finding fault. Yeah, I'm a thousand percent with you there.

Speaker 2: 6:27

All right, Doc. So I've already messed up the title and I'm sure not going to mess up the story. So there's a lot of people out there that will probably Google your name. They're probably going to say well, who is this guy? Let me check him out. But I don't think there's anything more powerful than a personal testimony. And so, Doc, what I'd like to ask you to do is kind of walk us through. You know, where did you grow up? You know, tell us a little bit about what school was like for you back in the day. And then, obviously, you made your way into the military, which took you to Vietnam, which took you to a very heroic act. But if you would just kind of walk us through that pathway so that the listeners and the friends here can get to know Doc Ballard.

Speaker 3: 7:16

Okay, well, probably the easiest thing to start with is my childhood in the education arena, actually, because I was raised with a bunch of veterans that came home from the Second World War. There was not one member of our family male species, of course that had not served in the military. Well, I was exposed from a very young, tender age about the military and what the purpose of the military was, you know, and how grateful that I ought to be for what the military had done for me and you know. And then I was able to see a lot of changes that took place, but I was always grounded with my family of being a provider, a caregiver or a community supporter, or, you know, I joined the Boy Scouts, you know. I mean all kids go through the scouting. I was a Cub Scout, you know, and all of my training and raising and everything was to be somebody to be available to help some other person in need, you know. So that was my basic understanding of life, was it's not about you, it's about how much you can contribute to making a better place to live and grow up. And so, you know, I went through the normal school. I was not necessarily intelligent, you know. I'm still not today. You know I don't want to be the most intelligent guy in the room because you don't learn when you're expecting that. I certainly want to surround myself with more intelligent people than myself and I've done that all my life to learn. I love older people. That's experienced. And why would I want to reinvent the wheel when they already know how to do it? You know so and I'm grateful to have the time with the elderly people. We call them elderly now, but you know, and I was when I was a kid, anybody was 40, 50 years old was elderly, you know, and I'm far past that now. But again I'm reflecting on my childhood and how much I really enjoyed being around knowledgeable, caregiving people.

Speaker 3: 9:43

After school I worked. I owned my own first company when I was 14. I had two employees and I wasn't even old enough to drive the company truck that I bought. I did lawn maintenance and gutter cleaning and odd jobs, you know, and I hired people that had driver's license, you know, to get me around, you know. And so I've understood the entrepreneurial spirit from a tender age, you know, knowing that because we didn't grow up with a lot of money, my dad had a job. He worked in a warehouse in Teamsters Union and we had one car, so I ended up getting out of the Scouts for that very reason. I couldn't get access to somebody to drive me to Scouting, you know, and I couldn't participate as much as I would like to have. We moved, and you know so a lot of. You know you got to be able to adapt and overcome, you know, make the best of the situations for your benefit, you know.

Speaker 3: 10:50

So high school came at a cost, you know, between young dumb trying to get through school, like I said, I wasn't all that bright but, you know, I made it through. Okay, I didn't have the interest to want to learn from the teachers, I guess. And if I look back now, I would love to pay attention, more attention to what the teachers were saying and take their, you know, kind of absorb their knowledge that they were trying to offer, because I didn't do that very well. I, you know I didn't need it. You know, at the time I just a lawn mowing job. You know, when I got out of high school, I mean during after class, you know, even in grade school, at the age of 12 and 14, I was busy, you know, and 14, I had obligations that I, you know, wanted to get out of school earlier or whatever, to go, you know, cut the grass and things. So my life was, was all based off of earning the money, you know, and being a caregiver. I enrolled in school, enrolled in college. I wanted to be. I guess I should back up and say I ended up getting married. And when I got married, no kids or anything. I wanted to, you know, continue on the path that I wanted.

Speaker 3: 12:12

And my personal dentist that worked on me when I was a kid was an Army reservist and so he had a brag wall. I love my flag behind me, but I really loved his brag wall because he had all kinds of photographs that influenced me to want to join the military. And so he asked me one day what I, what my intentions were, and I said I want to be a dentist. You know, I want to be an orthodontist. And he said, well, the military will pay for your education and all you got to do is pay back two years for every one year college. And I said, oh, I'll keep that in mind.

