Military Hall of Fame to induct decorated Vietnam vet from Valley

The Chaney grad was awarded the Navy Cross posthumously.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — Richard “Doc” Powell, a Navy Corpsman killed in Vietnam in 1968 while working to save wounded Marines, will be inducted into the Ohio Military Hall of Fame for Valor.

Powell, who was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for his actions the day he died, will be a member of the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2010. The ceremony will be 11:30 a.m. May 7 on Ohio Veterans Plaza on the east side of the Statehouse in Columbus.

The Navy Cross is the highest military honor presented by the Navy and second only to the Medal of Honor in this country.

Powell is buried in Lake Park Cemetery on Midlothian Boulevard in Boardman, and, until last August, his gravestone didn’t carry the Navy Cross designation.

Some of the Marines with whom he served became aware of the missing information and launched a campaign to get the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to provide a new stone.

On Aug. 29, those Marines, some whose lives he saved, his family and some of his 1965 Chaney High School classmates gathered at the cemetery to unveil a new stone with the Navy Cross designation.

The citation accompanying Powell’s Navy Cross recognizes his “extraordinary heroism” on Aug. 29, 1968, noting that, with complete disregard for his own safety, Powell rushed to the aid of Marines wounded in battle and kept treating them even after he was wounded, losing the use of one of his arms.

He suffered a fatal wound as he reached for an injured Marine who lay within 15 meters of an enemy machine gun position.

The Ohio Military Hall of Fame for Valor honors Ohio veterans who received medals for valor while serving in the armed forces.