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thedrifter
06-14-07, 07:48 AM
Challenges and triumphs hallmark of corpsman’s career
Cpl. R. Drew Hendricks

MARINE CORPS BASE, CAMP H. M. SMITH, Hawaii(Jun. 13, 2007) -- Born on the land, bred in the water and now a lethal and effective hybrid of both – one hospital corpsman has worked through and trained in the trenches to become the dedicated, life saving “Devil Doc” he is today.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Angelo Catindig, a native of the Philippines, has tasted three different branches of military service. His military career began on the ground side as an infantryman in the Army. However, it was the events at the outset of his naval career that chose the path that eventually led him to serve alongside Marines.

His path took its first turn while serving in the Army. After a few years, Catindig decided to leave active service for the reserves.

He had no intention of leaving military service behind. In fact, he wanted to further his military career by earning a degree and later a commission.

This dream did not happen according to plan. While in college, Catindig started a family. When his wife became pregnant, he looked back at active service and pushed forward to provide for his loved ones.

Unsure about rejoining the Army, he looked to his uncle, a former Navy Sea Air and Land corpsman, who suggested he join the Navy and try and become a SEAL.

“I wanted to be a SEAL corpsman,” Catindig said. “It was the reason I joined the Navy.”

Catindig had already gained years of experience reaching staff sergeant in the Army infantry and going through many specialized training schools, including Army Airborne, Air Assault, and Pathfinder school.

After six years in the Army, Catindig began the transition from land to sea. In July 2001, he headed off to naval recruit training, Navy Special Warfare Division and then onto Hospital Corps School where he learned the trade by which battle-hardened Marines know him today.

But Catindig was not satisfied with being a corpsman. The chance to become a SEAL, more importantly a SEAL corpsman, was his ultimate goal.

After nearly six grueling months of toiling through Basic Underwater Demolition School, the SEAL training school, Catindig took a 30-foot-fall from the top of an obstacle course, fracturing his ankle.

As much as Catindig wanted to become a SEAL corpsman, fate, it seemed, had other plans for him.

His life and his military career as he knew it shattered along with his ankle.

“I was dazed and incoherent,” said Catindig. “I took a pretty big blow to the head along with fracturing my ankle.”

Two weeks – that was all Catindig had left of training before the fall landed him in the sick bay.

Still, Catindig would have to start training over from the beginning if he wanted to fulfill his dream of becoming a SEAL corpsman.

“My uncle said that getting into the training was easy,” said Catindig. “Staying in it is the hard part.”

Undaunted, Catindig pushed forward toward his goal.

“I healed up and tried again,” said the kind-faced Doc.

This time around Catindig did not have to run far to earn another disappointment.

“During a run, I re-fractured my foot and couldn’t complete the training,” he said.
With his ankle and his goal in shambles, he remained upbeat and positive about the direction his career would now take him.

“It just wasn’t meant to be,” he said. “If I got that far and didn’t make it because of one incident, I must have been needed elsewhere.”

For Catindig, elsewhere meant back to land, but this time he had a chance to serve with an amphibious group of warriors – the Marines.

“It suits him,” said Petty Officer 3rd Class Jed Cayanan, hospital corpsman, battalion aid station, MARFORPAC. “Sometimes I see him more as a Marine than a corpsman.”

Catindig’s first taste of the Corps was the 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

As a corpsman, his job is to care for the lives of the Marines in his care. When the words, “corpsman up,” are yelled on the battlefield, it is his sole duty to rush to the aide of any wounded comrade.

With this job specification, “Cat”, as he is known here, spent his time serving with Marines in areas of intense combat in Iraq.

According to Petty Officer 2nd Class Omar Provencio, the Marines are fortunate that Catindig took the path he did.

He is willing to lay his life down for those Marines,” said Provencio. “He is a highly dedicated individual.”

Catindig served his first deployment to Iraq with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit landing team. He conducted patrols and raids right alongside his Marines during the rise of insurgency after Saddam Hussein was captured.

His first tour to Iraq was only a couple of weeks long. Within those weeks, however, he saw his fair share of action.

“We went on three or four patrols during the day,” said Catindig, who was raised in San Diego, Calif. “We would come back, sleep for a bit and then do reconnaissance at night for the raid we would do the next day.”

Catindig has not only bandaged wounds and administered intravenous drips in combat, he has continued his pursuit of excellence in training as well. He has attended many more schools, including the scout swimmer, tracking, basic and advanced Arabic language schools.

This training made Catindig that much more effective when he took his next trip to the desert. This time he was attached to 1st Recon Battalion.

During that time, his unit was credited with the capture of numerous insurgents. Catindig was also recognized for his part in capturing high-profile targets while serving with the Marines in Mamadia, Southern Baghdad, Iraq.

Cat left the field to serve at the 1st Regimental Aid Station as the assistant leading petty officer.

Once more, his path took an abrupt turn. Catindig began to consider leaving the armed forces to become a police officer in San Diego, Calif. However a fellow corpsman led him here.

“I was on my way to getting out when HM3 [Jeffery] Galan told me about the gig here,” he said. “He told me Hawaii was awesome and that I should come be the lead petty officer.”

The opportunity was a great career move, according to Cat. With assistant lead petty officer and lead petty officer billets under his belt, he is sure it will move his career forward.

“It’s going to lead to bigger and better things,” he said.

Just like everything else in his career, the transition from working with the grunts to running a battalion aid station has been challenging for him and his fellow “grunt-corpsmen.”

“Most of this is fairly new to all of us,” he added. “We are multi-faceted and multi-hatted. It’s only three guys to run an entire battalion aid station. In a grunt BAS there are about 40-50 corpsmen.”

Even with such a high work load, Catindig says it is a break from the hard life of the grunts.

“When I served with the grunts, I barely saw my family,” he said. “If you took all the days in the year that I was with them, it totaled to only one month. The rest of the time I was with my Marines.”

The work may have been harder in the grunts, but Catindig said he would not trade it for anything.

“Cat really cares about Marines,” said Cayanan. “He works hard to take care of them, and he treats them with the utmost respect.”

Catindig has shown this care and respect on the battlefield.

He retold the story of one incident where his devotion was evident. After an intense firefight, Catindig brought an injured Marine to a field surgical unit. Covered in dirt, blood and wounded himself, he dragged the Marine to the patient care area.

With a chest rig of 12 magazines, an M-9 strapped to his hip, an M-16 in his hand and a shotgun strapped to his back, Catindig appeared to be an infantryman helping a fellow grunt.
As he tried to come through the door, the medical staff told him to stop. Marines were not allowed in the patient treatment area.

“I told them ‘well that’s good but I’m his ‘doc’ and I’m coming with him,’” Catindig said.

This story and the many others like it are an example of Cat’s will and determination. Each time he has been faced with a challenge, he has refused to quit, and each one has left its mark on him.

Even though the situations and circumstances may have altered his path, they have never blocked it.

“I won’t let things stand in my way,” he said. “I haven’t before and I don’t think I am about to change that.”

Ellie