Speaker 3: 12:49

And I didn't. I really didn't have an ambition to get into the military, but it was an option. My wife got pregnant and then, you know, back then it was going to cost me 80 bucks to pay for that kid delivery and I didn't have $80, you know. And so no insurance because and who needed it, you know? So I ended up, you know, going to the recruiter to find out just what I could do in the military, to earn tuition, college tuition.

Speaker 3: 13:20

So I dropped out of school and went into the Navy and the Navy had promised me that I could get the degree I could finish my education, become a dentist. Navy was going to, you know, pay for my education. So the long and the short of all those lies were they needed, corman, but they didn't tell us in the beginning that we were going to go fight in Vietnam. You know, I joined in 1965. I didn't even know Vietnam was on the map. I, you know, wouldn't what geography wasn't one of my studies that I paid attention to. So when I got into the Navy and they spent quite a bit of money teaching me to be an orthopedic surgeon assistant, you know, long before there was paramedics or EMTs or anything, you know, corman, when we went out to the fleet, we were the only thing on the ship to keep people alive. You know, there was no doctors on the three ships that I served on.

Speaker 2: 14:23

Hey, doc, real quick. I mean I don't mean to interrupt but I want to do something here because we got a lot of younger listeners and you said something there and I want to make sure I think it's real important that we put that into context. When you hear doc say Corman, he's talking about medical staff, he's talking about he was the go to guy if you were injured, if somebody was shot, if somebody was hurt, they would yell Corman. And I know that that just gives me chills just to even say that. And you may allude to a little bit of that, doc, but I'm going to tell you, young people, when you hear this generation talk about Corman, understand. When you're hurt, this is the guy you called. I want to make sure people understand that. Go ahead, doc.

Speaker 3: 15:12

No, I'll jump on that as well, because a Corman was the only medical asset that would keep you alive in any kind of situation. Whether it was a board ship, whether you were on liberty, whether you was in Vietnam, a Corman was the doctor, and that's why I ended up getting called Doc. The Marines couldn't spell doctor and they couldn't remember my name, so Doc was an easy way around all that. So I still, to this day, carried the name Doc and I earned it back in the military. That's a very prestigious job and it's more like we talked about more caregiving than anything else. I was wounded eight times trying to get the people to treat them, so I would have been better off staying back in my hole and hiding. But that's not what I got paid for. I didn't even get a weapon.

Speaker 3: 16:13

When I went into country, they gave me a 45 without a holster, without a magazine and without bullets. Now tell me what that 45 is worth. It ain't worth a damn, but they had to give it to me because it had to issue it to me. Well, anyway, I kept it in my pack most of the time. I never pulled it out because it was worthless. Never could find any rounds for it Anyway. So the whole point was adapt and overcome. A Corman is very, very respected profession, especially in the Navy and in the Marine Corps. The Army looks at the Corman because we're better trained than the Army was. Not so much anymore. We're all going through the same schools, but in the beginning we had to be at they all to know they all the capable.

Speaker 2: 17:09

Go ahead and tell us. So you're now stationed in Vietnam. You're starting to see some combat. You now know where the country is. Like you said, you didn't know where it was when you started. You know where it's at now and it's becoming very real, Kind of walk us. Walk us through what led to you receiving the Medal of Honor.

Speaker 3: 17:32

Okay, I suppose it ought to be known. I fell in love with the guys I served with, because Marines, their job was to kill and to protect the bases and that meant killing by the came on it, you know, unauthorized. So they're just a bunch of kids, and I fell in love with them. I was older than they were Now. I had a wife at that time. I had two kids. I had college only had two years of college, but wife two years and college. So I had more worldly experiences than these 18 year olds right now, the high school kids. You know so. Some people even referred to me as the old man because I was 21,. You know so. It was all done. Everything was done out of love and caring and being there for them.

