Medics and Corpsmen

[7shooter]

I was thinking back about all the medics and corpsmen I have known over my career and to a man they always struck me as being highly intelligent. The branches of the military must have selected them based on their IQ scores.

They were honorable men and many were decorated for their service.

One that sticks out in my memory was a native American who used to call me up after having a few drinks on Columbus day every year to say that Columbus didn't discover America.

Being Irish I always agreed with him and said " Every one knows that. It was Irish monks in curraghs ".

Never got old.

 

[PPS1980]

A good combat medic can be essentially a field surgeon. Yes, it takes a good bit more intelligence than many other MOSs and being predisposed to reading and studying. Amazing men in my experience too, generally.

 

[NYlakesider]

We have a group that meets for breakfast every Thursday AM for Breakfast. The youngest is 65 the oldest is a Corpmen at age 95 who had worked with the Marines at Guadalcanal!

The state took his driver license about 2 years ago and he only makes it about once a month when he is feeling well and or one of us pick him up.

I get along real well with this fellow and he does have some interesting if not very sad tails to tell.

Trying to talk to him can be hard as he is almost deaf and hearing aids do not help him. How he lost his ears is rather sad but interesting. He had worked a bunch of hours on sick bay and went out on the deck to get some fresh air. Somehow he did not know that a shore bombardment was going to occur. He was only on deck a couple seconds and all weapons let fly.

 

[PPS1980]

We have a group that meets for breakfast every Thursday AM for Breakfast. The youngest is 65 the oldest is a Corpmen at age 95 who had worked with the Marines at Guadalcanal!

The state took his driver license about 2 years ago and he only makes it about once a month when he is feeling well and or one of us pick him up.

I get along real well with this fellow and he does have some interesting if not very sad tails to tell.

Trying to talk to him can be hard as he is almost deaf and hearing aids do not help him. How he lost his ears is rather sad but interesting. He had worked a bunch of hours on sick bay and went out on the deck to get some fresh air. Somehow he did not know that a shore bombardment was going to occur. He was only on deck a couple seconds and all weapons let fly.

I have to say that my father was a Marine SNCO and he had limited respect for those in the USN, with the clear and intense distinction of the Corpsmen. Not endorsing the prejudice against those in the Navy but its telling that all his friends, back in the day, who were also NCOs were very positive regarding "any Swabbie who can keep up with us!"

 

[OLDNAVYMCPO]

I've known many corpsmen over my military career. I've never run across one that wasn't outstanding. I'm referring to combat or field corpsmen, haven't had much exposure to the hospital types. Two come immediately to mind. The first was a female first class petty officer that was in her late thirties. I was on a construction project with her. She was there primarily to treat any injuries to Seabees working on the project. It was very remote and any medical help would have been hours away. All she really had to do was maintain a first aid station. Instead, she got right in the middle of the construction and became an integral part of the team. She outworked many of the men. At night she took it upon herself to handle all the administrative details required, which were substantial.

She also was mother hen to all the female Seabees on the project. She had very high standards of behavior and performance. She had a very positive influence on the whole crew. It was a five month long project under arduous conditions. I had her awarded for her performance.

The other circumstance was kind of sad. I had a male corpsman, also a first class petty officer, assigned to my unit. Strictly a field corpsman, served side by side with the troops in the field. Very competent corpsman who took care of the troops. It was at a time during the Clinton era when money was so tight that there wasn't funds for ammo or medical supplies. This corpsman purchased supplies on the civilian market with his own pay, not an insignificant amount. His failing was that he had difficulty meeting the physical standards for body fat. The Seabees were really strict in that regard at the time. If an individual failed a physical or PT, he was given only minimal opportunity to correct the situation. This corpsman had to accept an admin discharge because he couldn't maintain an acceptable physical condition.

 

[richardw]

If it were not for the quick and skilled action of a Corpsman I would not be writing this today. I took two AK 47 rounds in my side four inches below the armpit. I did not die immediately because I was told the bullets passed through the Marine to my left before striking me.

One round punctured my left lung. The other wedged between ribs. I could feel myself losing the ability to breath because of only one working lung and my chest cavity was filling with fluids. I lay there thinking I was going to suffocate.

Then a Corpsman arrived next to me. He ripped upon my blouse and tee shirt. He took my Kbar and stuck it between two ribs a few inches below the entry wounds. I could feel the fluids running out of my body, and I could breath. He got me on the next medivac to an aid station. Lost touch with him because I was transferred for treatment and recovery back to the states.

I learned months later that he had been killed the day after he saved my bacon. I pray for his soul every day.

During my four tours in Nam I saw corpsmen do amazing things from digging their fingers into a thighs to find the top end of a severed femoral artery so it could be clamped to treating a Marine who had both his legs blown off.

They were and are amazing angels who keep Marines alive when the odds say that ought to die. And as a side note, never met a corpsman that could not keep up with Marine infantry under any conditions.

 

[amazingflapjack]

They are, in many cases, the ones who carry the heaviest burden.

 

[usmc2427765]

I served in Vietnam with Navy Corpsman HN David Schoenewald. We were both assigned to "C" co 1st Tank Bn in headquarters platoon. I was a radio operator and got to be good friends with "Doc" and shared a hooch for a time. On 12/04/1969, he was killed in a VC ambush and it hit me hard. Everyday is Memorial Day to me as I recall his death and the death of others I served with.

 

[Texas Star]

I knew a USAF medic with a quite unusual last name. After I left the service and was back home in college, I was reading one of those military books by C.B. Colby and in a feature on Cheyenne Mountain, here was that medic in a photo! I could read his name tag, and it was the same fellow. Small world...

