A Tribute to a Combat Medic | Eastern North Carolina Now

A Tribute to a Combat Medic

 

  When you are a combat soldier, you are forced to depend on many things beyond your control. You accept that the artillery folks are well trained and accurate, you believe the Huey’s will arrive for extraction, you have some confidence that the jets will drop their bombs where they aim and not on you or your unit, you build a bond with your fellow soldiers that they will protect you flank and rear.

  However, the one thing you trust above all others is your unit MEDIC. He carries his hospital on his back or in a pack.  Sometimes he carries a weapon and sometimes he doesn’t.  He slugs it out with you and the unit enduring the same danger and challenges of an infantry soldier.

  He is there with an aspirin for a headache. He is there to treat minor burns, scratches and rashes. He is there when you “Medcap” a village to treat the children and adults in the local Vietnamese population. 

  But the one thing that he is there for is his main job.  He is there to respond when the dreaded call “MEDIC!” is yelled.  He will risk life and limb to be at the side of a wounded soldier.  Often he will stop the bleeding and administer shots for the pain.  He will assure the wounded that all is well even when it is not. He often may have the privilege (burden?) of being the last person a soldier will see before he expires. He will hear the cries to Mom or God from a soldier in mortal pain. Many times he will never know the soldier’s name; he will often never know if the soldier survived or died after Medevacked to the hospital. Other times he will know the soldier as a brother in the same unit and have memories of the good times they had (yes you can have good times in a war). He will carry that burden with him for the rest of his life.

“Did I do enough? Could I have done something different?”

  Yesterday (1/21/2021) we lost just such a man: Kenneth Blakely Medic D Company 2nd 12th Infantry 25th Division.  Ken served in Vietnam Dec 1967 – Dec 1968. He made it his goal in life to contact and continue to minister to the families and comrades he served with in civilian life.  Ken was also a Conscientious Objector who served not by protesting or refusing induction, but by choosing to serve his fellow soldiers in the best way he could as a Medic. His role model was Desmond Doss, who many of us never heard of before the book and movie. As a member of the same Religion, Ken drew inspiration from Desmond’s life story long before he entered the Army.

  He died during an operation to replace a pacemaker that had become infected.  

  Kenneth Blakely was a hero then and now. May he rest in Peace

HAND SALUTE ---- WELCOME HOME DOC

1946    January 21,2021

Doc Blakely Bio from Unit Web Site

  In May of 1967 Ken “Doc” Blakely was recently married and attending college part time while working to support his new family when he received his induction notice.  Although he had been accepted as a fulltime student in Radiological Technology classes and could reinstate his student deferment, Doc decided to temporarily forgo his education and accept the induction.  Doc is a Seventh Day Adventist so the decision to accept induction was a deeply personal one.  The Seventh Day Adventist church believes killing is against God’s law, but they also believe service to one’s country is a moral imperative.  With the Church’s support Doc could have asked for, and received, a complete deferment from the military based on his lifelong commitment to the church.  An alternative to a complete deferment would have been a military occupation which permitted him to worship and rest on Saturdays, the Sabbath for the Seventh Day Adventists.  Inspired by Desmond Doss, a Seventh Day Adventist who won the Congressional Medal of Honor in WWII, while serving as a medic, Doc chose to accept induction as a Conscientious Objector, but to serve on the battlefield as a Combat Medic.

  Doc joined D Company, 2/12 Infantry in Vietnam in December of 1967.  He was wounded twice, received the Purple Heart, and was decorated three times for what Doc insists was no more than doing his job.  He left Vietnam in Dec of 1968.  Doc supported the war and does not believe his status as a CO makes him any less responsible for the deaths inflicted on the enemy his platoon engaged in the field.  He often wished the enemy dead, particularly when they tried to hurt the casualties he was working to save.   After returning to the States Doc resumed his education and became a Radiology Technician by profession and a competitive water skier in his free time.  In 1984 Doc was divorced and soon after married his present wife, Rose Mary.  Rose Mary is a critical part of Doc’s process of coming home.  She was his support and inspiration.

 

 


Go Back


Leave a Guest Comment

Your Name or Alias
Your Email Address ( your email address will not be published)
Enter Your Comment ( no code or urls allowed, text only please )



Comment

( January 23rd, 2021 @ 11:05 am )
 
Thank-you Bobby Tony for this sincere, and well written tribute to the one guy that every soldier must learn to love - the medic.

In case some of our readers do not already know this, the Conscientious Objector turned medic-to-the-men was probably the most dangerous positions in battle, always working to save others, often in prone positions, while others fought.

For Asian fighters, especially the Japanese, and I am sure that the North Vietnamese learned such fighting the Nips in WW II, the Medic was always a big target.

Kill the man without the gun helping his brothers-in-arms, and the troops could become just one big bit more demoralized in battle.

War is Hell.

Thank-you Bobby Tony, and to your good friend Ken Blakely - may he rest in the bosom of his Savior - for your service to our Republic, to all of us who did not go to Vietnam. We are forever in your debt for that service.



Beaufort County Emergency Management: COVID-19 Update (01-23-21) Vietnam War, War, Small History, In the Past, Body & Soul State of North Carolina is Holding Back the Increased Flow of Vaccinations from Beaufort County


HbAD0

Latest Body & Soul

A subsidiary of one of the largest health insurance agencies in the U.S. was hit by a cyberattack earlier this week from what it believes is a foreign “nation-state” actor, crippling many pharmacies’ ability to process prescriptions across the country.
The John Locke Foundation is supporting a New Bern eye surgeon's legal fight against North Carolina's certificate-of-need restrictions on healthcare providers.
Shia LaBeouf received the Sacrament of Confirmation, completing his conversion to Catholicism, on Sunday, and the actor’s confirmation sponsor suggested LaBeouf may become a deacon “in the future.”
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services today released the following statement on the Trails Carolina investigation:
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services today released a draft of its 2024-25 Olmstead Plan designed to assist people with disabilities to reside in and experience the full benefit of inclusive communities.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services will host a live fireside chat and tele-town hall on Tues., Feb. 20, from 6 to 7 p.m., to discuss how to support and improve heart health as well as prevent and manage heart disease.

HbAD1

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is investing $5.5 million into the FIT Wellness program, part of the North Carolina Formerly Incarcerated Transition Program in the UNC School of Medicine, to improve reentry services for the justice-involved population.
As of Feb. 1, 2024, 346,408 newly eligible North Carolinians are enrolled in Medicaid and now have access to comprehensive health care, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ Medicaid Expansion Enrollment Dashboard.
Controversy surrounds a healthcare provider’s decision to block parents from having access to their children’s prescription records.
Members of the North Carolina Rural Health Association (NCRHA) visited Washington, D.C., on Feb. 14, 2024, to meet with elected officials and advocate for policies to improve access to care in rural areas.
Mark Wahlberg said that COVID caused a “disconnect” between Americans and called for people to come back together through the “power of prayer.”
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services today released the request for proposal to hire the organization that will help manage the Children and Families Specialty Plan.

HbAD2

As part of its commitment to improve the health and well-being of North Carolina children and families, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services today announced the launch of its Child Behavioral Health dashboard.

HbAD3

 
Back to Top