Speaker 3: 18:31

You know, when I got into Vietnam I had no idea where I was going to be stationed or anything. They came and got me a helicopter and I suppose I ought to back up you can edit it out later but when I left Okinawa, we got on a C-130 that flew over to Vietnam and that was just a putrid smell. The whole trip was just make you want to vomit. We couldn't figure out what was going on. Well, we had flown over on the aircraft that was shuttling dead bodies from Vietnam to Okinawa, and then they were bringing, picking up the replacements and so bringing them back to Vietnam, and that place stunk dead bodies, you know, laying there for how long, you know. So that was my first experience of Vietnam was death. And we landed and I sit there for six hours waiting for somebody to come and get me, and with no food, no drink, nothing, just on the tarmac there, which is asphalt parking lot. And so they finally came and got me in a helicopter. We were flying back and we landed in the rear area of Battalion Age Station. I spent two days there in the Battalion Age Station, treating, you know, learning a little bit, trying to learn from the old guys, experienced, not necessarily old in age, but old in experience what the job was all like.

Speaker 3: 20:00

And my first real assignment was I was separating out military gear from civilian property and inventorying the civilian property. While both sides inventorying it Come to find out that was the people I was there to replace, they had been killed and I was getting ready to send their stuff home to their families. Hello, welcome to Vietnam. You know that was my first job, and so I said you know, can you get me out of here? Get me doing something else, you know, because I was involved and sick, called during the day, but there wasn't that many people in the rear, you know, most of them were out on the front line. So I didn't have much to do. I wanted to get out there. So I got on a burden, went out to foot.

Speaker 3: 20:44

They were going to assign me to Charlie Med, which is an underground hospital, you know, charlie Med, and on the way there our helicopter got shot down. So we crippled our South over to a Marine controlled hill and that's where we landed, crash landed, you know, and I went from junior corpsman to senior corpsman right there in 20 minutes, 30 minutes, because the corpsman that came to get me was wounded so bad that he lost both arms and both legs and so I was trying to treat him and get the other. We had like 16 Marines on that same bird, so there were several casualties. So I had my first real combat experience of injuries right there in the second or third day in country. And once I got there, the Marines were glad to see me because they didn't have any corpsmen. Their corpsmen had all been killed and so I became their corpsman.

Speaker 3: 21:52

I just, you know, I had no place to go. I met and backed out all the injured that I had brought in and so I stayed there for the night and I never left. You know, I stayed with that unit. I was told later that I was AWOL. I was AWOL and I wasn't supposed to be there. I was supposed to be in a Charlie Med because of my surgical skills. The Navy had spent all this money teaching me how to be orthopedic and neurosurgeon assistant, you know, and I never got to use much of that in combat, you know, didn't need it. You know the difference in a corpsman out is like a paramedic on the street. You know. They don't do surgery in the ambulance, you know, they just keep you alive to get you back to where the real professional doctors can better treat you, you know.

Speaker 3: 22:43

And they have better equipment, better knowledge, better time, they're not getting shot at. You know, there's a whole different type of environment difference between combat treatment and back in the rear facility treatment. So I spent the entire time that I was in Vietnam with this unit and we traveled. There was a lot of good, bad and ugly situations. We lost over 70% of our battalion, 70. That was close to 800 men. We lost in three months 800, 750, 800 men that I had to put in body bags, you know, just in three months.

Speaker 3: 23:31

I mean you talk about death, you talk about injury, you talk about pain and suffering. I don't know what my mental state could have been or should have been, but I know what it was. I was depressed greatly because I couldn't think that I could not do the best I could for everybody. I couldn't be there for everybody. I had to somehow play God and treat some people longer than you know. By doing that I ignored other people, you know. And so there was times when they call triage, when you have to sort the patients based on their particular emergency needs and their challenges, and so, you know, it became a way of life as dealing with death. So we constantly, we had no perimeter, we had no safety. We had no constantino wire out with us. We would spend the time up to six weeks, three weeks, six weeks out in the field and looking for the bad guys and if we found them we engaged. We didn't, we went back into what was called the Controllment or the rear area and that was inside Bob Wire. So we, you know you would feel safe when you got in that Bob Wire falsely feel safe but we would leave that compound every day to go out and look for Charlie. Charlie was the bad guy and my job was not to find them, my job was not to kill them, my job was to save the Marines. That was my only job.

