Fort Sam salutes 52 heroic medics

“Combat Kelly” earned his nickname to the end.

Fellow Medal of Honor recipient retired Army Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady knows that story well, and he hasn't forgotten the last landing and final words of his mentor, Charles Kelly.

“The people on the ground screamed at him,” he said. “They said, ‘Get out! Get out!' And he said, ‘When I have your wounded!'”

That was 47 years ago today. Thursday, the Army's surgeon general, Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, and 200 others saluted 52 medics who have received the Medal of Honor. They met at Fort Sam Houston's Pergola, a permanent exhibit of ambulances and medevac helicopters, to break ground on a Medal of Honor Walk.

The $1.3 million walk will recount the heroics of Army Medical Department recipients. Monuments will line a 2.5-acre acre known as the Regimental Green, with a 250-seat amphitheater on the north end. Construction starts this fall.

“The green will be a tranquil setting in which we reflect upon the service and sacrifice,” said retired Maj. Gen. Patrick Sculley, board chairman of the Army Medical Department Museum Foundation.

“The most important reason for this walk is remembering our history,” said Maj. Gen. David Rubenstein, the Army Medical Department Center and School's commander. “We are their legacy. Their courage and their contributions to Army medicine and to the history ... have resulted in today's Army Medical Department.”

Sixteen officers, 33 enlistees and two civilians from the medical department have been awarded the Medal of Honor. One of the civilians, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, served as a surgeon in the Civil War. The Defense Department said she was the first American woman to serve as a military doctor, be a POW and be given the Medal of Honor.

There were many heroes, Schoomaker said, pointing to one enlistee who was mocked by fellow GIs for being a conscientious objector but who rescued more than 75 wounded soldiers on Okinawa.

Though a majority of medics receiving the medal served in World War II, he expressed astonishment at the courage of Kelly, whose call sign was “Dustoff,” and other medevac pilots in Vietnam.

“When I see a medevac helicopter come in, my image is of this very fragile, almost insectlike creature, a dragonfly, that's extremely vulnerable to the enemy,” Schoomaker said.

Kelly drew his courage from the imperative of the mission — saving lives — and trying to keep control of his Dustoffs. That meant taking terrible risks.

“The standard or the limit was 90 hours a month. He flew 145 or 155 hours the June before he was killed,” said Brady, 74, of San Antonio.

That was Kelly's style. He lied about his age and joined the Army at 15. Brady said Kelly was the only soldier in the Army who held combat medic, combat infantry, jump wing and aviation badges. He also was court-martialed for fighting and drunkenness.

In his last landing on July 1, 1964, Kelly stood his ground in the rice paddy after ordering the soldiers around him to load the wounded. Seconds later a bullet ripped through his heart. The copter turned and rolled, but his passengers survived the crash.

“Dustoff” became the call sign for all aeromedical evacuations in Vietnam — and all wars since.

“Those were his last words,” said Brady, who still has the bullet. “He did say, ‘Oh, God,' when the bullet went into his body.”