William R. Charette Quotes

[Regarding his Medal of Honor citation] It says I removed my bulletproof vest and put it on somebody... I did not take off a bulletproof vest. I had a jacket, and I was treating the guy for shock, and what I did was put my jacket on him. And somehow that got misinterpreted and whatever.

The next thing you know I was called to another area and platoon... I don't know what happened to their corpsman, but I was in amongst them and it was decided they were going to be the frontal assault unit... When they told us to start going forward I thought, "I'll wait until my platoon catches up." But the sergeant stood up. He had a machine gun and his words were very encouraging: "Okay men, move out, because if they don't kill you I will." So with those words of encouragement I moved forward with his platoon.

I once said you can tell they're doing good because you can point to their signs: 'American go home.' In other words they're pretty free to do what they wanted to do politically. I have a cousin who was killed over there. And he was my aunt's only son. So when you think about that for a bit, you think well, was it worth it? And after many years I've come to the conclusion: yes it was.

My wife hates this, but it's a fact. I was originally written up for the Navy Cross... I was thinking it would get pushed down, maybe to a Silver Star. But instead of getting pushed down, it got pushed up. And I've often wondered why. You've got four dead corpsmen, and if I don't get the medal, there'd be no live corpsmen out of the Korean War... I don't know. It's just a thought.

When we got to the rear, there must have been five acres of dead people. And I think I read somewhere that you feel guilty to be alive when you are among the dead. It struck me that that is very true.

If you're a commanding officer and you have a Medal of Honor recipient who comes to work with you... Of course they kind of view you a little different. They think, 'What am I going to do if he's a real foul ball?' But after they found out I'm not different, and that I'm a good corpsman, and fairly dedicated, I should say, I never had any problems. None.

They had a big thing about World War One, World War Two, and then they skipped right over to Vietnam... I don't understand that, because 54,000 Americans lost their lives in Korea... So your odds of getting killed in Korea are a hell of a lot greater [than in Vietnam]... And there's still eight thousand missing from the Korean War.