Speaker 3: 25:20

I'm sorry to say that I killed six Vietnamese men myself and three of them was with my knife, you know, and that's kind of too close and up front, you know, too close for me. I wasn't getting paid for that job, you know, but it was survival skills. It was all about survival skills, you know. So I've often said that. You know, I'm often came home and everybody was against Vietnam. Well, you know they would ask me, you know, challenging questions, and I'd say I was wounded eight times, nearly dead seven. I killed three men. Three of them was with my knife. And you expect me to come home and be Johnny from the grocery store or Johnny from the filling station. Johnny's changed.

Speaker 3: 26:10

You know I can't be what I was before I went over there. I've experienced way too much trauma and mind-altering. I don't even know what to call it. Ptsd is what they label it. But you know I suffered and I still, to this day, have PTSD challenges, you know. So it's with you the rest of your life, because there's all the time that something's coming up to remind me that you know, I lost a friend, or I lost a loved one, or I lost, you know, a brother in arms. You know.

Speaker 3: 26:46

So the get back to the real crux of what you're wanting to know is we left our camp and we were moving from point A to point Z and checking in between each time to let people know that we were on the move, when we had three new replacements, three guys that come in from the rear area, and when they came from the rear they weren't acclimated so they couldn't adapt to all the exercise and the moving and the hiking, and then the heat and the humidity and the jungle, you know. So they fell out with heat exhaustion when I made them had heat stroke, so we had to medivac them out. I medivac them out and I had six Marines with me as my body guards, you know, and one of them was a radio guy that would call in the helicopter. And so we called in the helicopter and medivac these patients, these heat casually patients, and then our job was to catch up with the unit. So we kind of moved out and I got to thinking about that and didn't bother me at the time, but the more you think about it, there was six of us out there by ourselves. You know what a little ammo we had wouldn't have stopped much. You know we were very vulnerable and you know God was with us because we saw plenty of enemy and we hid so they didn't find us.

Speaker 3: 28:21

But we ended up joining up with our unit and the tail end of it, because we had three companies online and I joined up with Sister Company and then, when they stopped to take a break, we kept on going through their line to get back up to where I started that morning, you know, to back up to my company. And before I got up there they were attacked and the enemy had this tactic of popping up out of their hidden spider traps or holes in the ground tunnels, and they would shoot and then drop back down and the Marines would start. They'd turn around and start firing each other. You know, we caused ourselves a lot of deaths and injuries from friendly fire and I don't know why they call it friendly fire, except it was our own people shooting ourselves. And so we, finally, you know, now I'm trying to treat them, you know, and treat them badly.

Speaker 3: 29:21

And the people that I was treating at the time I didn't know them all. You know, they were Marines and that's all I needed to know. And they were, but they weren't in my unit even because I had not gotten all the way back up to my unit. My job was to. When they got wounded, when we got shot at, we all dispersed, you know, because we, you know, one grenade would kill us all, you know. So we dispersed out, and then we also kind of set up a defense perimeter and tried to protect ourselves, you know.

Speaker 3: 29:53

And so when somebody got wounded out there, I had to get up out of my safe place and run up there to treat him, and enemy knew where he was because he shot him for crying out loud, you know. So most of the corpsmen got killed going to help a Marine and because the enemy just sat there waiting for the next duck to come along, you know, here comes another body. We already know how to kill. We got the range figured out. We, you know, we know where. Because we shot one guy, we know how to shoot the others.

