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View Full Version : God Bless the Corpsmen



Phantom Blooper
03-11-06, 09:45 PM
March 10, 2006

He walked by the hatch to our office this morning, heading around to the back of the building, probably to get cleaned up and change his cammies. They were soaked in blood, you see. Not his own blood, mind you, but the blood of a Marine. One of his Marines.

He looked to be about twenty-three, maybe twenty-four years old, tops. But the expression on his face and the look in his eyes was without time or age. It was indescribable. I won’t be so arrogant as to assume I know anything about what was going on in that young man’s mind. But if it’s true that the eyes are the windows to the soul, well…

Just a few minutes before, he and a few others from his unit had come to a screeching halt in their Humvees outside the entrance to the surgical building, which is right outside our door. There they had unloaded two Marines on litters, both in bad shape. Now it was out of the Corpsman’s hands. The surgeons would take it from there.

A few minutes after they disappeared into the building, the Corpsman reappeared, walking out slowly to confer with a couple of officers that had arrived, probably the CO and/or XO of the wounded Marines. After a brief conversation, they shook hands, and the Corpsman began his aforementioned walk. Inconsiderately, I stared at him as he passed by. The amount of blood on his cammies was astonishing. He looked at me as he walked by, but I don’t think he even saw me. He was obviously somewhere else, and rightfully so.

Countless stories have been written about the U.S. Navy Corpsmen that serve alongside Marines. Corpsmen have struggled, bled, died, and have been decorated with the Marines in all of their battles throughout the years. They’ve died trying to protect not themselves, but their Marines. What is it inside of a young man like that? What makes him so dedicated to a bunch of guys that mercilessly poke fun at his branch of service? What makes him love and care for those Marines like they were his own children?