Talk:Donald E. Ballard

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

↓    Skip to table of contents    ↓

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Donald E. Ballard article.
Please sign and date your posts by typing four tildes (~~~~). Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic. New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Ask questions, get answers. This is not a forum for general discussion about the article's subject.	Be polite Assume good faith No personal attacks Be welcoming	Article policies No original research Neutral point of view Verifiability

This article is within the scope of the following WikiProjects:

WikiProject Vietnam     (Rated Start-Class) Vietnam Portal This article is part of WikiProject Vietnam, an attempt to create a comprehensive, neutral, and accurate representation of Vietnam on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page. Start This article has been rated as start-Class on the quality scale. ??? This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale. Military history WikiProject     (Rated Start-Class) This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see lists of open tasks and regional and topical task forces. To use this banner, please see the full instructions. Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale. Additional information and associated task forces: This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-Class status: Referencing and citation: not checked Coverage and accuracy: not checked Structure: not checked Grammar: not checked Supporting materials: not checked To fill out this checklist, please add the following to the template call: <!-- B-Class-1. It is suitably referenced, and all major points have appropriate inline citations. --> |B-Class-1=yes/no <!-- B-Class-2. It reasonably covers the topic, and does not contain obvious omissions or inaccuracies. --> |B-Class-2=yes/no <!-- B-Class-3. It has a defined structure, including a lead section and one or more sections of content. --> |B-Class-3=yes/no <!-- B-Class-4. It is free from major grammatical errors. --> |B-Class-4=yes/no <!-- B-Class-5. It contains appropriate supporting materials, such as an infobox, images, or diagrams. --> |B-Class-5=yes/no This article is not currently associated with a task force. To tag it for one or more task forces, please add the task force codes from the template instructions to the template call. WikiProject Biography     (Rated Start-Class) This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page. Biography Portal Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ] This article is supported by the Military work group. WikiProject United States (Rated start-Class) United States Portal This article is within the scope of the United States WikiProject. This project provides a central approach to United States-related subjects on Wikipedia. Please participate by editing the article, and help us assess and improve articles to good and 1.0 standards. Start This article has been rated as start-Class on the Project's quality scale. (If you rated the article please give a short summary at comments to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses.)

[edit] CMH Citation

this section repeatedly lists his rank (rate) as 'HC2C'. this is without question incorrect for the period, and i find it very hard to believe that such a citation would have gotten this wrong. don ballard was at that time a 'hospital corpsman second class', (e-5), correctly abbreviated 'HM2'. i know this from personal experience. my dad, during wwii, was an electrician's mate third class, abbreviated 'EM3C'. during my naval service,(1964-68) i was a seaman recruit (SR),hospitalman apprentice (HA), hospitalman (HN), hospital corpsman third class (HM3) and hospital corpsman second class (HM2). another website, posted by the navy's naval historical centre, says that ballard was a third class at the time of the action, and gives a different wording of the citation, at no time referring to him other than as 'petty officer ballard'. not to mention the fact that he can't have a 'memorial' statue anywhere, since he's apparently still quite alive.details, people, details.Toyokuni3 (talk) 05:00, 6 May 2008 (UTC) i gotta start reading articles more completely before commenting. this one has a lot of problems. ballard is probably not 'retired' from the navy. in military parlance, 'retired' means collecting a pension, either after 20(or more) years service, or after incurring some disability while on active duty. since the citation describes no injury, and since he was able to qualify for the ng, the latter seems improbable. the former is obviously not so. since he turned down an opportunity for a direct commission, he apparently obtained some educational qualification for a commission. readers might like to know about that. it looks to me in the picture that he may be wearing a staff corps device on his lapel. medical service corps? details, people, details.Toyokuni3 (talk) 05:18, 6 May 2008 (UTC)