Speaker 3: 30:27

So that's how I got most of my eight wounds was being shot running up to help somebody else and I'd get down as close to the ground as I could trying to treat them and then drag them down away from, you know, a safe into a safer area and pick them up in a fireman carry after I got down out of sight, and then carry them to a bomb crater that I had established for evacuation, you know, because it was below ground, it was concaved and it was relatively safe. It was better than laying out in the open, you know. So that's what my job was Go out and get them, treat them, bring them back or drag them back and treat them there. You know that was life saving requirements, treatment requirements for me.

Speaker 2: 31:15

What happened there that puts you in a position to make a decision? Tell me about the events that put you in a position to make a decision that warranted the Medal of Honor.

Speaker 3: 31:25

Nowhere on that medal does it say you have to be smart, just saying so. What had happened is I was carrying this Marine back into the bomb crater right. I pulled him off of my neck and was laying him on the ground when a grenade I'd laid him right on top of a grenade and then he had thrown in a grenade without anybody seeing it and I laid this guy right on top of it and when it went off it blew both of his legs off, it tore up the face off of the guy behind me and now I got two more patients and so I'm immediately trying to treat them and Tarnacus Bloodbite and Expander XIVES and managing the airway, keeping the guy breathing. I mean, it was hectic and everybody else was on the ready. Everybody else in that hole was a patient. They were out of the war, some of them had been shot with morphine and to eliminate their pain. They were worthless, they couldn't defend or they couldn't move, they couldn't hide, they couldn't do nothing. They were just laying there like a damn fish in a bowl and this enemy soldier had a hole close enough to us the tunnel entrance that he was able to raise the trap, throw the grenade and drop the trap, that door down. So when we had to look out trying to find him, there was nobody there to see. That was one of the jungle warfare tactics that they engaged with. So now I'm treating him.

Speaker 3: 33:08

While I'm on my knees treating him, a second grenade comes in and hits me in the helmet, falls right by my leg. I jokingly today say you know, not being a Marine, I didn't stick it in my pocket for a souvenir. You know, I was trying to pick on the Marines. I tried to deal with humor, you see what I'm saying. But anyway I realized that here this thing's going to blow up and it's going to kill us, certainly kill me. So when I reached down and grabbed it and I flung it, oh, that hurt. I flung the grenade out of the bomb carrier and it went off.

Speaker 3: 33:44

And so I'm back around, you know, finished treating him and the guy behind me, one of the patients, hollered out doc, doc. And I turned around and see what he wanted and there's another grenade laying behind me, just short behind me, I mean just barely out of my reach. I couldn't just grab it easily, so I had to launch for it and that took me off balance and I started to roll with it. I was going to roll over on my back, but instead of that I pulled it up under my chest. You know, I'm wearing that bulletproof vest, you know, and I pulled it up under my chest thinking well, you know, maybe this chest or this guard, this bulletproof vest, will protect me.

Speaker 3: 34:26

You know, and I got to thinking there and I had a piff of me, the good Lord said this is not smart, but we get rid of that thing. I had time to think about that For a split second or a split hour, I don't know how long it took, but I rolled over and had it on here, right here in my chest. I rolled over and I flung it again. I mean, it's a different one, but I flung it. I flung the grenade out of the bomb crater and in midair that grenade went off.

Speaker 2: 34:57

Wow.

Speaker 3: 34:58

Wow, you know I was messed up. You know I mean I had a job to do. I had to concentrate on saving these guys' life. I couldn't worry about what I had just done. By that time I had a Marine with a rifle and he was recovering. He was trying to suppress the enemy from throwing more grenades, you know, if he was looking for him, so if he popped up again he would have killed him. So that was you know. So I did get somebody there to help me and so, you know, I'm often asked so what'd you do? You know what I mean. You know.

Speaker 3: 35:35

The citation says I calmly arose and continued to treat the Marines, and I in defense I say it was hard to jump up fast when your pants was full of crap. So I had done crap my pants, literally. You know, I was a mess and I couldn't get it together, thinking about myself. I had to finish those treatment on the patients. You know, thank God I had something to keep me out of shell shock, or what they call PTSD today. I experienced it, but I dealt with it. You know, I got more important stuff to worry about than that, you know, and so my training and my desire to want to save lives kicked in instead of me worrying about what could have happened, you know.

