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<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nDonald Everett Ballard was a corpsman assigned to a Marine company on May 16, 1968 when he selflessly shielded his Marines from a grenade blast with his own body. Luckily, the grenade failed to detonate, but his actions that day earned him the Medal of Honor. He has since that moment spent his life in service to veterans and Boy Scouts, and that is what he was doing in Washington, DC when thieves broke into his business and took more than $100,000 in property and cash, according to the Kansas City Star<\/a>;<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sick, lost for words,\u201d Ballard said Tuesday by phone. <\/p>\n Ballard has long been affiliated with Forgotten Veterans and its parent group, National Combat Medical Memorial & Youth Education Center. Aside from helping with burials, the group also funds outdoor learning facilities and camping trips for Boy Scout groups. Weapons stolen from Ballard were used for educational purposes with the scouts.<\/p>\n The stolen cash, which Ballard estimated at $25,000, was to be used for caskets and burial markers for vets. \u201cThey\u2019re essentially stealing from dead veterans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n His Medal of Honor ring was also taken. Coins and various honors awarded to him during past Medal of Honor events are gone. A coin enthusiast, his many gold coins collected over a lifetime were stolen.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of stuff I\u2019ll never be able to recover,\u201d Ballard said. \u201cThe person who stole this will probably melt it down. They won\u2019t see the core value of it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"