My only memorable experience with a miliary doctor involved a dentist who had gotten a traffic ticket for speeding a couple of days before. One of my pals who had written that ticket warned me when he discovered who my scheduled dentist would be.

Sure enough, he looked at my records and realized that I was a cop and mentioned it. He was either a poor dentist or really did have it in for me. He took out my wisdom teeth and the pain was severe. I felt awful for a few days.

I can't say that I noticed any vast degree of intelligence among medics, but I worked with a pretty sharp bunch of guys in my own field. I do feel that most medics I encountered were somewhat disdainful of patients and were careless in giving injections, especially with those pressurized hose gun things that'd cut your arm if they were sloppy. Some of those guys went on to work for the VA, and all I'll say about that is that I'm very glad to now have an insurance plan that lets me see private doctors instead.

 

[Texas Star]

On a more positive note, I read about a Royal Navy medic accompanying a famous regiment of the Army in Afghanistan. She saw a soldier go down wounded and despite orders to take cover, ran through a hail of Taliban bullets, opened an airway in his throat and dragged that badly wounded man about 80 yards under heavy enemy fire, to cover. She received the Military Cross, only the second woman in history to have been awarded this medal, about on par with our Silver Star.

I'm sure there are many good medics and some have risked their lives that others might live. I'm glad that I've never been in combat and needed their care. My son was wounded on three occasions in Iraq and said that he got good, fast care.

He shot one jihadist with his 9mm Beretta and when that worthy fell and started scrabbling around in pain, a US Army medic ran over and tried to save him. The enemy died within a minute, but can you imagine a Taliban medic trying to save a US soldier, unless it was to use him for propaganda and to torture him? I think our civilization is superior to that of our foe.

BTW, are medics ever armed? I read somewhere that some carried pistols in Vietnam and do now, to defend themselves and their patients from our savage enemy. Of course, para-rescue medics are armed in combat zones. After a bear killed and ate survivors of a plane crash in Alaska years ago, they got S&W .44 Magnums in that state.

Those pararescue men are bold and determined. They've saved many a pilot down in enemy territory, often under hostile fire.

 

[Fishslayer]

20 years in the Navy and doG knows how many shots, blood draws etc. and I will say I never once had a Corpsman hurt me with a needle.

 

[ameridaddy]

^You fellas up there who've seen the bear and smelt his fur, I salute you, and God bless you. So glad you're still with us.

 

[phantomcycle]

I have very high respect for any combat corpsman or medic they saved my humble life twice in combat and the frontline surgeons work miracles under distress these warriors without weapons are a bred apart from other hero's

Sent from my LG-K371 using Tapatalk

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Yes, I distinguish between those on the front lines with the troops and those in the rear with the gear, or in a stateside base hospital, wearing a nice clean white uniform and in air conditioning. I suspect a lot of the people in the military go into the medical field because-like admin types-they're looking for soft and easy duty.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

A young man from our church graduated H.S in 1997 or 98 and became a Navy Corpsman. When The US invaded Iraq, he was serving with the 6th Marines all the way to Bagdad. Three tours later he was with a battalion (unknown) and came under ambush. The company CO took a couple in the chest, my young friend did all he could to save his CO but the damage was too great! Loosing men in combat is a given, but when the boss dies it is hard on everyone. As my young friend held the body covered in his CO's blood, the guy's took as the F.ing squids fault! Nobody spoke to him for 48 hours, then the Gunnys put an end to the treatment! Out of 6 tours in combat, that was his worst!

There is a second Navy Corpsman in our church, his service was in Dessert Storm. His Regiment never got to amphibious assault Iraq, things ended so quick.

My second son was in the USMC from 99-03 and saw a small amount of combat. When we were out shooting on day around 2010 another friend showed up and had his daughter with him, she was a Air Force medic, My son's response "We all love our Docs!"

Combat Corpsman/Medics don't care what color you are or what god you pray to, they are willing to die trying to save you!

Ivan

 

[jinx]

My brother in law"Doc", a Navy corpsman, passed away last month. God bless him.

 

[OLDNAVYMCPO]

A number of years ago, don't recall the year, I was at Ft Carson for an Air Assault exercise. Driving out in the boonies one day, I saw a bunch of Army types in scattered groups covering a wide area in the middle of no where. Not too unusual as after 9-11, you could witness all kinds of strange things going on there. Curious, I asked some of the Army types with me. Found out that Army medics must compete and qualify for Combat Medic rating, really a big deal and a significant achievement for career soldiers. I saw that they had to go through quite an ordeal to qualify.

 

[vonn]

never heard anyone say anything bad about "Doc" in Nam. Did their job and were well respected.

 

[Old TexMex]

One of my mentors (Mathews) in the beginning of my career of charter fishing was a medic in Korea. He is about the most cool headed guy I've ever known. (He's just retired his post as boss at the local VFW)
Also, my neighbor (Farley) was a chopper pilot in '68, then on his second tour was a medic. Totally trustworthy friend.
Another buddy, Doc, was in VN then became a detective in Minneapolis and retired down here on the gulf coast. All top shelf guys.

 

[Houlton]

Two of my best friends are retired Chief Pe----Checkers. One ran with the Marines for a while. My wifes bosss for awhile was a Lt. Commander. He took shrapnel from a land mine in both knees. Had them replaced, went to college and ended up with a commission. I do use that term when giving them a hard time. Their comments about a retired Cop and ABH are unprintable.