Speaker 3: 36:27

So I was written up by the patients and down below us they were watching us from, you know, from down below, and they saw. They saw somebody throw the grenade out. They didn't know it was me. So when the officer came out, there was a major a Marine Corps major came out to interview the witnesses and he said I don't want to know what you think happened, I just want a statement that says what you actually saw.

Speaker 3: 36:58

So luckily there was three people there that actually saw me jump on it and what happened is I hollered their name when I jumped on it and they hid their head, you know, trying to protect their head. They didn't see that I got up and threw it away. Or I didn't get up, I rolled over and threw it away. You know I actually rolled up on the guy without any legs. You know I flipped the grenade out. So the citation is incorrect. It says it failed to go off. So I just calmly arose and went back to work and I asked the Marines later I said you think I just left the grenade laying there, not worrying about when it was going to go off.

Speaker 1: 37:40

You know, I mean why would I just leave it lay there?

Speaker 3: 37:44

Oh, I don't know, doc, I didn't see you. And that's when I learned that the major said don't tell me what you think happened, tell me what you saw. And, bearing your head, they saw nothing until I said, okay, I got rid of it, it's clear. And you know, they heard the grenade go off, but we had grenades all around us all the time, so that's and I got that.

Speaker 3: 38:10

I didn't even think that was worthy of the medal, you know. I mean, yeah, I was willing to give up my life, but I wasn't cognizant of that. I wasn't, I didn't premeditated, I didn't think, well, I'm going to go out and earn the medal of honor today. You know, I didn't think that I was trying to protect myself as much as I was the other people, I didn't. I didn't have any place to run to.

Speaker 3: 38:36

That grenade was going to kill all eight of us, you know, or damage. If it didn't kill us, it certainly made it a lot worse. So you know I didn't earn the medal. You know I don't think I earned the medal. I jumped on that grenade initially yes, initially to absorb the blast, and maybe I don't like to admit I was suicidal because I didn't attempt to commit suicide, but I, thinking about it later, that's what I did, you know. I threw myself on it to die and I just I had a hard time dealing with that, you know, because I had a wife, two kids. I wanted to get home. So my training and my desire to take care of people and my love for those guys motivated me to take the action that I did.

Speaker 2: 39:28

Doc, you probably said more here than you realize. I know you have been to our Texas FFA convention so you know the power in those blue and gold jackets. Love, we have those young people there, the ambassador, young people that work for the foundation, that take care of our guests. And one of the stories that I tell those kids and I share is from a book by Captain Sully who landed the plane in the Hudson.

Speaker 3: 39:58

Okay.

Speaker 2: 39:59

And you know, the plane is there and it hits the bird. The bird strike planes going down, they get everybody off the plane. And when they got to shore, a flight attendant gave Captain Sully a piece of paper that was folded in half and on the outside of the paper it said thank you. And on the inside of the paper it said when your values are clear, your choices are easy. Well said, in the moment, doc, you were just like Sully. In the moment you had a clear set of values and those values were to protect your fellow man. Your values, like you said, you loved them. Your values went all the way back to what you talked about the community that you serve, the positive difference you were taught to make. So in that moment, your choice was really easy, because it was all built into the DNA of who you are.

Speaker 3: 41:09

I don't know what to say, but yes.

Speaker 2: 41:12

Well, I just want to say thank you, because those are the kind of examples of heroism, of value system, and examples that we can all learn from. I share that story to finally tell this one, and then we'll be getting close to wrapping up. You know, doc and I were driving one time I'll never forget this. We were driving up to Arkansas and I was. You know I'm in awe that I'm with a Medal of Honor recipient. I want to honor him and learn from him and ask, like he talked about, learn from the people that have gone before you. And so I remember we were driving and I asked the question Doc, in our world we call you a hero, but I'm just curious as a hero, who do you call a hero? Who's a hero to you? And I'll never forget asking you that question. You said okay, alejandro, you got to, let me think about that.

