I have written before about the number of medics/corpsmen who have been awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery "above and beyond" what would be considered their duty. Battlefield medics brave enemy fire to get to the wounded. Obviously, their goal is to provide medical care to the wounded, but they have a secondary mission to protect the wounded from enemy fire. That is why these medical personnel carry a weapon. A call for a medic will cause a medic to disregard their own safety and charge through the kill zone to reach the patient.

That same call for a medic tells enemy soldiers that an additional soldier will expose themselves trying to reach the wounded. For that reason, in my battalion in Vietnam if a medic was needed the call was for a "Victor."

Another medic was just awarded the Medal of Honor for his service in Afghanistan on April 6, 2008. When a U.S. Army Special Forces team landed on a mountain they began taking machine gun, sniper fire, and rocket propelled grenades. The team's senior medical sergeant Staff Sergeant Ronald Shurer II was awarded the medal after he carried the wounded down the mountain, treated five soldiers for wounds while still on the mountain, loaded the wounded into a medevac helicopter, and then reclimbed the mountain to where his team was still fighting and would continue for five hours.

No soldier can be too sure of how they will react when they come under fire. Most will perform well and bravely, while some will surprise even themselves as they establish new standards of courage.

Jack Dragoni attended Boston College and served in the U.S. Army in Berlin and Vietnam. He lives in Chaffee, Missouri.