Nellis facility named after former governor

Rachael Levy

Wednesday, Nov. 13, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

In the winter of 1953, the bitterly cold mountains of North Korea were an inhospitable place. Peace negotiations with the Chinese Communists had stalled, and outnumbered U.S. troops were fighting bloody battles on mountaintops like The Hook.

The night of Feb. 13, Communists located on three sides of The Hook attacked the Second Indianhead Infantry Division and First Marine Division. A mortar round a foot long and six inches round exploded on the foot of Sgt. Mike O'Callaghan. Shrapnel tore through his leg, hip and pelvis. A chunk of the round ripped apart the soldier next to him.

In darkness that retreated with each fired flare, O'Callaghan cradled his dying comrade, Pvt. Johnnie Estrada, who had been wounded earlier that day yet refused to return to safety.

Then the 23-year-old platoon leader cinched his leg with a piece of communication wire, picked up a gun and resumed shooting.

O'Callaghan refused medical care for 3 1/2 hours, Army records said. Instead he crawled back to the command post and continued to give orders. It wasn't until the enemy had withdrawn did O'Callaghan allow soldiers to carry him off The Hook, the records said.

For his actions, the military awarded him the Silver Star. For his dedication, the division named the 38th Regiment Rifle Range in his honor. And on Tuesday, the U.S. government named the hospital at Nellis Air Force Base after him.

"I was a most fortunate man," O'Callaghan told veterans, active-duty military and family and friends. "I'm alive today because of a good medic, good doctors and good nurses."

He urged the doctors and nurses who staff the 114-bed hospital, which serves veterans, retired military personnel and active-duty airmen and their families, to achieve the same quality of health care he received when injured.

"Doctors make it possible to live, but nurses make you want to live," O'Callaghan said in describing the women who helped mend him and others from the Second Infantry Division -- an outfit that saw some of the heaviest combat during the three-year Korean War.

In a military hospital, O'Calla ghan recovered from the amputation of his left leg and was equipped with a prosthetic limb. He was discharged from the military in December 1953, and returned to college where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees in education.

He and his family moved to Southern Nevada and a teaching job at Basic High School. There he taught government to some of today's state leaders, among them Harry Reid, who later would serve as O'Callaghan's lieutenant governor and move on to become a U.S. senator.

"I've been taught the lessons of honesty, justice and fairness and, yes, even patriotism, by the mountain of a man, Mike O'Callaghan," Reid said.

O'Callaghan was elected governor in 1970 and served until 1978, making him the fifth two-term executive in the state's history. Although he never sought public office again, O'Callaghan -- with his broad shoulders, rolling gait and booming voice -- became a dominant figure in Nevada politics and the Democratic Party.

"I doubt that I would be governor of the state of Nevada if it weren't for Mike O'Callaghan," said Gov. Bob Miller, who attributes his own two terms, in part, to O'Callaghan's campaign advice.

O'Callaghan commands respect and admiration from the many people he has affected as a high school teacher and boxing coach, Clark County probation officer, director of the state Department of Health and Welfare and as governor.

"We could name every facility in Nevada after him and we'd never (be able to) give back what he has given to the state," Miller said.

Republican Reps. John Ensign and Barbara Vucanovich echoed the praise. The retiring congresswoman said O'Callaghan has been an example to other disabled veterans by showing that a loss of limb makes no difference "as long as you don't lose your heart."

O'Callaghan's assistance -- which expanded beyond the borders of the United States while working as executive editor of the Las Vegas SUN -- is not determined by politics.

He regularly travels to Central America where he assists children and elderly who have become orphaned or destitute through the area's civil unrest. He has monitored national elections in Nicaragua and for the Kurds in Iraq.

And 10 years ago, O'Callaghan returned to the war zone with his wife. In 1986, the rugged mountains of South Korea had become hospitable again. Instead of burning cities and scarred ridges, O'Callaghan saw towns filled with people, mountains covered with vegetation, citizens and children.

"It's not a painful time, it's not a time that I regret and I wouldn't change one bit," he said, recalling his combat experience.

But he couldn't visit The Hook. The site of the battle where he lost a friend and became disabled is north of the 38th Parallel, across enemy lines.