Speaker 2: 42:14

And we drove on up to the event in Arkansas, bartlesville, and then on our way back, you said okay, I'm going to answer your question and I've never forgot your words. You said I thought about your question and here's the answer. You said anybody that goes above the call of duty is a hero. You said that could be a doctor, a parent, a teacher, a police officer, a fireman. You went on and on recognizing anybody that goes beyond the call of duty. You went beyond the call of duty. I go back to Sully's, to that story. When your values are clear, your choices are easy, and that's where heroes are made. That's powerful.

Speaker 3: 43:04

That's true. I'd like to be part of and I enjoyed being down there and speaking to the group and the kids and loving them and I saw value. I saw, I saw commitment. I saw great American. You know wannabes and no, they were great Americans, they weren't wannabes, they were great Americans, they were leaders. That's going to be our new leaders of this great country. You know, and I was so impressed and you know when you're around that kind of element, I was humble. You know I didn't do well at that age, I didn't have it together. You know I wouldn't have done as well as they did. I want you to know they impressed the hell out of me and you know it's just about love and their demonstration of love for this country and their fellow community members. You know, I would like to share that with every kid. I wish every kid was in the FAA or FFAF. Let me say it, you can strike that out Future farmers of America FFA right.

Speaker 2: 44:20

Right. Well, you know another question, doc, that I asked you. You and I talked. That day that you spoke and I'll never forget my first intern, tyler Koch, was an officer in the Marine Corps and the Marine Corps flew him to Corpus Christi and, if you recall, he was in his full military officer uniform when he read your accommodation. Yes, I remember.

Speaker 2: 44:45

And but the thing that I will never forget was those 10,000 plus people in that arena and everybody was on their feet and everybody applauded your coming to the podium to speak and you and I were talking. I think we were up in the hospitality, the VIP suite, and I remember you and I were talking. When you shared with me, you said you know, as a Medal of Honor, a lot of times they have me come in and talk to the at-risk kids or they talk to the kids that are in trouble, and I'll never forget it. When you looked at me and you said I've wondered a lot in my lifetime why I did what I did in Vietnam. But you looked at me and you said but when I see these kids right here, I know exactly why God gave me the courage to do that.

Speaker 3: 45:44

Boy. That's right, spot on, because the age of the year group was the same age was in Vietnam and some some close. You know, we had some pretty young kids that lied about getting into military or the judge gave them a choice of going to the military or jail. And you know, yeah, the love, it's all about love when you boil it down, it's about being doing the right thing for the right reason and loving and what you're doing. You know, I've seen so much death and anger and suffering. I've seen so much suffering. It's affected me. I'm not the same, I can't be the same person and I'm not even sure what that all means, except I'm hardcore, I've been told I don't even have a heart, you know, because I'm able to be calm, I'm able to do the things that needed to be done, you know, to be to move it.

Speaker 2: 46:45

So well, it sounds to me, it's very apparent to me that you do have a heart. As a matter of fact sounds like to me that hurts pretty darn big, because that heart is a heart of service, it's a heart of wanting to help other people and I know that you still do that to this day. It's not in a military uniform Now. It's through supporting nonprofits, encouraging young people, encouraging veterans, and, doc, just know that. You know you gave me and my family an incredible gift. I hope people are listening to this, understand what I'm saying. This man and others like him, women, their peers, what they did. I get to wake up every day and choose what I want to do, the incredible gift of liberty that y'all gave us. I hope that people that tune into this podcast find inspiration from your story, that fully understand the significance of loving as big as you did and how many generations were touched because of that. Doc, that love that you exhibited that day, you made that choice.

Speaker 3: 48:02

That's generational, that's huge, and I'm honored to have you on here so I can share that because I want other people to understand that and appreciate that to expand on that just a second, because I've been you know this is my first interview and I've been around kids a lot and they said well, how did we benefit from you fighting in Vietnam?

Speaker 3: 48:24

You know, the simplest of answers is we proved to the rest of the world that we weren't going to take a backseat, that we weren't going to walk away from our obligations and our friends, and if they were inclined to do something that we didn't like, they would have a price to pay and the price would be our military to come over and kick their ass.

Speaker 3: 48:47

So fighting Vietnam was a deterrent, but it was also a teaching to the rest of the world is not to screw with the giant, you know, because we mean what we say and our military is capable of doing our job, and so it was kind of like we control the world through intimidation. But I'm okay with that, because somebody needs to control our world and our society. You know, you don't have to believe in God to believe that there's got to be something better and higher power than yourself and you need to answer to somebody. You know that they keep us all honest and forthright. And you know I'm not trying to change anybody's beliefs. I'm just trying to share that, as you said earlier, the people that are convicted that has a sense of purpose, that has value. They're happier Because I know I don't have to look over my shoulder and consider that I've done something wrong. There you go.

Speaker 2: 50:01

Yeah, mr Chandler, the guy that raised me out at Boys Ranch. I'll never forget, mr Chandler. One time we were having a discussion, just like you and I, and he was sharing some of that good old country wisdom, and I'll never forget what he said. He said, darling, just tell the truth and you'll never have to worry about what you said.

Speaker 3: 50:21

Truth hurts, you know. I call it I used to call it tough love. Today they call it fake news. But truth should be the answer. It certainly makes it easier when you know the truth. You know.

Speaker 2: 50:36

Sure, well, doc, I got one last question for you. It's a fun question. Everybody gets one fun question at the end of all these podcasts. Okay, all right, here we go. What's the best concert you've ever been to?

Speaker 3: 50:54

I'm not really a concert. My ears ring all the time and I don't. I don't enjoy concerts, so I guess it's going to be a funny duddy compared to these kids that know all the names of the artists and all that. But I enjoy a good military band. I enjoy the old artists that wrote the. You know the old orchestras, you know I enjoy the old music more than I do this younger. I never did catch onto the younger stuff. So a concert, to me it means a different thing. I love a great military band there you go.

Speaker 2: 51:33

What's wrong with that?

Speaker 3: 51:34

I like it. Thank you, because that's my answer. I love the fact that you know I'm short.

Speaker 2: 51:45

Some people are tall. I'm a little thicker, some people are thinner. Isn't it neat to think that we all have different likes. We have different things, but guess what? We can all learn from each other. We can get along with each other, but, most importantly, we have to live under the greatest flag in the world, and that's the flag of the United States of America, and we're able to do so because of guests like this man right here. Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot say thank you enough to Doc Ballard. Doc, thank you for your service to this country. Thank you for joining us on this podcast.

Speaker 2: 52:23

I use a quote, doc, all the time, by Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln said that the philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next. Yes, by us bringing this podcast to listeners, we're reminding them. I always tell people the easiest way to forget history is to not know it. The easiest way to revise history is to not know it. We need to know our history. We need to know what, how we got this incredible gift. Doc, thank you for sharing with us today. Thank you for taking the time to share your incredible journey, your incredible story, with all of the people that will be listening to the growing our future podcast.

Speaker 3: 53:10

I certainly thank you for the opportunity and I know you'll do well with it. I love supporting you.

Speaker 2: 53:16

We appreciate you. All. Right, ladies and gentlemen, that's it for today's podcast. As always, we enjoy the incredible guests that we have that come on, that are willing to share their time, talent, treasures and testimonies. And today you heard from a real hero, an American hero. There's not a lot of times in a lifetime that you will ever get a chance to meet a Medal of Honor recipient. We have been honored by this man. He's come to our FFA convention. He's always been a phone call away to offer words of encouragement. Whenever myself, friends, whenever they've needed it, I pick up the phone and this man will answer that call. And I think you heard it loud and clear why. It's all about love, it's all about community, it's all about those core values. Put some of those seeds right there in place in your life and you will grow an incredible future. Until we meet again. Everybody, go out and do something incredible for somebody. Doc, thank you so much. We appreciate you.

Speaker 3: 54:16

Thank you.